“GREEN MILITARIZATION? SO WHAT?”: ASSESSING PERSPECTIVES OF WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT THE MILITARIZATION OF WILDLIFE CONSERVATION

Simms, Matt Thomas

“GREEN MILITARIZATION? SO WHAT?”: ASSESSING PERSPECTIVES OF WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT THE MILITARIZATION OF WILDLIFE CONSERVATION

Authors

Simms, Matt Thomas

Abstract

As the threat of poaching has pushed some of the world’s charismatic megafauna to the brink of extinction, conservationists have begun ushering in novel responses to save species before it is too late. In Sub-Saharan Africa, this has manifested into militarized responses to curb poaching in protected areas, which has been termed “green militarization” (Lunstrum, 2014). This shift in practice has been met with a flurry of critical attention towards the negative dimensions of relying on such a response for wildlife and people (Duffy et al., 2019). However, despite the rise in academic scrutiny, these critiques have not materialized into alternatives or reformed practices on the ground. Thus, through semi-structured interviews with scholars and conservation practitioners, this study seeks to understand what can be about the militarization of nature conservation in Sub-Saharan Africa. The argument of this exploratory study is that the debate over what can be done about the militarization of conservation among scholars and practitioners is much more nuanced and complex in its breadth as well as its practical and moral justification.