Publication | News article

Conservation in question: When Anthropology meets ‘nature’

'Today, conservation, regardless of its form, is and should be in everyone’s interest. With the escalating threats to ecosystems worldwide, conservation has become a necessity in response to ongoing processes of degradation, decay and loss. Traditionally, the word ‘conservation’ has been synonymous with environmental management or, at best, nature protection. Yet, what ‘nature’ refers to is so far rarely scrutinised. Conservation too often assumes what needs to be sustained and how a future should look, based on pre-determined ideals of a productive society – economically and ecologically. This assumption is precisely what I want to question. At what point is conservation deemed successful? What exactly do we value? And who constitutes the ‘we’?'

Author: Anna Notsu
Date: 21 January 2025
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