Are We Really Getting Conservation So Badly Wrong?

Abstract

In October 2010, some 18,000 delegates from 193 nations met in Nagoya, Japan, for the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the international treaty to protect biodiversity. In Nagoya, governments reaffirmed their concern over the continuing loss of biodiversity and set new targets to address the crisis. Among the national delegations, indigenous people, and diverse stakeholders present, lobbying by international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) contributed to a COP decision to expand protected areas to 17% of terrestrial ecosystems (up from the current 12.9% coverage globally) and marine areas to 10% (currently at just over 1%). Against this background, Rosaleen Duffy argues that mainstream conservation efforts are failing in her new book, Nature Crime: How We're Getting Conservation Wrong. Duffy, a professor of international politics at Manchester University, questions the importance of international NGOs in setting global and national conservation agendas, the development of alliances between NGOs and the private sector, and the alienation of local communities by conservation practices (which constitute, in Duffy's words, “the darker side of conservation”).