Dismantling the Fortress: Reforming International Conservation

Abstract

Global biological diversity is declining more rapidly than ever before in human history. The destruction of forests and other natural ecosystems is particularly devastating for the Indigenous peoples and others who live there. One might expect, then, that those interested in conserving nature would see those living there as allies. However, conservationists have historically treated them as obstacles. For more than a century, conservationists have urged the creation of national parks and other protected areas that exclude all human residents. Their vision of fortress conservation was embraced and disseminated by an international conservation regime composed not only of States, but also of large conservation organizations in the Global North. These organizations have urged the creation of new protected areas, provided support for them, and in many cases managed them directly. Perhaps most important, they have served as a conduit for conservation funding from public and private donors in the North to governments in the Global South.  

Fortress conservation has not only been a disaster for the millions of human beings it has violently dispossessed, but also a failure in ecological terms. Unsurprisingly, Indigenous peoples are generally better at protecting their homes than the governments that evict them. Faced with the ugly facts of fortress conservation, over the last two decades most States and conservation organizations have committed on paper to respect human rights in conservation. But their commitments have been vague and aspirational, and they have often not been matched by changes in behavior. In many countries, especially in Africa and Asia, fortress conservation has continued to give rise to horrific abuses.  

Although States are primarily responsible for compliance with human rights law, private conservation organizations and funders also have a responsibility to respect human rights. As this Article explains, effectively reforming international conservation requires them to do much more to put their promises into practice. In particular, they should be guided by the concrete ways that international human rights bodies have already applied human rights norms to Indigenous rights, protected areas, and private multinational organizations. By embedding human rights in a new vision of inclusive conservation, conservation organizations and funders can dismantle the fortresses of conservation that they did so much to create.

Keywords: human rights, protected areas, Indigenous rights, conservation

JEL Classification: K32, K33, K38