Navigating power in conservation

Details

Ressource 1Download: Shackleton et al 2023 power.pdf (2318.46 [Ko])
State: Public
Version: Final published version
License: CC BY 4.0
Serval ID
serval:BIB_643997F0BC73
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Navigating power in conservation
Journal
Conservation Science and Practice
Author(s)
Shackleton Ross T., Walters Gretchen, Bluwstein Jevgeniy, Djoudi Houria, Fritz Livia, Lafaye de Micheaux Flore, Loloum Tristan, Nguyen Van Thi Hai, Rann Andriamahefazafy Mialy, Sithole Samantha S., Kull Christian A.
ISSN
2578-4854
2578-4854
Publication state
Published
Issued date
29/01/2023
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
5
Number
3
Pages
e12877
Language
english
Abstract
Conservation research and practice are increasingly engaging with people and drawing on social sciences to improve environmental governance. In doing so, conservation engages with power in many ways, often implicitly. Conservation scientists and practitioners exercise power when dealing with species, people and the environment, and increasingly they are trying to address power relations to ensure effective conservation outcomes (guiding decision-making, understanding conflict, ensuring just policy and management outcomes). However, engagement with power in conservation is often limited or misguided. To address challenges associated with power in conservation, we introduce the four dominant approaches to analyzing power to conservation scientists and practitioners who are less familiar with social theories of power. These include actor-centered, institutional, structural, and, discursive/governmental power. To complement these more common framings of power, we also discuss further approaches, notably non-human and Indigenous perspectives. We illustrate how power operates at different scales and in different contexts, and provide six guiding principles for better consideration of power in conservation research and practice. These include: (1) considering scales and spaces in decision-making, (2) clarifying underlying values and assumptions of actions, (3) recognizing conflicts as manifestations of power dynamics, (4) analyzing who wins and loses in conservation, (5) accounting for power relations in participatory schemes, and, (6) assessing the right to intervene and the consequences of interventions. We hope that a deeper engagement with social theories of power can make conservation and environmental management more effective and just while also improving transdisciplinary research and practice.
Keywords
Nature and Landscape Conservation, power, political ecology
Open Access
Yes
Funding(s)
Swiss National Science Foundation / 400440-169430
Swiss National Science Foundation / 400940-194004
Create date
08/02/2023 11:42
Last modification date
08/03/2023 6:46
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