Justice in nature conservation: limits and possibilities under global capitalism

Abstract

International environmental organizations bankrolled by corporations present nature conservation as critical to avert the climate crisis and usher in climate justice on a global scale. Indigenous lands are now enrolled in carbon offset markets and debt for nature swaps whereby healthy ecosystems in the Global South are set aside for conservation in exchange for economic benefits commonly captured by an elite few. It is therefore urgent to ask if nature conservation can and should be a medium to usher in justice for those most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Here, I argue that justice whereby the rights and self-determination of Black and Indigenous peoples are upheld is incompatible with global conservation based on two premises. First, conservation is fundamental to the global expansion of capitalism. Second, for capitalism to reproduce itself it necessitates the dehumanization, dispossession, and suppression of the rights of people racialized as non-White. Thus, justice in global conservation hinges on its complete disentanglement with capitalism and the racial order sustaining it. Black and Indigenous led movements working at the intersections of land tenure, food sovereignty, and biodiversity conservation present pathways to delink from global capitalism and usher in justice in nature conservation.