Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-zc66z Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-03T23:50:24.442Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - The political ecology of conservation conflicts

from PART II - Contrasting disciplinary approaches to the study of conflict in conservation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

By
William M. Adams
Edited by
Stephen M. Redpath ,
R. J. Gutiérrez ,
Kevin A. Wood  and
Juliette C. Young
William M. Adams
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Stephen M. Redpath
Affiliation:
University of Aberdeen
R. J. Gutiérrez
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Kevin A. Wood
Affiliation:
Bournemouth University
Juliette C. Young
Affiliation:
NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, UK
Get access

Summary

When I speak to conservation science audiences about the social dimensions of conservation, I am often asked why, as a social scientist, I am so intent on ‘making conservation political’. The implication is that politics has no place in conservation research, is unhelpful to conservationists, and even reflects a deliberate attempt to attack or weaken conservation. Conservation scientists (and most conservationists are trained as scientists) seem to feel that conservation of itself is inherently apolitical.

I think that such questions reflect three things. First, my questioners see the conservation of living diversity as a moral necessity, something that is self-evidently right and just has to be done. In the language of conservation biology, conservation is a ‘mission’ (Meine et al., 2006). Anything that detracts from that mission, or contextualises it as just one among other competing ideas or interests, is therefore inherently suspicious. Second, they feel that conservation is scientific, and therefore its actions, if properly based on scientific evidence (Pullin and Knight, 2001), are not the outcome of mere political choices, but the result of scientific conclusions from impartial data, which should be above dispute (except when new data become available). Third, they believe conservation can be done in a way that is essentially neutral, so that while there may be problems with what might be called ‘actually existing conservation’ in particular places (especially where the science is weak), these can be ironed out, and win–win solutions identified.

Some conservationists certainly feel that those speaking about conservation conflicts, or the negative impacts of projects like protected areas on local people, are troublemakers. An example of this is Spinage's hostile review of the book Social Change and Conservation (Ghimire and Pimbert, 1997), a volume he dismissed as ‘cloaked in Marxist and neo-populist dogma’ (Spinage, 1998: 265). If change is to come in conservation, Spinage argued, ‘it should be based on ecological criteria and not political ideology’ (Spinage, 1998: 274).

Type
Chapter
Information
Conflicts in Conservation
Navigating Towards Solutions
 , pp. 64 - 78
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, W. M. (2004). Against Extinction, The Story of Conservation. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Adams, W. M. and Hutton, J. (2007). ‘People, parks and poverty, political ecology and biodiversity conservation. Conserv. Soc., 5, 147–183.Google Scholar
Adams, W. M., Brockington, D., Dyson, J. and Vira, B. (2003). Managing tragedies, understanding conflict over common pool resources. Science, 302, 1915–1916.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Angelsen, A. (2008). Moving Ahead with REDD, Issues, Options and Implications. Bogor, Indonesia: Center for International Forestry Research.Google Scholar
Blaikie, P. (1985). The Political Economy of Soil Erosion in Developing Countries. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Blaikie, P. and Brookfield, H. (1987). Land Degradation and Society. London/New York: Methuen.Google Scholar
Brechin, S. R., Wilhusen, P. R., Fortwangler, C. L. and West, P. C. (2003). Contested Nature, Promoting International Biodiversity with Social Justice in the Twenty-first Century. New York: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Brockington, D. (2002). Fortress Conservation, The Preservation of the Mkomazi Game Reserve, Tanzania. Oxford: James Currey.Google Scholar
Brockington, D., Duffy, R. and Igoe, J. (2008). Nature Unbound, Conservation, Capitalism and the Future of Protected Areas. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Brown, D., Seymour, F. and Peskett, L. (2008). How do we achieve REDD co-benefits and avoid doing harm? In Moving Ahead with REDD, Issues, Options and Implications, ed. Angelsen, A., pp. 107–118. Bogor, Indonesia: Center for International Forestry Research.Google Scholar
Bryant, R. L. (2002). Non-governmental organizations and governmentality, ‘consuming’ biodiversity and indigenous people in the Philippines. Polit. Stud., 50, 268–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Büscher, B. (2008). Conservation, neoliberalism, and social science, a critical reflection on the SCB 2007 Annual Meeting. Conserv. Biol., 22, 229–231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Büscher, B. (2010). Anti-politics as political strategy. Devel. Change, 41, 29–51.Google Scholar
Castree, N. (2008). Neoliberalising nature, the logics of deregulation and reregulation. Envir. Plann. A, 40, 131–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chape, S., Harrison, J., Spalding, M. and Lysenko, I. (2005). Measuring the extent and effectiveness of protected areas as an indicator for meeting global biodiversity target. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 360, 443–455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chhatre, A. and Agrawal, A. (2009). Trade-offs and synergies between carbon storage and livelihood benefits from forest commons. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA, 106, 17667–17670.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Colchester, M. (2002). Salvaging Nature, Indigenous Peoples, Protected Areas and Biodiversity Conservation. Montevideo: World Rainforest Movement.Google Scholar
Eltringham, S. K. (1994). Can wildlife pay its way?Oryx, 28, 163–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emerton, L. (2001). The nature of benefits and the benefits of nature, why wildlife conservation has not economically benefited communities in Africa. In African Wildlife and Livelihoods, The Promise and Performance of Community Conservation, eds. Hulme, D. and Murphree, M., pp. 208–226. London: James Currey.Google Scholar
Fairhead, J. and Leach, M. (2003). Science, Society and Power, Environmental Knowledge and Policy in West Africa and the Caribbean. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fazey, I., Pettorelli, N., Kenter, J., Wagatora, D. and Schuett, D. (2011). Maladaptive trajectories of change in Makira, Solomon Islands. Global Environ. Chang., 21, 1275–1289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, J. (1994). The Anti-Politics Machine, Development, Depoliticization and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1975). Discipline and Punish, The Birth of the Prison. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Ghimire, K. and Pimbert, M. (1997). Social Change and Conservation, Environmental Politics and Impacts of National Parks and Protected Areas. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Harvey, D. (2005). A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hinchliffe, S. (2005). Reconstituting nature conservation, towards a careful political ecology. Geoforum, 39, 88–97.Google Scholar
Hirsch, P. D., Adams, W. M., Brosius, J. P., Zia, A. M., Bariola, N. and Dammert, J. L. (2011). Acknowledging conservation trade-offs and embracing complexity. Conserv. Biol., 25, 259–264.Google ScholarPubMed
Igoe, J. and Brockington, D. (2007). Neoliberal conservation, a brief introduction. Conserv. Soc., 45, 432–449.Google Scholar
Leach, M. and Mearns, R. (1996). The Lie of the Land, Challenging Received Wisdoms on the African Environment. Oxford: James Currey.Google Scholar
Lebel, L., Garden, P. and Imamura, M. (2005). The politics of scale, position, and place in the governance of water resources in the Mekong region. Ecol. Soc., 10, 18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leopold, A. (1949). A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Meine, C., Soulé, M. and Noss, R. E. (2006). ‘A mission-driven discipline’: the growth of conservation biology. Conserv. Biol., 20, 631–651.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2003). Ecosystems and Human Well-being, A Framework for Assessment. Washington: Island Press.
Milne, S. A. and Adams, W. M. (2012). Market masquerades, uncovering the politics of community-level payments for environmental services in Cambodia. Dev. Change, 43, 133–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neumann, R. P. (1998). Imposing Wilderness: Struggles over Livelihood and Nature Preservation in Africa. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Neumann, R. P. (2002). The postwar conservation boom in British colonial Africa. Environ. Hist., 7, 22–47.Google Scholar
Neumann, R. P. (2004). Nature-state-territory, towards a critical theorization of conservation enclosures. In Liberation Ecologies, Environment, Development, Social Movements, eds. Peet, R. and Watts, M., pp. 195–217. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Neumann, R. P. (2005). Making Political Ecology. London: Hodder Arnold.Google Scholar
Neumann, R. P. (2008). Probing the (in)compatibilities of social theory and policy relevance in Piers Blaikie's political ecology. Geoforum, 39, 728–735.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peck, J. and Tickell, A. (2002). Neoliberalizing space. Antipode, 34, 380–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peet, R. and Watts, M. (eds.). (1996). Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development, Social Movements. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peet, R., Robbins, P. and Watts, M. J. (2011). Global nature. In Global Political Ecology, eds. Peet, R., Robbins, P. and Watts, M. J., pp. 1–47. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Peluso, N. (1993). Coercing conservation, the politics of state resource control. Global Environ. Chang., 3, 199–217.Google Scholar
Pretty, J. (2002). People, livelihoods and collective action in biodiversity management. In Biodiversity, Sustainability and Human Communities, Protecting Beyond the Protected, eds. O'Riordan, T. and Stoll-Kleeman, S., pp. 61–86. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pullin, A. S. and Knight, T. M. (2001). Effectiveness in conservation practice. Pointers from medicine and public health. Conserv. Biol., 15, 50–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rangan, H. and Kull, C. A. (2009). What makes ecology ‘political’? Rethinking scale in political ecology. Prog. Hum. Geog., 33, 28–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ravenel, R. M. and Redford, K. H. (2005). Understanding IUCN Protected Area categories. Nat. Area. J., 25, 381–389.Google Scholar
Ribot, J., Agrawal, A. and Larson, A. (2006). Recentralizing while decentralizing: how national governments reappropriate forest resources. World Dev., 34, 1864–1886.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robbins, P. (2004). Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction. Malden: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Robbins, P. and Monroe-Bishop, K. (2008). There and back again, epiphany, disillusionment and rediscovery in political ecology. Geoforum, 39, 747–755.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandbrook, C., Nelson, F., Adams, W. M. and Agrawal, A. (2010). Carbon, forests and the REDD paradox. Oryx, 44, 330–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spinage, C. (1998). Social change and conservation misrepresentation in Africa. Oryx, 32, 265–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stott, P. and Sullivan, S. (2000). Political Ecology, Science, Myth and Power. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Walker, P. A. (2005). Political ecology, where is the ecology?Prog. Hum. Geog., 29, 79–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watts, M. and Peet, R. (2004). Liberating political ecology. In Liberation Ecologies, Environment, Development, Social Movements, second edition, eds. Peet, R. and Watts, M., pp. 3–43. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wolf, E. (1972). Ownership and political ecology. Anthropol. Quart., 45, 201–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodroffe, R., Thirgood, S. and Rabinowitz, A. (2005). People and Wildlife, Conflict or Coexistence?Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wunder, S. (2008). Payments for environmental services and the poor, concepts and preliminary evidence. Environ. Dev. Econ., 13, 279–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimmerer, K. S. and Bassett, T. J. (2003). Political Ecology, An Integrative Approach to Geography and Environment-Development Studies. New York: Guilford.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×