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Socionature in the design of national
parks
• No universal criteria about how parks and
conservation areas are defined.
– American model
• Recreation and beauty, an escape back to wilderness. Humans
are visitors.
– African model
• Wildlife viewing
• Displacement of local people in the formation of first parks
• More cooperative relationships evolving
– British/European model
• Emphasis on freezing past cultural landscapes and the nature
interacting with it
Yellowstone National Park (YNP)
• Since 1916, YNP and
other US parks have
aimed to preserve the
land in its ‘natural’
condition —how it
looked before
Europeans arrived.
• Leopold Report of
1963: “A national
park should represent
a vignette of primitive
America.”
Leopold mandate
unrealistic
• Climate change
– Increases in fires due to
drought
– Forest tree species changing
– Mountain pine beetle
infestations due to warmer
winters
– Forests cannot stay the same
as when they were at park
establishment
Green neocolonialism
• Environmental views
that result in colonial
relations
• Colonialism is
marked by control
from afar, lack of
self-determination,
and unbalanced
acquisition or access
to resources
Representation of King Leopold II of Belgium
Colonialism in the
Congo Free State
(1890’s)
Green
neocolonialism?
• United Nations
Reducing Emissions
from Deforestation and
Degradation (REDD)
program
REDD: how it works
• Countries and communities are
paid for keeping land in forest
• This helps slow the growth of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
• Financial entities representing
polluting countries and
corporations can buy carbon
credits to offset their emissions via
the securing of land to be kept in
forest for a set amount of time
Criticism of REDD as green
neocolonialism
• Can transfer power from local
forest owners to global and
national actors involved in climate
change and their system of
resource management
• Not just a tree in the forest, but a
tree as part of a global economy
• Locks up forest from use by
residents
• Could threaten food security by
forcing local farmers to grow trees
instead of food
• Contracts and terms of forest
management not always favorable
for farmer
Emerging hybrid models
• Australia
– Former Ayers Rock now
called Uluru and
Aboriginal people
participate in its
management as part of
Native Title Act of 1993
Great Barrier Reef
Marine Park
Authority
Ecotourism
• Sustainable development, or development that "meets
the needs of the present without compromising the ability
of the future generations to meet their own needs"
(Bruntland Commission, 1987).
• Ecotourism is sustainable tourism that meets the needs
of present tourists and host regions while protecting and
enhancing opportunities for the future.
• Through ecotourism, nature is something to be
consumed via travel, but in a sustainable, mutually
beneficial way