Streaming Media
Presentation Abstract
As global environmental changes continue to accelerate, research and practice in the field of conservation biology may be essential to help forestall precipitous declines in the earth’s ability to sustain a diversity of life. However, many conservation programs have faced scrutiny for the social injustices they create, especially within the paradigm of demarcating protected areas. Currently, a new conservation paradigm emphasizing human-wildlife coexistence is emerging, and with it, an opportunity to ensure that justice for both human and beyond-human groups is given consideration. Recovery programs for large carnivore species, like orcas, are a practice emblematic of this new conservation paradigm, and require insights from theories and practices from environmental justice to detail the many forms of justice at stake. A pluralistic application of justice is required to ensure that new conservation practices do not produce and reproduce injustices for people. In addition, the success of these emerging programs in meeting their conservation goals in fact depends on meaningfully addressing a range of justice concerns. Conservation of large carnivore species like orcas also reveal domains in which environmental justice scholarship can expand its scope. In particular, the novel concept of affective environmental justice, which describes the complex role of emotions as an environmental harm, as a disruptor of understanding other forms of justice, and as a link between logics of oppression, merits further examination. An environmental justice framework offers a comprehensive resource to work through in planning and implementing a large carnivore recoveries further aligning conservation and environmental justice in research and practice.
Session Title
Ethics and Southern Resident Killer Whales Recovery 1
Conference Track
SSE7: Ethics, Environmental Justice, & the Future
Conference Name
Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (2022 : Online)
Document Type
Event
SSEC Identifier
SSE-traditionals-232
Start Date
26-4-2022 11:30 AM
End Date
26-4-2022 1:00 PM
Type of Presentation
Oral
Genre/Form
conference proceedings; presentations (communicative events)
Contributing Repository
Digital content made available by University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.
Subjects – Topical (LCSH)
Environmental justice; Carnivorous animals; Endangered species; Wildlife conservation
Geographic Coverage
Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)
Rights
Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author's written permission.
Type
Text
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Included in
Fresh Water Studies Commons, Marine Biology Commons, Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons
Meeting at the Crossroads: Environmental Justice and Large Carnivore Conservation
As global environmental changes continue to accelerate, research and practice in the field of conservation biology may be essential to help forestall precipitous declines in the earth’s ability to sustain a diversity of life. However, many conservation programs have faced scrutiny for the social injustices they create, especially within the paradigm of demarcating protected areas. Currently, a new conservation paradigm emphasizing human-wildlife coexistence is emerging, and with it, an opportunity to ensure that justice for both human and beyond-human groups is given consideration. Recovery programs for large carnivore species, like orcas, are a practice emblematic of this new conservation paradigm, and require insights from theories and practices from environmental justice to detail the many forms of justice at stake. A pluralistic application of justice is required to ensure that new conservation practices do not produce and reproduce injustices for people. In addition, the success of these emerging programs in meeting their conservation goals in fact depends on meaningfully addressing a range of justice concerns. Conservation of large carnivore species like orcas also reveal domains in which environmental justice scholarship can expand its scope. In particular, the novel concept of affective environmental justice, which describes the complex role of emotions as an environmental harm, as a disruptor of understanding other forms of justice, and as a link between logics of oppression, merits further examination. An environmental justice framework offers a comprehensive resource to work through in planning and implementing a large carnivore recoveries further aligning conservation and environmental justice in research and practice.
