Paper short abstract:

This talk examines Chilean-Argentinian binational conservation in Tierra del Fuego. Bearing on settler-colonial legacies, this “diplomatic” conservation promotes political collaborations between two conflictual states while silencing Original Peoples and their demands.

Paper long abstract:

In 2008 Chile and Argentina accorded to restore the native ecosystems of Austral Patagonia affected by beavers. The binational agreement was driven by the Wildlife Conservation Society, which had received 300,000 ha of land in the Chilean side of Tierra del Fuego. Adopting the name that selk'nam peoples used for the region, WCS opened the enclosed Karukinka Park and implemented projects including eradicating invasive species like beavers. To fund conservation, WCS receives cooperation funds and sells Fuegian natures in carbon credits or elite ecotourism.

Following this session's thread to address private conservation in the Argentinian-Chilean south, I examine the complexities of Tierra del Fuego. In a region defined by Chilean and Argentinian conflicts and a long history of exceptional and military governments, transboundary conservation proposes itself as geopolitical repair and scientific diplomacy. However, the asymmetrical power of actors participating in these diplomatic encounters responds not only to the effects of neoliberal conservation but also to legacies of racism and settler-colonialism.

Using data from fieldwork in Tierra del Fuego (2018-2020), this talk describes how some of the tensions in binational conservation are made visible while others are excluded. While conflicts between Chilean and Argentinian actors are now embraced as part of "conservation management," disputes arising between conservation actors and the Original Peoples of Tierra del Fuego are silenced. In this context, conservation actors engage with indigenous peoples both as "extinct" and/or as crucial actors for conservation agendas that are already designed.