Navigating fearscapes: women’s coping strategies with(in) the conservation-conflict nexus in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo

Abstract

The gendered impact of fear from persistent insecurities informs women’s navigation within and through conflict- and conservation-shaped landscapes. This article introduces a feminist emotional geography approach into discussions concerning the relationship between conservation and conflict studies to explore how navigation of fear enables women’s self-determination and agency in generating survival strategies with(in) such ‘violent environments’. Based on visual ethnographic methods employed around Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the photo diaries and narratives of two women illustrate their attempts to make sense of their fears in order to develop emotional and behavioral coping responses in the form of bartering and performativity. Going beyond a dominant focus on ‘everyday resistance’ against oppressive conservation practices and other armed actors in conflict, I argue that this fear-induced coping allows to account for the compliances and collaborations unfolding with landscape and actors, that afford the women a sense of integrity, agency and ownership of their body and mind.