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- Convenor:
-
Justin Kenrick
(Forest Peoples Programme)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Sessions:
- Monday 25 October, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Which future? A conservation that appropriates or supports community lands? What are the impacts of the dominant protected area paradigm? Whether and how might conservation initiatives help create the enabling conditions for human and non-human communities to flourish through deeper connectedness?
Long Abstract:
This panel aims to examine and explore the impacts and implications of:
(1) The dominant protected area paradigm, including the impacts of future policies implied by the rhetoric of half earth, 30/30, and abstract 'ecocentrism' when used as an excuse for appropriation (e.g. when used to justify appropriating indigenous peoples lands by claiming that their lived reality does not live up to some abstract romantic vision) including when protected areas are used by national governments and corporate power to secure carbon/ biodiversity funding streams); and
(2) How conservation initiatives could align with communities. In particular, whether and how conservation initiatives might help create the enabling conditions for human and non-human communities to flourish through deeper connectedness. This may include articulating specific pathways for resolution to secure this, including examining whether securing community tenure rights is critical, and whether secure tenure is best understood as securing title over land or securing ways of life which see themselves as in service to the well-being of their/ our lands.
We particularly welcome papers from indigenous peoples and local communities, as well as from those working with them as conservationists, as human rights supporters, and/ or as anthropologists.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Monday 25 October, 2021, -Tom Younger (Forest Peoples Programme)
Paper short abstract:
Some strategic reflections and questions from Scotland on shaping solidarities, political strategies and paths ahead in support of Indigenous autonomies in the Peruvian Amazon (amongst other pluriversal transitions).
Paper long abstract:
The dominant forms of conservation via dispossession expanded across the planet alongside the colonial expansion of the modern capitalist world system. Now that we are living through the protracted and turbulent breakdown of that system (Fernández Durán & González Reyes, 2018), what alternative practices and political imaginaries can support pluriversal transitions (Kothari et al, 2019) across the coming years and decades? How might those of us living in the North “articulate a politics which navigates between limits and desire” (Almazán & González Reyes, 2020), as we seek to nurture solidarities with Indigenous and popular struggles to resist colonial conservation and (re)construct autonomies and self-governing territories?
Sherry Pictou (Dalhousie University)
Paper short abstract:
Will efforts in Canada to re-conceptualize conservation as a from of reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples consider Indigenous ways of knowing and healing? An Indigenous feminist lens is imperative to to answering this question toward transforming conservation practice as authentic reconciliation.
Paper long abstract:
There are efforts in Canada to re-conceptualize conservation practice as a form of reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. From a Mi’kmaw/Indigenous perspective, healing is a crucial part of the reconciliation process. Conservation practice, however, is often enacted as another way of dispossessing Indigenous Peoples from their ancestral homelands and waters. Therefore, will conceptualizing reconciliation and healing in conservation be only in a context of a conservation futurity, while leaving the already damaged human and natural world relations in place? Reconciliation and conservation through the lens of Indigenous feminism is imperative to answering such critical questions toward transforming conservation practice as a truthful and authentic reconciliation and healing process.
Jayalaxshmi Mistry (Royal Holloway University of London) Sean Mendonca Deirdre Jafferally
Paper short abstract:
Working in Guyana, we present findings from video-mediated dialogues between Indigenous peoples and decision-makers involved in the management of three protected areas. We show how the participatory video process provides a rich and contextualised understanding of equity issues and enables dialogue.
Paper long abstract:
Improving equity in the context of protected areas conservation cannot be achieved in situations where people have vastly different capabilities to participate. Participatory video has the potential to uncover hidden perspectives and worldviews, as well as build trustworthy, transparent and accountable relationships between marginalised communities and external agencies. In this paper, we present findings from video-mediated dialogues between Indigenous peoples and decision-makers involved in the management of three protected areas in Guyana. Participatory films created by Indigenous researchers in their communities were screened and discussed with protected areas managers, and their responses were recorded and presented back to the communities. We show how the video-mediated process provided a rich and contextualised understanding of equity issues. It enabled recognition and respect for traditional knowledge, Indigenous values and peoples’ lived experiences in the management of protected areas. For Indigenous peoples the participatory video process built confidence and critical reflection on their own activities and responsibilities while allowing them to challenge decision-makers on issues of transparency, communication and accountability. We show that equity is an evolving process in itself, with different protected areas with their differing histories and governance, and associations with Indigenous communities, producing distinct outcomes over time. Thus, promoting equity in protected areas and conservation must be a long-term process, enabling participation and producing the conditions for regular transparent and honest communications. Indicators may be useful to report on international targets, but video-mediated dialogue can facilitate deeper understanding, greater representation, relationship building and a recognition of rights.
Sara Cordovez (University of Oxford)
Paper short abstract:
What are the possibilities of transnational collaboration between Indigenous and local communities in the Majority World and youth environmentalists in the Minority World? The WTFWWF campaign aims to enact this through the practice of solidarity in resistance for a new paradigm of conservation.
Paper long abstract:
WTFWWF (wtfwwf.org) is a solidarity campaign to visibilise and amplify the message from Indigenous and local communities to decolonize conservation for social justice, biodiversity conservation and to mitigate and adapt to climate change. For decades, the colonial roots, militarisation practices and ecological impacts of colonial conservation’s complicity in unsustainable extractivism have been explored within academia. However, human rights abuses, loss of cultures, and species extinction remain rampant. Crucially, Warren and Baker's 2019 reported for Buzzfeed on WWF's complicity with human rights abuses. WWF International launched an independent panel of experts, whose report in 2020 visibilised the harm, yet cleared WWF staff and staff from partner organisations of responsibility. As fortress conservation becomes increasingly scrutinised by many, the WTFWWF campaign seeks to directly challenge WWF whilst amplifying community-led conservation around the world to a non-academic audience. WTFWWF is co-led in solidarity between the Pan Afrikan Living Cultures Alliance, Gbabandi, Sengwer representatives, the Commission Guarani Yvyrupa and youth environmental activists in the UK. Collaborations are informed by a comprehensive understanding of partners’ local reality and respecting diversity, autonomy and difference in identity, strategy and priorities. Through non-violent direct action, pedagogy and mobilisation, the campaign seeks to contribute to the global and multi-actor efforts to decolonise conservation, bringing WWF to account in the public eye of environmentalists, who are actively funding conservation. Through solidarity, co-creating a fundamentally transformative conservation paradigm that addresses the root causes of the climate and biodiversity crisis, as well as the inequality crisis, based in transnational solidarity against violence.