Contribution short abstract

The presentation discusses the recent international and state support for 'indigenous, traditional, community-based environmental stewardship' in forest conservation in Senegal, and how perspectives from West Africa contributes to debates on 'cultural' diversity and history in political ecology.

Contribution long abstract

International recognition of indigenous, traditional and community-based custodianship of 'nature' has been gaining increased significance in global biodiversity conservation regime, especially in achieving its territorial ambitions to cover 30% of the planet with protected and 'other effectively conserved' areas by 2030. In forest landscapes of West Africa, the mapping, formalization and registration of Indigenous and community conserved/conservation areas (ICCAs) is being promoted and supported by multiplicity of international donors (including, IUCN, UNEP, GEF/UNDP) and transnational rights-based conservation advocacy organizations. The presentation discusses contentious politics of state recognition of ICCAs as Autochthonous and Community Heritage Conservation areas (APACs) in Senegal, and the dynamics underpinning the territorialization of APACs in forested frontier region of Kedougou, an epicentre of multiple and overlapping forms of extractivism. Through the case study of APACs proposed by the Bedik and Bassari associations in Community Forest Reserves and UNESCO Heritage Sites, the contribution illustrates how neoliberal repertoires of decentralized forest governance and 'Francophone' neocolonial repertoires of cultural difference intersect through global efforts to include, count and account for contributions of ‘minority ethnicities' in conservation in Senegal and in West Africa.