Presentation short abstract

Drawing upon more than twenty years of research in Southern Africa, I interrogate moments of transformation that suggest the possibility of alignment between indigenous and global conservation agendas.

Presentation long abstract

The expansion of global conservation agendas around the world has coincided with European colonialism, indigenous population displacement, community-based initiatives, Western tourism, and global conservation agendas. Geographic scholarship and other impactful work within the social sciences have effectively demonstrated the deeply rooted colonial and mainstream conservation agendas that have worked to prioritize biodiversity often at the expense of vulnerable human communities. This scholarship has effectively shown how global conservation demarcates geographic territory, identifies what is understood as an illicit livelihood practice, elides indigenous knowledge and livelihoods, all while articulating how these features are embedded within broader political and economic systems. But are our collective futures so clearly defined? Are we beholden to these historical dynamics at the expense of identifying new possibilities for indigenous livelihoods and biodiversity conservation? Drawing upon more than twenty years of research in Southern Africa, I interrogate moments of transformation that suggest the possibility of alignment between global and local conservation agendas. In so doing, I interrogate the implications for long standing work in political ecology, ecological anthropology, conservation science, and social-ecological systems to envision alignments between the global and the local, that offer possibilities for how both human and the more-than-human can flourish in our collective future worlds.