Designing Institutions for a Socially-just Landscape Conservation

What is it about?

How do the institutional structures devised in the past for supporting wildlife and biodiversity conservation influence the success of the most recent addition to the policymakers' toolbox - landscape conservation. Article shows that the institutional structures of the past are ill-suited for landscape level conservation approaches, outlines the newer ways of thinking that will work better (and mass-based as opposed to elite-based approaches to conservation; "integrative, as opposed to "integrated" approaches; and, sustainable use as opposed to preservationist approaches to conservation), and shows how these newer approaches will ensure the sustainability of landscape conservation.

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Why is it important?

The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals asks for protection of land rights, and the protections of natural resources, biodiversity, and wildlife. Equally important, the most challenging sites for these goals tend to overlap quite significantly. Simultaneous pursuit of the goals of social justice and environmental conservation requires that we develop new approaches that are interdisciplinary, respond to the interests and stakes of social groups who may not have had a voice in the conservation interventions of the past, but are likely to play a very important role in the years and decades to come. This article presents grounded findings about the confluence of these important goals and provides a framework that enables us to rethink the past approaches to nature conservation to make them socially just and sustainable.

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