The Devil is in the (Bio)diversity: Private Sector “Engagement” and the Restructuring of Biodiversity Conservation

Abstract

Intensified relations between biodiversity conservation organizations and privatesector actors are analyzed through a historical perspective that positions biodiversity conservation as an organized political project. Within this view the organizational dimensions of conservation exist as coordinated agreement and action among a variety of actors that take shape within radically asymmetrical power relations. This paper traces the privileged position of "business" in aligning concepts of sustainable development and ecological modernization within the emerging institutional context of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Global Environment Facility in ways that help to secure continued access to "nature as capital", and create the institutional conditions to shape the work of conservation organizations. The contemporary emergence of business as a major actor in shaping contemporary biodiversity conservation is explained in part by the organizational characteristics of modernist conservation that subordinates it to larger societal and political projects such as neoliberal capitalism.

Reprint of "Ecosystem services concepts and approaches in conservation: Just a rhetorical tool?"

“…Business is a traditional opponent of environmental organisations (MacDonald, 2010), and widespread concern about the influence of the private sector was expressed, often from those representing organisations most closely aligned to business [I-19]. However, overwhelmingly pragmatic, most field conservation organisations are willing to work with corporations, perhaps demonstrating their alignment with principles of the 'new conservation' (Kareiva and Marvier, 2012).…”

Offsetting dispossession? Terrestrial conservation offsets and First Nation treaty rights in Alberta, Canada

“…Discussions of neoliberalism in general, including neoliberal environmental management, have tended to be broken into two distinct camps -those that view such shifts as utopian win-win scenarios that successfully reconcile tensions between the environment and economic growth (Anderson and Leal, 2001;Turner and Daily, 2008;Shogren, 2005) or a growing array of critical perspectives, which often present the shift to non-state actors and markets as part of a larger class-based project that threatens democracy and serves to channel benefits to powerful societal actors (see inter alia MacDonald, 2010;Kelly, 2011;Brockington et al, 2008). An exploration of terrestrial conservation offsets in Alberta complicates some key narratives of the existing critical literature, providing a case study in how market-based conservation tools may serve multiple political ends, and may in some instances be used to empower communities resisting threats of dispossession, privatization and the imposition of market-logics.…”

Positioning Sowa Rigpa in India

“…For example, I do not seek to explain these processes at the level of 'society' or 'culture', but retain a tight focus on one medical system. Furthermore, although I pay close attention to the words that are used, their ordering, and various levels of meaning, I privilege ethnographic observational methods over the textually focused approach favoured by the main proponents, most notably the systematic linguistic analysis of Fairclough. Following several groundbreaking publications on the topic, I understand conferences and public meetings as increasingly important sites of social interaction, politics, and policy making, and hence for ethnographic research (see Blaikie et al 2015;Brosius and Campbell 2010;Cohen 1995;MacDonald 2010;Riles 2001). The way discourse is orchestrated at such events -who is invited, how topics are selected, how the programme is structured, and who is allowed to speak to whom and for whom -appears just as analytically important as the content of the spoken and written texts themselves, further distinguishing my approach from the text-oriented work of the major discourse analysts.…”