Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the ways in which conservationists and mining developers use contesting ecological theories to claim a moral sense of ownership of a desert landscape in Western Australia

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I look at how environmentalists and mining developers reproduce and contest notions of wilderness and nature in a dispute over a proposed mining development on the West Australian coastline. If it goes ahead, the salt mine will be the biggest in the world, covering 411 square kilometres of desert and mangrove systems. Upon making the proposal public, the developers created a stakeholder committee, which has provided fertile ground for each group to perform their understandings of nature for each other. Over time, both groups have produced their own distinct theories to describe how the ecological systems of the area are interlinked, as well as how the environment impacts upon the people in the town nearby. These theories have become integral aspects of the public identities of each group, and are frequently used to contest and resist the others' claims.

I will explore how the environmental group and mining developers use these differences in order to claim that they have the more "correct" environmental knowledge. I then ask to what extent do either of these theories help each group to claim a sense of ownership of the landscape? And, how does a sense of ownership give either group the right to decide the future of this landscape?