Both the global average per capita consumption of meat and the total amount of meat consumed are rising, driven by increasing average individual incomes and by population growth. The consumption of different types of meat and meat products has substantial effects on people’s health, and livestock production can have major negative effects on the environment. Here, we explore the evidence base for these assertions and the options policy-makers have should they wish to intervene to affect population meat consumption. We highlight where more research is required and the great importance of integrating insights from the natural and social sciences.

In this paper I outline the parameters of nonhuman charisma in the context of UK biodiversity conservation. Although conservationists frequently discuss charismatic species in their professional discourse there is little existing work that explores the character of this charisma and how it operates in environmental governance. In this paper I map nonhuman charisma and explore its ontological, ethical, and epistemological implications. I first illustrate a three-part typology of nonhuman charisma, comprising ecological, aesthetic, and corporeal charisma. Exploring nonhuman agency through the lens of charisma I contribute to ongoing efforts in geography and cognate disciplines to forge a ‘more-than-human’ understanding of agency and ethics. Nonhuman charisma provides a bounded relational ontology for considering nonhuman difference. Furthermore, nonhuman charisma draws attention to the importance of affect in understanding environmental ethics. Affect provides the vital motivating force that impels people to get involved in conservation. Second, I provide an example of nonhuman charisma in action. I draw on earlier work on human charisma to explore how charismatic organisms, operating as ‘flagship species’, are mobilised as boundary objects to achieve organisation order in the assemblages of UK biodiversity conservation.

In a world of shrinking habitats and increasing competition for natural resources, potentially dangerous predators bring the challenges of coexisting with wildlife sharply into focus. Through interdisciplinary collaboration among authors trained in the humanitiesPalabras Clave: conflicto humano -vida silvestre, depredadores, investigación interdisciplinaria, manejo de la conservación

Rewilding is being promoted as an ambitious alternative to current approaches to nature conservation. Interest is growing in popular and scientific literatures, and rewilding is the subject of significant comment and debate, outstripping scientific research and conservation practice. Projects and research are found the world over, with concentrations in Europe, North America, and on tropical islands. A common aim is to maintain, or increase, biodiversity, while reducing the impact of present and past human interventions through the restoration of species and ecological processes. The term rewilding has been applied to diverse concepts and practices. We review the historical emergence of the term and its various overlapping meanings, aims, and approaches, and illustrate this through a description of four flagship rewilding case studies. The science of rewilding has centered on three different historical baselines: the Pleistocene, the Holocene, and novel contemporary ecosystems. The choice of baseline has differing implications for conservation in a variety of contexts. Rewilding projects involve a range of practical components-such as passive management, reintroduction, and taxon substitution-some of which have attracted criticism. They also raise a series of political, social, and ethical concerns where they conflict with more established forms of environmental management. In conclusion, we summarize the different goals, approaches, tools, and contexts that account for the variations in rewilding and identify priorities for future research and practice.

The recent diagnosis of the Anthropocene represents the public death of the modern understanding of Nature removed from society. It also challenges the modern science-politics settlement, where natural science speaks for a stable, objective Nature. This paper reviews recent efforts to develop ‘multinatural’ alternatives that provide an environmentalism that need not make recourse to Nature. Focusing on biodiversity conservation, the paper draws together work in the social and natural sciences to present an interdisciplinary biogeography for conservation in the Anthropocene. This approach is developed through an engagement with the critiques of neoliberal natures offered by political ecology.

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There is a growing interest in cultural geography in the potential of moving imagery and moving image methodologies for grasping the more-than-human and non-representational dimensions of life. This paper explores this potential to develop moving image methodologies for witnessing and evoking human-nonhuman interactions. Drawing on recent work in film theory, anthropology and ethology, it develops both a practical methodology and a critical, affirmative vocabulary for unpacking the work done by circulating imagery and engaging with its micropolitical power and promise. This analysis is illustrated through a focus on elephants and images of their behaviours, ecologies and interactions with diverse humans. It outlines how video techniques can be used to witness and make sense of elephant encounters. It then maps and compares four of the many affective logics according to which elephants are evoked in popular moving imagery. It reflects on the techniques and the micropolitics of such evocations, before examining what they offer for new ways of engaging with nonhuman difference. Elephants provide an accessible, popular and telegenic nonhuman case study.

This paper offers a critical examination of the narrative landscape that has emerged with a new movement of alternative proteins intended as substitutes for conventional meat, milk and other animal-based food products. The alternative protein approaches analysed include edible insects, plant-based proteins and cellular agriculture, the latter of which encompasses ‘cultured’ or ‘clean’ meat, milk and egg products produced in vitro via cell-science methods. We build on previous research that has analysed the promissory narratives specific to cultured/clean meat by examining the key promises that have worked across the broader alternative protein movement. In doing so, we develop a five-fold typology that outlines the distinct yet interconnected claims that have operated in alternative protein promotional discourses to date. The second part of the paper examines the counter-narratives that have emerged in response to alternative protein claims from different stakeholders linked to conventional livestock production. We offer a second typology of three counter-narratives that have so far characterised these responses. Through mapping this narrative landscape, we show how different types of ‘goodness’ have been ascribed by alternative protein and conventional livestock stakeholders to their respective approaches. Moreover, our analysis reveals a series of tensions underpinning these contested food futures, many of which have long histories in broader debates over what constitutes better (protein) food production and consumption. The paper's discussion contributes to ongoing research across the social sciences on the ontological politics of (good) food, and the key role of narratives in constructing and contesting visions of ‘better’ food futures.