Paper short abstract:

New Zealand’s ecological politics has a core friction between pastoralism, conservation, and invasive species management, but these demarcations are fraying as experiments across bounded domains suggest new futures away from colonialist delimitations, toward a new, potentially post-colonial ecology.

Paper long abstract:

There is tripartite tension between ecological projects in Aotearoa New Zealand: in one corner, there’s the conservation of native biota; in the other, the safeguarding and intensification of cattle and sheep pastures; and, in the third, the elimination of invasive, predatory species. The lines of battle appear clear, but the endemic can become pests, livestock can become native, and the elimination of certain pests can devastate some critical ‘emergent ecologies’ that have developed since European settlement.

These categories are persistent, but frayed, and increasingly so. While in some ways these projects are reaching their zenith with ever-intensifying agriculture, more ambitious projects at reviving ‘pre-settlement’ ecologies, and mass slaughters of entire ‘invasive’ populations, these in fact muddle the categories further. This paper would present findings from ongoing ethnographic work on cases where different groups are attempting to transcend these ambitions and are attempting new socio-ecological praxes toward (potentially) more judicious ends, upsetting these categories and working toward what I suggest could be a ‘post-colonial ecology.’ I will delineate these three ecological projects outlined above, provide some historical context, and discuss my observations and findings regarding how some projects within livestock agriculture attempt to overcome these antagonistic divides (i.e., native/invasive, production/conservation, eradication/accommodation).

This is based on ethnographic work within and around livestock agriculture in Aotearoa New Zealand and is a part of a wider doctoral research project into dilemmas around bovids and biodiversity in Aotearoa New Zealand, within the auspices of the BIOrdinary research project at Stockholm University.