The Issues with Conservation

We began this week with a covid test (negative and SO ready to start in person classes!). Later that day, I was interviewed for the Honors College on my experience working at the Potomac Science Center. I participated in the Environmental Science and Policy department's Anti-Racism group, and on Friday I attended the Climate Change and Energy Transition Reading Group. My job also started this week. It has been busy, but all of these experiences have left me thinking about what environmental justice and diversity in the conservation field means and looks like.

We had guest speakers in class this week who talked about their very important work in Africa. I got a weird feeling. I looked over the class, and realized there was not a single black person in the group, just in pictures on the slides. This caused me to think about the white savior complex and begin analyzing my past actions, as well as my past ideas of conservation work.

For a class discussion, we read Douglass & Alie's 2014 paper "High-value natural resources: Linking wildlife conservation to international conflict, insecurity, and development concerns". The paper talks about how we need to think about how organized crime uses illegal wildlife trade to fund other illegal activities. I will not argue on that point, but I do argue that we cannot make the blanket statement that all people who participate in poaching are inherently bad people. The formation of national parks, not just on the African Continent (check out this photo essay about Shenandoah National Park), often displaces many people and forces them to change their way of life. There are a number of poachers who are simply old inhabitants who had utilized hunting in that area to feed themselves and their families. Conservation is historically a very science focused field, but this issue shows that the scientific methods of conservation should be considered with the culture and wellbeing of the people living there.

The most important information to come out of this week came from the book group. We are reading As Long As Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice from Colonization to Standing Rock by Dina Gilio-Whitaker. During our discussion, We all discussed our personal definitions of environmental justice. Most definitions, including my own, were along the lines of an unequal amount of environmental damage near communities that were not white and middle to upper class. Gilio-Whitaker promises to change the definition in the introduction, so we theorized what she may change it to. One person brought up the idea that instead of thinking of it as unequal hurts, we should consider it as everyone having equal access to a healthy environment.

It is important to recognize the history of white supremacy and settler colonialism in the field of conservation and how that impacts the field today. Truly successful conservation relies on the cooperation of all individuals within scientific community as well as those beyond the community, so all options for conservation action should be considered from all angles before being implemented, then be routinely reevaluated.