Airplanes, cameras, computers, wildebeests: The technological mediation of spaces for humans and wildlife in the Serengeti since 1950

Abstract

Drawing on the concept of technological mediation, this article examines the spatial politics of observation technologies and associated practices that have been used to monitor the movement of migratory wildebeests in the Serengeti from the 1950s until the 2000s. It shows that key technologies, and the types of research collaborations they sustained, mediated notably different normative ideas about human–wildlife interaction and the sharing of space in and around protected areas. During the 1950s and 1960s, observations of animal migration were conducted by airplane. Direct observation was characterized by the study of movement of migratory ungulates, such as the wildebeest, and humans across space in real time. Aerial observations depended on a close cooperation between scientists and park authorities, and on the knowledge and observational skills of game wardens. The experience of the movement of animals and people in real time allowed, to some degree, for experimentation with forms of human land-use. During the 1970s, many small-scale and short-term projects shifted the research focus toward data recording by camera. Aerial photographs created supposedly complete spatial overviews of inhabitation, which supported interpretations of spatial conflicts between humans occupying the park’s surrounding areas and animal populations inside the park. From the 1980s onward, computer technology allowed for long-term calculations of past and future trends in population densities of individual species. The understanding of the wildebeest as a keystone species and the Serengeti as a baseline ecosystem turned communities of local pastoralists and agriculturalists into a future threat. As observation technologies are here to stay, it remains important to pay attention to technologies’ potential roles in creating additional distances between researchers and research subjects. Historical insights, such as the ones presented in this article, can help reflect on how various forms of remote sensing may mediate normative views on human–wildlife interactions and consequentially affect local livelihoods.

Reworking the political in digital forests: The cosmopolitics of socio-technical worlds

“…Earth observation practices and technologies continue to change in scope and extent (Grainger 2017). From sensors and cameras on balloons (Wang et al 2020), to airplanes (Schleper 2021), satellites (Kramer, 2008), and drones (Getzin et al 2012), technologies of observation that are standard tools for military operations and humanitarian intervention are now pervasive in environmental analysis (Benson 2010). A range of state and civil society actors, including governments, academic researchers, militaries, and private organizations, monitor and manage environments with these devices.…”

“…Observational technologies have ontological and epistemological consequences that set political worlds in motion. Technologies of observation, from monitoring and surveillance to pattern detection, have in some cases transformed observation into practices of “remote seeing” (Shim 2014; cf. Dodge and Perkinsda 2009).…”

“…In some cases, communities might refuse to map or make visible their territories to evade detection, avoid revealing locations of forest resources, or sidestep problems of enforcement or illegality (Asiyanbi et al 2019). Observational technologies can thus be detrimental to local livelihoods (Schleper 2021) because they prioritize some forest worlds and knowledges over others. A cosmopolitical approach to forests asks what other ways of observing, sensing, and monitoring forests could be generated through digitally informed forest governance to enable more pluralistic forest worlds.…”