The Human Dimensions Division of the Conservation Management Institute is a grant-funded research and service organization affiliated with the College of Natural Resources at Virginia Tech. Our focus is on the "human" aspects of natural resource management. We explore the relationships between natural resources (resource use, management, conservation) and human resources (the people who use them). The attitudes, opinions, behaviors, and demographic characteristics of the public constituency are both critical risk factors for the depletion/degradation of natural resources and enormous sources of support and assistance for conserving/restoring those same resources. Our mission is to examine and learn to use these relationships to improve conservation decision making capabilities.

Tools that we use in our work include:

The Human Dimensions Division brings to natural resource problems an array of skills, tools, and perspectives from the social science and humanities disciplines. Further, by cooperating with other divisions at CMI, such as the Education and Outreach Division and the GIS Division , we are able to integrate all aspects of natural resource management for a comprehensive approach to conservation.

If you have a human dimensions project, task, or question that you'd like assistance with, please use the contact info and we will gladly work with you.