Co-conveners: Paula Mayer, Bérénice Guinel, Nicolas Salliou, Ana Stritih, Jenny Anne Glikman

Human-bear coexistence is a pressing challenge for global conservation and requires social-ecological systems to transform. In this workshop, we want to explore how participatory research approaches are engaging with local communities to better understand and foster coexistence. Participants will learn about and share methods and experiences from their own contexts. We will particularly focus on the transformative potential of these approaches, including their spatial and temporal impacts, scalability, and long-term effectiveness. In this interactive workshop, we will explore the ecological, social, and institutional factors that enable or hinder coexistence and discuss strategies applicable across diverse contexts. Participants are invited to share case studies from their own research or practice on participatory coexistence approaches. A final objective of the workshop is to initiate a peer-reviewed synthesis paper on participatory approaches to human-bear coexistence, with opportunities for contributions from interested participants. The workshop will also showcase work by the convening team on participatory tools, including spatial coexistence models, Bear-Smart Community approaches, and game-based methods. We will introduce the Biodiversa+ project CoexHuB, which creates “hubs” for human-bear coexistence through inter- and transdisciplinary networks in the Central Apennines, Cantabrian Mountains, and Slovenia, using social, ecological and institutional research approaches.