There's nothing new under the sun – lessons conservationists could learn from previous pandemics

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Serval ID
serval:BIB_A335C7AD5457
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
There's nothing new under the sun – lessons conservationists could learn from previous pandemics
Journal
PARKS
Author(s)
Hymas Olivier, Rocha Bruna, Guerrero Natalia, Torres Mauricio, Ndong Kevin, Walters Gretchen
ISSN
0960-233X
Publication state
Published
Issued date
11/03/2021
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
27
Number
Special Issue
Pages
25-40
Language
english
Abstract
In many industrialised societies, the COVID-19 pandemic has been painted as an unprecedented moment caused by human abuse of nature. Responses to it have, in turn, temporarily slowed down human impacts upon nature. This has led to a rallying cry against human encroachment into what are claimed to be pristine wildernesses. Reflecting upon historic, archaeological and palaeoecological evidence relating to the impacts of past epidemics within a wider historical timeframe from Africa and South America, we show that though COVID-19 is a novel disease, the pandemic itself does not represent a novel event, since diseases brought by Europeans have previously decimated the peoples living in these areas. The ‘pristine wilderness’ is a myth, which falsely held that these places had always been empty of people, thus helping to legitimate the creation of protected areas, and their political control by both colonial and national administrations. We therefore question the assumption behind what has been termed the ‘anthropause’ – that the supposed reduction in anthropogenic activities caused by the current pandemic presents a new opportunity to study anthropogenic impacts on nature: numerous previous occasions exist where depopulation resulted in anthropauses. Such responses to COVID-19 suggest further interdisciplinarity is needed in the field of conservation, in spite of advances in this direction.
Keywords
epidemics, pristine wildernesses, protected areas, history, archaeology, Africa, Brazilian Amazonia
Open Access
Yes
Create date
25/03/2021 9:40
Last modification date
26/03/2021 7:11
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