Paper short abstract:

Although the Ethiopian exceptionalism as a country without colonial history asserts that it was not influenced by colonial history, a critical analysis of the discourses and practices of nature conservation in the country reveals that Ethiopia shares much in common with other African countries.

Paper long abstract:

The paper sheds some light on epistemological conversation and contestation or what could be termed as cross-fertilisation of forms of knowledge about human-nature relations with reference to conservation practices and discourses in Africa. In contrast to the binary division between the "West" and the "Rest" in areas of knowledge production (ontologies and epistemologies), this paper argues that our knowledges about human-nature relations both in Africa are constantly in conversation and contestation with Western environmental knowledge, practices and discourses. In the case of Ethiopia, for example, despite the absence of colonial experience in the country's political history, nature conservation practices have been similar with other African countries - protectionist fortress conservation approaches were put in place under successive regimes. Based on fieldwork conducted in Ethiopia over the period of six years (2012-2018) at different intervals, I argue that indigenous epistemological orientations about human-nature relations are often in contestation with Western dualist perspectives that dichotomises the relationship as inherently incompatible. On the other hand, notions of valuing wild animals for tourism, forests for climate change protection and the entire biodiversity for different ecosystem services are where both epistemologies converge though specific cases require cultural understandings.