Towards Convivial Conservation

Forest Conservation, Rights, and Diets: Untangling the Issues

“…Likewise, increasingly loud calls for a more ecologically friendly agriculture suggest there is developing interest in promoting long-term sustainability in the agricultural sector over production alone (DeClerck et al, 2011;Campanhola and Pandey, 2019;Ickowitz et al, 2019). Extensive evidence is emerging that breaking down the barriers between agriculture and forest conservation at the landscape scale could have significant potential both conserve biodiversity and ensure a more sustainable agricultural production; indeed, taking the "whole earth" approach advocated by (Büscher and Fletcher, 2019). Such an approach could also have significant longterm impacts on the nutrition and health of millions, if not billions of people (Gordon et al, 2016;Campanhola and Pandey, 2019) while ensuring the rights to access to such healthy and nutritious food in wild, and often protected, habitats are increasingly uncontested.…”

Distinguished primatologist address—moving from advocacy to activism: Changing views of primate field research and conservation over the past 40 years

“…My view is that we need to think of activism in primatology as a necessary measure to correct environmental injustice and promote transformational change to protect primate biodiversity, ecosystem integrity, and the culture, well‐being, and autonomy of people living in primate‐habitat countries (Büscher & Fletcher, ). One approach that has helped me in thinking about how I can make a difference is termed “convivial conservation.” Convivial conservation is “built on the politics of equity, structural change, and environmental justice” that derives its power from global citizens, NGOs, and grassroots movements worldwide (Büscher & Fletcher, : 4). The goal of convivial conservation is not to isolate or exclude people from nature, but rather to promote an ethic in which people feel they are part of nature and natural ecosystems and seek to maintain and promote rather than exploit, alter, control, or dominate these landscapes.…”

“…The goal of convivial conservation is not to isolate or exclude people from nature, but rather to promote an ethic in which people feel they are part of nature and natural ecosystems and seek to maintain and promote rather than exploit, alter, control, or dominate these landscapes. Within such a value system, biodiversity, stewardship of our planet, and environmental sustainability are prioritized in the same way we prize freedom, civil liberties, human rights, gender equality, free and fair elections, social justice, and our democratic political institutions (Büscher & Fletcher, ).…”

“…The reality we face is that there exists a set of wealthy and powerful individuals, multinational corporations, and politicians who have promoted a radical anticonservation agenda that is designed to weaken environmental laws to maximize profit, promote income inequality, and remain in power by maintaining the status quo. In confronting such an extremist framework, half solutions and attempts to forge some middle ground, is unlikely to be successful because the current political and economic systems were designed to promote consumerism by tilting the playing field such that climate change, environmental degradation, and primate population decline are inevitable (Büscher & Fletcher, ). We need to change our conscious or unconscious assumptions that activist solutions to conservation are by definition, radical, that scientists should avoid direct engagement in political activity, and that somehow consumerism, the unsustainable overexploitation of natural ecosystems, worsening water and air pollution, the continued burning of fossil fuels, and the unrestrained or unregulated use of technology will lead us to a more secure and prosperous future.…”

Introductory Comments

“…Taken together, these three contributions suggest that the idea of a future where space is made for autonomous processes must also reckon with the psychological responses humans have to a wild understood, often unconsciously, as dangerous. It is not enough to engage in ecological rewilding; we must also engage in new forms of conviviality with wild animals (Büscher & Fletcher, 2019). The role of human ecology in this process is to keep the focus on the relation between ecological processes and social ones, so as to avoid the pitfalls of narrowmindedness: an entirely human world, or else an inhuman one.…”