Frontline voices from the worldwide movement to decolonize climate
change and revitalize a dying planet.
With a deep, anticolonial and antiracist critique and analysis of what
"conservation" currently is, Decolonize Conservation presents an
alternative vision-one already working-of the most effective and just
way to fight against biodiversity loss and climate change. Through the
voices of largely silenced or invisibilized Indigenous Peoples and local
communities, the devastating consequences of making 30 percent of the
globe "Protected Areas," and other so-called "Nature-Based Solutions"
are made clear.
Evidence proves indigenous people understand and manage their
environment better than anyone else. Eighty percent of the Earth's
biodiversity is in tribal territories and when indigenous peoples have
secure rights over their land, they achieve at least equal if not better
conservation results at a fraction of the cost of conventional
conservation programs. But in Africa and Asia, governments and NGOs are
stealing vast areas of land from tribal peoples and local communities
under the false claim that this is necessary for conservation.
As the editors write, "This is colonialism pure and simple: powerful
global interests are shamelessly taking land and resources from
vulnerable people while claiming they are doing it for the good of
humanity."
The powerful collection of voices from the groundbreaking "Our Land, Our
Nature" congress takes us to the heart of the climate justice movement
and the struggle for life and land across the globe. With Indigenous
Peoples and their rights at its center, the book exposes the brutal and
deadly reality of colonial and racist conservation for people around the
world, while revealing the problems of current climate policy approaches
that do nothing to tackle the real causes of environmental
destruction.
