Anti-poaching’s politics of (in)visibility: Representing nature and conservation amidst a poaching crisis

Abstract

Conservation organizations are increasingly using tourism and social media to raise funds and support for anti-poaching interventions. This article examines how these strategies represent poaching and the responses that are ostensibly needed to disrupt it. To do so, I draw on ethnographic fieldwork in the rhino poaching hotspot of the Mozambique-South Africa borderlands and analyze social media and tourism campaigns from organizations in the area. These campaigns emphasize violently decimated wildlife, threatened rangers, and the subsequent need for a securitized conservation. They obscure or neglect the social relations influencing poaching and related violence, other conservation priorities, and the implications of hardline enforcement measures and militarized anti-poaching practices. The strategic ways in which poaching is made legible and consumable to a broad audience and how this shapes conservation practice constitutes what I call anti-poaching's politics of (in)visibility. I emphasize how this politics and its simplistic representations of poaching and solutions may undermine the long-term sustainability of conservation efforts in two ways. First, antipoaching's politics of (in)visibility vitalizes a militarized response, leading to negative social implications that alienate people adjacent protected areas. Second, it jeopardizes the mundane ecological management activities vital to effective conservation. Understanding antipoaching's politics of (in)visibility thus contributes to a more robust political-ecology of antipoaching specifically, and of conservation in the current context of heightened commercial poaching and efforts to disrupt it more generally. The article ends with a discussion of how a politics of visibility might be harnessed for a more sustainable approach to the poaching problematic.

Illegal wildlife trade and the persistence of “plant blindness”

“…While there is growing attention in the research community to the subject of IWT, in‐depth, empirical studies examining the patterns, processes, and mechanisms of illicit trade in wild species remain a relatively new area of academic research (Rosen & Smith, ). Within the social sciences, studies of IWT span the fields of green criminology (e.g., Lavorgna, ; Ngoc & Wyatt, ; Wyatt, ), geography (Collard, ; Massé, ; Moore, ; White, ; Zhu, , ), and international politics (Duffy, ; Duffy, St John, Büscher, & Brockington, ; Elliot, ). Legal scholars have also engaged with IWT and the role and efficacy of legislation in combating IWT, with particular attention to transnational organized crime (Lee, ; Warchol, ; Zimmerman, ).…”

“…Despite the more recently adopted inclusive language about the threat plants face from IWT in US wildlife law, these amendments were made specifically to better tackle the illegal timber trade (Rosen & Smith, 2010). Within the social sciences, studies of IWT span the fields of green criminology (e.g., Lavorgna, 2014;Ngoc & Wyatt, 2013;Wyatt, 2009), geography (Collard, 2014;Massé, 2018;Moore, 2011;White, 2014;Zhu, 2017Zhu, , 2018, and international politics (Duffy, 2014;Duffy, St John, Büscher, & Brockington, 2015;Elliot, 2007). Legal scholars have also engaged with IWT and the role and efficacy of legislation in combating IWT, with particular attention to transnational organized crime (Lee, 1995;Warchol, 2004;Zimmerman, 2003).…”

Conservation and crime convergence? Situating the 2018 London Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference

“…For example, a video was played in one session of female rangers who operate in the Zambezi Valley. The women were shown clad in military fatigues and equipment, doing military drills, promoting an idealized vision of counter-poaching that is 'empowering' yet militarized (see Marijnen and Verweijen 2016;Massé 2019b).…”

An analysis of Australian news and current affair program coverage of sharks on Facebook

“…This is in part through agenda-setting by the media, which directs audience attention towards topics that the media frequently reports on (Sabatier & Huveneers, 2018). While the media has been acknowledged for its ability to encourage participation in conservation initiatives, through the field of conservation marketing (Massé, 2019;Moglia, Cook, & Tapsuwan, 2018), it also potentially can hinder conservation initiatives which needs to be understood (Neff, 2015).…”