Table Of ContentCapitalism and Conservation
Antipode Book Series
General Editor: Dr Rachel Pain, Reader in the Department of Geography, Durham
University, U.K.
Like its parent journal, the Antipode Book Series reflects distinctive new developments
in radical geography. It publishes books in a variety of formats – from reference books
to works of broad explication to titles that develop and extend the scholarly research
base – but the commitment is always the same: to contribute to the praxis of a new and
more just society.
Published
Capitalism and Conservation
Edited by Dan Brockington and Rosaleen Duffy
Spaces of Environmental Justice
Edited by Ryan Holifield, Michael Porter and Gordon Walker
The Point is to Change It: Geographies of Hope and Survival in an Age of Crisis
Edited by Noel Castree, Paul Chatterton, Nik Heynen, Wendy Larner and Melissa W. Wright
Privatization: Property and the Remaking of Nature-Society
Edited by Becky Mansfield
Practising Public Scholarship: Experiences and Possibilities Beyond the Academy
Edited by Katharyne Mitchell
Grounding Globalization: Labour in the Age of Insecurity
Edward Webster, Rob Lambert and Andries Bezuidenhout
Privatization: Property and the Remaking of Nature-Society Relations
Edited by Becky Mansfield
Decolonizing Development: Colonial Power and the Maya
Joel Wainwright
Cities of Whiteness
Wendy S. Shaw
Neoliberalization: States, Networks, Peoples
Edited by Kim England and Kevin Ward
The Dirty Work of Neoliberalism: Cleaners in the Global Economy
Edited by Luis L. M. Aguiar and Andrew Herod
David Harvey: A Critical Reader
Edited by Noel Castree and Derek Gregory
Working the Spaces of Neoliberalism: Activism, Professionalisation and Incorporation
Edited by Nina Laurie and Liz Bondi
Capitalism and Conservation
Edited by
Dan Brockington and Rosaleen Duffy
This edition first published 2011
Originally published as Volume 42, issue 3 of Antipode
Chapters © 2011 The Authors
Book compilation © 2011 Editorial Board of Antipode and Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s
publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and
Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell.
Registered Office
John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex,
PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom
Editorial Offices
350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK
The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK
For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information
about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see
our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell.
The right of Dan Brockington and Rosaleen Duffy to be identified as the authors of the
editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval sys-
tem, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that
appears in print may not be available in electronic books.
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trade-
marks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service
marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is
not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is
designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject mat-
ter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering
professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the
services of a competent professional should be sought.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Capitalism and conservation / [edited by] Daniel Brockington, Rosaleen Duffy.
p. cm. – (Antipode book series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
978-1-4443-3834-8 (pbk.)
1. Environmental economics. 2. Conservation of natural resources–Economic aspects.
3. Consumption (Economics). 4. Capitalism. I. Brockington, Daniel. II. Duffy, Rosaleen.
HC79.E5.C364 2011
333.7–dc22
2011015185
9781444338348
This book is published in the following electronic formats: ePDFs (9781444391435);
Wiley Online Library (9781444391442); ePub (9781444391459)
Set in 11pt Times by Aptara
01 2011
Contents
Introduction:Capitalism and Conservation: The Production and Reproduction
of Biodiversity Conservation
Dan Brockington and Rosaleen Duffy 1
1 ASpectacular Eco-Tour around the Historic Bloc: Theorising the
Convergence of Biodiversity Conservation and Capitalist Expansion
Jim Igoe,Katja Neves and Dan Brockington 17
2 The Devil is in the (Bio)diversity: Private Sector “Engagement”
and the Restructuring of Biodiversity Conservation
Kenneth Iain MacDonald 44
3 The Conservationist Mode of Production and Conservation NGOs
in sub-Saharan Africa
Dan Brockington and Katherine Scholfield 82
4 Shifting Environmental Governance in a Neoliberal World:
US AID for Conservation
Catherine Corson 108
5 Disconnected Nature: The Scaling Up of African Wildlife Foundation
and its Impacts on Biodiversity Conservation and Local Livelihoods
Hassanali T. Sachedina 135
6 The Rich, the Powerful and the Endangered: Conservation Elites,
Networks and the Dominican Republic
George Holmes 156
7 Conservative Philanthropists, Royalty and Business Elites in Nature
Conservation in Southern Africa
Marja Spierenburg and Harry Wels 179
8 Protecting the Environment the Natural Way: Ethical Consumption
and Commodity Fetishism
James G. Carrier 203
9 Making the Market: Specialty Coffee, Generational Pitches,
and Papua New Guinea
Paige West 221
10 Cashing in on Cetourism: ACritical Ecological Engagement
with Dominant E-NGO Discourses on Whaling, Cetacean
Conservation, and Whale Watching
Katja Neves 251
vi Contents
11 Neoliberalising Nature? Elephant-Back Tourism in Thailand
and Botswana
Rosaleen Duffy and Lorraine Moore 274
12 The Receiving End of Reform: Everyday Responses
to Neoliberalisation in Southeastern Mexico
Peter R.Wilshusen 299
Index 332
Introduction
Capitalism and Conservation:
The Production and Reproduction
of Biodiversity Conservation
Dan Brockington and Rosaleen Duffy
His Royal Highness rightly says that our rainforests are worth
more alive than dead. This is absolutely true. Leaving aside the
immeasurable value offered by our rainforests’ diversity and water
conservation functions, we are facing an almost unfathomably large
business opportunity, one which we can share with the Rainforest
nationsoftheworld...Withanestimated610billiontonnesofCO
2
sequestered by our tropical rainforests, a vast $18 trillion business
opportunity is before us...[I]t is increasingly clear that the solution
to this problem lies not only within a free market system but also
within our field of expertise. What the people of Rainforest nations
needisasystemthatvaluestheserviceslockedupintheirland...The
rainforestsareattheverycentreofthesecountries’identities;theyseek
topreservethemevenastheystruggleagainstthem...Withcapitalism
atthecentreofOURidentity,wemustbeboldenoughtoseetheworld
at its widest, even as we struggle in our own way...To seize this
$18trillionbusinessopportunity,valuingtheservicesofourrainforest
willnotonlyrequireinnovationinmarket-basedmechanismsbutalso
unprecedentedglobalcooperationbetweenthebrightestmindsofthe
nations of our world. Many structures and mechanisms will need to
be created, but it should be our expertise that defines them, and our
appetiteforthesemarketsthatforcespoliticalsupportforthem.1
With these words Stanley Fink, a former leading hedge fund manager,
repliedtoPrinceCharlesatabanquetheldattheMansionHouse,inthe
symbolicandculturalheartofthefinancialdistrictintheCityofLondon.
Prince Charles had arranged the event to communicate the work of his
Rainforest Project to the financial community.2 His purpose, simply
put,istomakerainforestsworthmorealivethandeadthroughfostering
novelfinancialmechanismsthatproperlyvaluetheecosystemservices
rainforestsprovide.
2 DanBrockingtonandRosaleenDuffy
Fink,andPrinceCharles’event,ratherneatlycapturethephenomenon
with which this book is concerned: the current alliances between
capitalism and conservation. These alliances are characterised by an
aggressivefaithinmarketsolutionstoenvironmentalproblems.Theyare
activelyremakingeconomies,landscapes,livelihoodsandconservation
policy and practice and they are partying in the symbolic heartlands
of capitalism. Corson (this volume) provides the best summary of
the shared basis of these chapters. She suggests that, by providing an
avenue by which corporations and politicians can become “green”, as
well as through new enclosures and conservation-based enterprises,
conservation fuels processes of capital accumulation. The net result is
that “international biodiversity conservation is creating new symbolic
andmaterialspacesforglobalcapitalexpansion”(Corson,thisvolume:
578).Thepurposeofthisbookistoexploretheorigins,manifestations
andconsequencesoftheseunions.
Acloserelationshipbetweencapitalismandconservationisnothing
new. Neoliberal conservation is but the latest stage in a long and
healthyrelationshipbetweencapitalismandconservation(Adams2004;
Brockington, Duffy and Igoe 2008; Neumann 1998). Rich elites have
been promoting conservation of particular species for their pleasure
and enjoyment long before capitalism even began; capitalist elites
adopted these same privileges (Rangarajan 2001). Capitalist interests
strongly advocated the first national parks in North America, and the
first conservation NGOs. Indeed it is arguable that what is remarkable
abouttheenvironmentalNGOsandenvironmentalismofthe1960sand
1970sisthatittooksuchastronganti-capitalistline.ThespiritofEdward
AbbeyandhisMonkeywrenchGangaretheexception,nottherule.3
Thepracticesthatlinkconservationandcapitalismthereforeareold.
There is, however, something new going on. Critics and analysts of
conservation are observing an increase in the intensity and variety
of forms of capitalist conservation. Underlying that is a shift in the
conservation movement’s own conception of these practices. As the
detailed histories that MacDonald and Corson trace in this book show,
theideathatcapitalismcanandshouldhelpconservationsavetheworld
now occupies the mainstream of the conservation movement. There
is still resistance (Walker et al 2009) but it is becoming increasingly
marginal in the corridors of conservation power. This is producing
changesintheimageryandrhetoricofconservationaswellasitspolicies
andpractices.
Thechallengeforanalystshasbeenhowtoobservetheseshifts.The
taskofobservingconservationatworkhasmigratedfromremoterural
locationswhereconservationpolicyhappenedtomassiveinternational
meetings (the Earth Summits and World Parks Congress, World
Conservation Congress, Conferences of the Parties to Conventions
CapitalismandConservation 3
on Biodiversity or Climate Change), marketing seminars, elephant
festivals,fundraisingeventsinWashington,plushofficesinmetropoles
throughout the world, film festivals, banquets and analyses of
advertisements and glossy magazines. Studying conservation policy,
organisations and natural resource management frequently requires
multi-sited ethnographic research as well as long hours becoming
familiar with the strange new languages of macroeconomics or
conservation biology and the peculiar lifeways of exotic tribes of
internationalbureaucratsandcorporatesustainabilityofficers.
Intellectually the challenge has been made easier by the thriving
research into the neoliberalisation of nature (Bakker 2005, 2009;
Bu¨scherandDressler2007;Castree2009;Heynenetal2007;McCarthy
2005;McCarthyandPrudham2004)andinparticularbyNoelCastree’s
parsing of that literature (see, for example, Castree 2008a, 2008b).
This has helped set the changes we have observed in conservation
into a broader economic and environmental context. As we shall see,
determining exactly how current forms of capitalist conservation are
neoliberal can be difficult. Neoliberalism itself is an unevenly applied
doctrine and its practice rarely lives up to its theory (Brenner and
Theodore 2002; Harvey 2005; Mansfield 2004). Nevertheless, the
convergence of interest in the consequences of neoliberal policy for
naturalresourceusehaveprovidedscholarsofconservationbothinsight
intotheprocessestheyareobservingandacommonlanguagewithwhich
tocommunicatetheirworktoabroaderacademe.
Academic interest in the changing nature of conservation has
produced a flurry of activity exploring the permutations of the
relationships between conservation and capitalism. Researchers
working on these topics organised panels at the Society for Applied
Anthropology in 2005, the Association of American Geographers in
2008 and the American Anthropological Association in 2009.4 A
group of conservation activists and analysts met in Washington in mid
2008 to compare experiences of the disciplining power of hegemonic
conservation.5Ateamofresearchersconductedaneventethnographyof
theWorldConservationCongressinBarcelonain2008.6Finally,anew
networkexaminingtheworkofcelebrityandthemediainconservation
metin2008andagainin2009.Thechangingnatureofconservationis
producingnewepistemiccommunitiesinacademia.
The chapters published here were first presented at an international
symposiuminManchesterinSeptember2008.Twenty-twopaperswere
discussed over 2 days; 12 were submitted to Antipode. Collectively
they provide the strongest theoretical and empirical examinations of
the convergence of capitalism and conservation that we believe has
been published. They bring out the detail of the institutional and
organisational alliances, some of their history and some indication of
4 DanBrockingtonandRosaleenDuffy
the great variety of commodity production that capitalist conservation
creates.
We have sorted the chapters into two sections. The first examines
the practices, networks, organisations, elites and institutions through
whichrelationshipsbetweencapitalismandconservationarecultivated.
The second examines the commodities and businesses that attempt to
produceconservationoutcomesthroughcapitalistmeans.Wesummarise
theirmainargumentsbelow.
Cultivating Conservation with Capitalism
One of the central themes of this collection is that conservation
is proving instrumental to capitalism’s growth and reproduction.
It provides an “environmental fix” (as Harvey might put it).
As Igoe and colleagues observe (this volume), where Green
Marxists have predicted environmental impediments that would
threaten capitalism’s prosperity (O’Connor 1988), in fact these
very impediments are the source of new forms of accumulation.
Consumers thrive on scarcity, anxiety, fear (all help create demand),
so perhaps the flourishing of capitalism in conservation, which
deals in similar currency, should not be such a surprise. It is
still important, however, to understand how this union is being
achieved.
Tackling that question is one of the main achievements of the essay
by Igoe and colleagues. Following Sklair and others they propose the
existenceofhegemonic“mainstreamconservation”interestscomposed
of an alliance of corporate, philanthropic and NGO interests (Sklair
2001). Mainstream conservation (one part of Sklair’s “sustainable
development historic bloc”) proposes resolutions to environmental
problems that hinge on heightened commodity production and
consumption, particularly of newly commodified ecosystem services.
Theirviewsarepromulgatedthroughamutuallyreinforcingcollection
ofspectacularmediaproductionscirculatedinadvertisementsandonthe
web. The power of these productions lies not in their robustness, logic
or rigour, but rather because they are presented and consumed within
societies dominated by spectacle (Debord 1995 [1967]). That is, these
aresocietieswhererepresentationsof,andconnectionto,places,people
and causes have long been mediated through commodified images. In
consuming these images people are given “the romantic illusion that
theyareadventurouslysavingtheworld”(p502)whilethedeleterious
ecological impacts of these very purchases, and the lifestyles they
require,areneatlyerased.
By focusing consumers’ attention on distant and exotic locales,
the spectacular productions...conceal the complex and proximate
