Discussion Form Question

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Culture & Environment: Anthropological approaches to Environmental Issues ANT3CAE WEEK 6: Conservation

Image; David Chancellor: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign /gallery/2015/aug/05/trophy-hunters-in- africa-cecil-the-lion-in-pictures#img-1

Quiz # One: feedback

• 115 quiz participants • 78.9% - average score • 50% achieved a score of 80%

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Plan

• Frameworks for thinking about conservation

• Roots of conservation • Case study: Conservation reserves in

Tanzania in Maasai homelands

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Roots of Conservation • Conservation: “the protection of certain features from modification and

use” - involving ethics, historical events, political philosophies and ontologies (Robbins 2007: 345)- One of the most influential models of conservation – the National Park - comes from US model that in turn arises from English enclosure movement (early 18th C – mid 19th C)

• Conservation linked to “wilderness” a concept framed by notion of humans as “outside of nature” and humans as having dominion over nature (see Week 2).

• The development of conservation ideas and models of natural resource management culturally specific (e.g. US v Germany)

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Roots of Conservation: the English Enclosure movement

• English enclosure movement (early 18th C – mid 19th C) • (a) “landscapes of production” – large commercial farms premised

on rationality & profit • (b) “landscapes of consumption” – based on recreation &

contemplation (scenic/aesthetic value). Contemplating nature as measure of exclusive aristocratic distinction

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Wheatley 1788 “Return from the Shoot” 6

Tragedy of the commons? • An economic theory, which states that individuals acting

independently and rationally according to each's self-interest behave contrary to the best interests of the whole group by depleting a common resource

• Conservationism founded on idea that the commons needs protection (from greedy humans), that certain resources belong to all.

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A Conservation genealogy (Vaccaro et al 2013)

• Fortress conservation; (1872 -) • Co-management / community-based conservation

(1970s -) • Neoliberal conservation (2000s -) • (all of above potentially temporally and/or

spatially concurrent/coexistent) • Continuing tension between conservationists &

preservationists (anthropocentric or ecocentric discourses of nature)

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African wildlife: hunting as conservation

• https://youtu.be/ZVTmt1pa7xI • Louis Theroux’s African Hunting

Holiday

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Neoliberalism: conservation as mode of production

• “conservation as a mode of production appropriates value from landscapes by transforming it into capital with the capacity to circulate and generate further value at the global level” (Igoe et al 2010: 488)

• Dominant ideology of “free market; commoditization of nature as key to successful conservation e.g. privatization of conservation estate (premised on the “failure” of state measures)– e.g. Australian Wildlife Conservancy , Bush Heritage Fund

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Neoliberalism: “natural capital”

• Financialisation of nature • “Green Bonds” • “Biodiversity markets” • “Derivative products” – speculating on

preservation or disappearance of species • Find out what all this means -Watch

Banking Nature via LMS

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Conservation of what? • Conservation of target species

(endangered; charismatic)? • Conservation of biodiversity? • Conservation of anthropogenic landscapes

or of “wilderness”? • Conservation of natural and cultural

values?

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Conservation: recent initiatives

• 2017 NZ Whanganui R granted same legal rights as human being – (personhood)

• local Whanganui iwi as guardians • Reflects Maori worldview

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Conservation • In European context efforts to keep poor & working class

people out of nature were justified by belief that they were “not refined enough” to appreciate it (these tensions continue to this day in conservation estate e.g. jet skis v kayaks; 4WDers v hikers etc.)

• hunting; natural history & wildlife protection: closely related activities in US; Australia; Africa e.g. 1903 Society for Preservation of Wild Fauna of the Empire (SPFE) comprised of English aristocrats: many members of House of Lords & big game hunters

• SPFE central role in restricting hunting by Africans & establishing “Royal Game Reserves” in turn led to African national parks

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Historical Ecology

• long-term human-environment interactions

• new insights into global environmental change

• collaborative, cross-disciplinary

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Political Ecology • power relations affect human uses of the environment • – “Anthropologists want to know how knowledge is

produced and who is empowered to produce it, how it circulates, and how some forms of expertise are considered authoritative whereas others are marginalised” (Brosius 2006: 683)

• Local-global nexus • Few places/people in the world untouched by global forces • e.g. Igoe , Neves & Brockington (2010) global biological

conservation and capitalism increasingly intertwined

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Conquest, Colonialism & Conservation in Tanzania

(Igoe 2004)

Maasai: semi-nomadic pastoralists located in Kenya and northern Tanzania

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Conquest, Colonialism & Conservation in Tanzania

• Conservation predicated on “the civilizing mission”

• two key groups: “penitent butchers” and colonial officials

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Conquest, Colonialism & Conservation in Tanzania

• Colonial officials envisaged two main forms of landscape (Enclosure):

• (a) “landscapes of production” occupied by African farmers producing revenues for the colonial state; and

• (b) “landscapes of consumption” set aside for viewing and hunting pleasure of European settlers & visitors

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Conquest, Colonialism & Conservation in Tanzania

• First NPs established in Africa in 1920s (Kruger National Park SA 1926)

• Mt Kilimanjaro, Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti Plain NPs all established post WWII

• Many of these larger national parks in E Africa were savannah so many of the conflicts were with Maasai (many Maasai displaced).

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Conquest, Colonialism & Conservation in Tanzania

• 1973 Tanzanian government required all Maasai to relocate to “developmental villages”

• In past 20 years approx. Maasai have lost 75% of their traditional lands, and have largely been relegated to reservations.

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Conquest, Colonialism & Conservation in Tanzania

• Political liberalisation (formerly socialist state-run social services- free health care, subsidized housing) i.e. accompanied by economic liberalization – devalue local currency/encourage foreign investment/eliminate trade tariffs/ lower local wages

• Top-down paternalistic conservation policies formerly supported a “fortress” model of conservation

• Liberalisation has led to increased involvement of NGOs like AWF and WWF in conservation.

• Maasai too developed their own NGOs becoming partner and adversary of Western conservation organizations- introduced community based conservation

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Conquest, Colonialism & Conservation in Tanzania

• “on the surface community conservation seems like a straightforward idea whose time has come. You take a group of people with a vested interest in land, you give them the power and incentives to conserve it, you provide the monetary resources and expertise to make it possible then you sit back and let it happen.” (Igoe 2004: 132)

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Conquest, Colonialism & Conservation in Tanzania

• “…they are based on long-standing (usually Western) ideas about the place of human beings in nature, the best way to organise people, and the best possible economic system, things that Westerners believe everyone on the planet should embrace. Because they resonate with how Westerners imagine and want the world to be, these simple solutions seem plausible to Westerners, but usually less plausible to non- Western people who they target.” (Igoe 2004: 133)

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Conquest, Colonialism & Conservation in Tanzania

• Currently approx. 31 % of Tanzania total land area has some form of protected area status (human activities are restricted or forbidden)

• In Tanzania 85% of the population is directly dependent on the land for livelihood and daily survival.

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Neoliberalism, Colonialism & Conservation in Tanzania

• Maasai & other local/ indigenous people now integrated into global system of institutions, ideas & money

• Conservation reframed by ideology of neoliberalism: free markets as drivers of social & economic development / the state increasingly “hands- off”

• World Bank & IMF imposed economic measures on Tanzania in exchange for continued loans & development assistance – led to increased economic opportunities for foreign investors

• National parks are part of this system with roots in European colonialism

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Neoliberalism, Colonialism & Conservation in Tanzania

• Despite efforts toward “community conservation” case study in Tanzania reveals particular power struggles esp. in context of global NGOs: local people v private & foreign investors (e.g. land-grabbing – logging & mining “concessions” in NPs); increased community control over land & resources puts local people competition with trans-global conservation NGOs – actual community control may result in no “outside” intervention i.e. little or no role for conservation NGOs

• Tanzanian case study good example of the 3 models of conservation coexisting: fortress conservation; co-management; neoliberal conservation

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Summary • Political / historical ecology perspectives: • Links between the production of knowledge and the exercise of power • Important research questions for anthropologists: How is knowledge

about the environment produced? Who is empowered to produce it? How is knowledge circulated? How are some forms of knowledge prioritised and others marginalized (esp in relation to human – env relationship)?

• Using anthropological analyses to inform better conservationist practice: (not only critics) being critically alert to matters of culture, power and history in conservation practices can lead to conservation practices that are just and effective

• Anthropologists address not only understanding of human impact on environments but also how the environment is constructed, represented, claimed and contested.

• Conservation as nexus of global institutions, donors, NGOs, governments, scientists, local people etc…

• The commons – link to contemporary common resources/issues – commercial fishing in oceans; climate change, fresh water – require large scale solutions – necessary for anthropologists to upscale research

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References • J Peter Brosius 1999 ‘Analyses and Interventions: Anthropological Engagements

with Environmentalism’, Current Anthropology 40(3) • Igoe, J. 2004. Conservation and Globalization: a study of National Parks and

Indigenous communities from East Africa to South Dakota. Thomson Wadsworth, Belmont California.

• Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin. 1996. The Sixth Age of Extinction; Biodiversity and its survival. London: Phoenix.

• Nazarea, V. 1998 Cultural Memory and Biodiversity. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

• Timothy O’Riordan, 1981 Environmentalism. London: Pion, • Paul Robbins (ed.) 2007. Encyclopedia of Environment and Society. Vol 1. Sage:

Thousand Oaks California. • Vaccaro, I, O, Beltran & P. Paquet. 2013 “Political ecology and conservation policies:

some theoretical Genealogies” Journal of Political Ecology, 20: 255-272.

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