Eleanor Shoreman-Quimet and Helen Kopnina: Culture and Conservation. Beyond Anthropocentrism

Abstract

In a world governed by capitalist exploitation, with extinction rates of species high and growing, biodiversity and nature conservation are high on the agendas of scientists and policy-makers. However, once conservation knowledge, policies and practices are critically scrutinized —what is to be protected, to what purpose? How, by whom, using which knowledge, authority and claims of legitimacy? With what consequences for whom? — the seeming consensus quickly dissolves. Conservation scientists and biologists often disagree with critical social and political scientists on, among others, conservation approaches (i.e., “fortress” versus community-based conservation), indigenous livelihoods and rights, the role of population growth and development, and the capitalization of conservation and its consequences.