From colonial conservation to natural capital: the green assault on Indigenous lands

Jenu Kuruba protest against the Forest Department and say “stop violating our rights”, India, 2021 ©Survival

Thank you for tuning in to the sixth webinar of our 2023 series, Critical Public Conversations: Country, Climate, Colonialism. 

In this talk, Fiore Longo talks about the dark history of Conservation that is rooted in racism, colonialism, white supremacy, social injustice, land theft, extractivism, and violence. Fiore is part of Survival International, the global movement for Indigenous People’s rights. Survival International is trying to radically change public opinion through advocacy, lobbying, and conducting investigations on the field of conservation based on the understanding that most of the crimes that are committed against Indigenous Peoples have roots in the Global North. Fiore explains how the eviction of Indigenous and Black people in iconic images – a military parade along the Champs Élysées in 1944 commemorating the liberation of Paris after World War II, depicting the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, and a scene from the famous Disney animated film The Lion King – has an impact on the life and on the reality of the people involved. These images of “nature” without people spell out the literal dispossession for many Indigenous people in the world. Offering a history, Fiore shows how the movement of conservation has its roots in the United States where the first national parks (Yosemite and Yellowstone) were created from lands stolen from Indigenous Peoples.

Colonial conservation exists in a racist myth of wilderness, that nature is something that is “out there”, and it must be protected because the Settlers thought those places were beautiful and were to be set aside for their enjoyment. Seeing nature as empty of humans is a way for European colonisers to deny the role of non-white people as key actors in nature protection. Today, we continue to have this way of seeing many Indigenous peoples as completely incompetent to handle and protect their environment despite the scientific evidence that shows Indigenous peoples are the best guardians of the natural world. Consequently, Fiore explains, contemporary models of “climate solutions” such as protected areas and carbon offsetting projects are not there to fight against capitalist destruction and economic growth. Rather, these models allow this destruction to continue while offering, at best a distraction from death and destruction. In Kenya for example, former white colonizers are making a lot of money as Indigenous people are being forcibly evicted to create protected areas and sell carbon credits. These models are not scientifically based. It's a colonial invention because this is the way that corporations are compensating for their emissions by taking up more land instead of stopping their emissions. Fighting alongside Indigenous Peoples to decolonise this model, to fight against false solutions to climate change and unjust biodiversity laws can change these images of nature that we have in we have inherited from colonization into these images that actually help us to protect the environment by fighting for Indigenous people’s rights.

You can preorder Decolonize Conservation: Global Voices for Indigenous Self-determination, Land, and a World in Common, edited by Ashley Dawson, Fiore Longo, and Survival International and published by Common Notions.

Questions and comments from the audience

• Do you have any comments about Indigenous Protected Areas and Indigenous rangers in Australia? These are often held up as success stories for returning land to Indigenous control. Do you think they are a positive model?

• How does the Rights of Nature movement fit into your work?

• How do WWF and other organisations respond to your critique?

Critical Public Conversations 2023

The Australian Centre’s Critical Public Conversations webinar series will focus on the relationship between colonialism and climate change. The series seeks to interrogate the settler state’s incapacity to manage the ecology of this continent and will highlight the ways in which First Nations care for, and obligations to, Country are inextricably bound to questions of sovereignty. The webinar series will showcase research and activism that explores what it means to care for Country and do environmental work in the context of ongoing colonial occupation.

Climate crisis adaptation in Palestine - Omar Tesdell

Date & Time: Wed, 4 Oct 2023, 4:00 pm

In this presentation, Dr Tesdell will explore agroecological strategies for climate adaptation in Palestine. He will survey existing data and ongoing field research and experiments and shed light on how Palestinians have and continue to adapt within crisis. This presentation will also offer some insights into future avenues of agroecological research.

If you have any support requirements in order to participate fully, please let us know via aust-centre@unimelb.edu.au