Introduction of Olya Esipova

“I’m going to take part in ISA because life’s hollow without a purpose, having the real chance to contribute to the well-being of our planet is what I passionately strive for.”

Olya Esipova is a student of Psychology and project coordinator for Saiga Conservation Alliance. She works with local communities in Central Asia to protect critically endangered Saiga Antelope. Her topics of interest are climate change, poaching and illegal wildlife trade.

Her ISA project is aimed at designing a research, which comprises sensitizing the population living around the Aral Sea on their impactful behavior towards nature. To design this sensitization program, she needs to understand the social and ethical norms of the local population. Therefore, as part of her project, she will design a socio-demographic survey to study parameters of local community in the Aral Sea region with the aim to understand their knowledge and attitudes towards wildlife conservation and assess community needs. She wants to change people nonchalant attitude towards environmental issues and influence them to coexist with nature.