Decolonizing Conservation

TOP FIVE

Ashley Dawson and Naomi Paik, editors of Alternatives to the Anthropocene, an issue of Radical History Review (145), share their top five books on decolonizing conservation.

1. The Conservation Revolution: Radical Ideas for Saving Nature Beyond the Anthropocene

Bram Büscher and Robert Fletcher (Verso, 2020)

Büscher and Fletcher’s book traces the controversy over two apparently opposed modes of wildlife conservation: “new” or “Anthropocene” conservation versus a “neo-Protectionist” or “new back-to-the-barriers” movement. The latter trend is essentially a reassertion of the long-dominant approach of the conservation movement, which began with the establishment of national parks such as Yosemite in the US and expanded to include a global network of parks that currently cover roughly 17 percent of the planet. These protected spaces are treated like fortresses, pristine wild areas to be cordoned off while capitalism expands unchecked around the rest of the planet, chewing up nature in…