Introduction: Fallen from grace? the legacy and state of Southern African conservation

Abstract

For many decades, southern Africa has been at the forefront of global conservation paradigms and practices, ranging from protected area models and community-based conservation to transfrontier parks and, more recently, the wildlife economy. A key goal of many of these was to meet conservation and development goals, something that often proved elusive. In fact, what has been consistent across these conservation strategies is a continuation of many environmental and, especially, socio-economic and racial injustices. Currently, a further increase of both conventional and novel capitalist conservation initiatives—including wildlife estates, different tourism activities and wildlife breeding—seems to further intensify rather than ameliorate existing uneven and unjust conditions. This introduction preludes some of the most important recent and contemporary dynamics in southern African conservation addressed in this special issue. Titled Fallen from grace? The legacy and state of southern African conservation, the papers in this special issue reflect on these dynamics and ask whether the global significance of southern African conservation has crumbled under the weight of its own contradictions, or whether it can still turn the tide. Pushing theoretical discussions on the links between environmental injustice, race, labour, power, inequality and conservation, we argue that the contributions do not merely critique conservation in southern Africa for failing to live up to its promises; together they question the very sustainability of the entire enterprise and the ideologies on which it is based. This is important because some conservationists continue to laud the region as a shining example for biodiversity conservation globally.