Conservation at the Crossroads - GTI Forum May 2022 Contributions

Indeed, by masking the deeper causes of the crisis, the accommodationist mainstream has delayed the emergence of the political and economic awareness critical for curbing the underlying drivers of biodiversity loss. [...] If our common goal is the maintenance of the life support system of the world, the voices of indigenous peoples must be heard, and their approaches to caring for the land supported and recognized. [...] He is an Honorary Member of the Planning Institute of British Columbia, a Fellow of the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland, and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts. [...] Conservation as a discourse and practice began in the British colonies, when the hyper-exploitation of the natural world that characterized the plantation economies of the Caribbean islands and of India’s tropical forests by the British Navy’s insatiable hunger for lumber led to an alarmed recognition of unsustainability on the part of imperial functionaries.3 Wholesale forest clearance was visibl. [...] In the face of mounting environmental and social calamities, the only coherent stance must be to join indigenous and local communities around the world in demanding the return of stolen land, respect for their sovereignty, and a radical transformation of the CO2lonialism that characterizes the unsustainable behavior and policies of the wealthy.