Photo credit: Arash Ghoddousi
Guidelines for creating an inclusive region
The Europe Region Board represents the Region’s membership and will be accountable for ensuring the DEIJ principles are complied with. To increase diversity on the Board, there will be active recruitment of people from different backgrounds. This includes direct interactions between Board members and SCB Europe members at events including the European Congress of Conservation Biology (ECCB). In addition, social media communication will be used to reach a broad audience when board members are elected.
ECCBs should be utilized to broaden membership, for example by organizing ECCB in countries that are underrepresented in the membership. Identifying potential organizers could happen by inviting keynote speakers from underrepresented countries to ECCBs and engaging with them in the conference.
Guidelines for awards
When announcing the award application processes, the award team will actively encourage people from under-represented groups (e.g., geographic areas) to apply via social media and newsletters. In addition, advertisement text should specifically encourage conservationists from underrepresented groups to apply. When selecting the award winners, the Award Committee will be aware of inherent biases regarding all diversity aspects and have measures in place to remove bias from the assessment process as much as possible (e.g. equal gender balance in the Award Committee). In practice, the DEIJ Officer will remove all identifying information from applications before the Award Committee reviews them. The Award Committee will also consider the pool of previous winners to ensure there is a broad representation of different backgrounds and study systems.
Guidelines for ECCBs
At ECCBs, we account for various aspects of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, including:
Inclusive organization and representation:
- Appoint a DEIJ officer and adopt a Code of Conduct based on SCB Europe guidelines.
- Ensure diverse representation in organizing committees, speakers, chairs, and panelists.
- Promote inclusive participation and respectful dialogue during sessions
Data and monitoring:
- Collect anonymized demographic and professional data to improve diversity in future events.
Language and accessibility:
- Provide multilingual website access and language support in abstract submissions.
Family-friendly environment:
- Offer accessible, affordable on-site childcare and family spaces.
- Provide dedicated family and rest areas.
- Encourage child-friendly participation and offer flexible registration options for parents.
Environmental responsibility:
- Promote sustainable travel through train discounts and public transport guidance.
- Offer voluntary CO₂ offsetting options supporting local reforestation projects.
Scientific integrity and fairness:
- Ensure diversity in keynote speakers, committees, and presenters.
- Use a blind review process and support language editing for abstracts when needed.
- Maintain balance across scientific themes.
Inclusive communication:
- Make DEIJ policies visible and invite community feedback.
- Represent diverse voices in social media and avoid stereotyping or gender bias.
Guidelines for environmental responsibility
and ecological justice in all SCB Europe actions
In all SCB Europe Region activities, we highlight our core values related to environmental responsibility and ecological justice. In practice, in all our activities, we will strive to encourage the following actions:
- When inviting keynote speakers and workshop facilitators to SCB Europe events, air travel will be minimized to the greatest possible extent and low-carbon travel options are strongly recommended. If air travel is unavoidable, the carbon emissions of the flights will be compensated using a reliable carbon compensation scheme.
- Promote low-carbon travel options (e.g., train, bus, bike) on all occasions when inviting keynote speakers or organizing board meetings by providing practical information and tips, e.g., via social media and event webpages.
- Good vegetarian and vegan food options must be available (as well as other dietary requirements). Sustainably produced vegetarian food should be the default option and locally procured food to support local economies and a low carbon-footprint should be preferred. Sustainably produced meat and fish can be provided as an option (e.g., as side dishes or based on registration).
- Consider hybrid participation and presentation options for ECCB participation, presentations (both invited keynote and contributed talks) as well as recordings of talks to watch afterwards.
Implementation of DEIJ principles into SCB Europe Region’s activities
All people in charge of any SCB Europe related activities must familiarize themselves with this document. A reporting form should be used before each activity is organized to make sure the organizers are aware of the DEIJ guidelines. The form will include the SCB Europe’s DEIJ Statement and Diversity Definition as well as the following questions:
- How will you ensure diversity of (keynote) speakers and presenters for example in terms of gender, geographic origin across Europe and the world, career stage, field of study/work/research, language, ethnic heritage, race, skin color, and physical abilities?
- Which measures will be taken to ensure accessibility of the event (including e.g. physical and financial aspects)?
- How is childcare addressed in the event planning?
- How will low carbon travel be promoted?
- Which measures are taken to ensure low carbon food?
- Any other DEIJ aspects that the event will account for?
After the event, a feedback form for participants should include a question on DEIJ issues. The raised issues by participants are used to improve the next event.
These principles will also be implemented in the decision-making processes in the SCB Europe Board. When making decisions in the SCB Europe Board, the board members will always ask first whether there are any DEIJ considerations to be aware of. The DEIJ Officer (when present in the meeting) has the duty to raise any issue, but also other Board members need to be mindful of this. The option for anonymous voting during board decisions shall be given.