New Book | Conservation Refugees

A much anticipated book by Mark Dowie explores the tenuous relationship between global conservation efforts and indigenous peoples. Conservation Refugees shows that even though conservation and indigenous movements share many objectives, they also come into conflict, particularly when Western ideas, opinions, and worldviews don't match up with Indigenous ways of thinking, being, and doing. The field of integrated conservation and development (ICD), also referred to as community-based conservation and/or participatory conservation, has been around for several decades but the challenge of protecting diversity without impacting the indigenous peoples that often inhabit the same critical areas is still just that...a challenge. Heated discussions on ICD have played out in both the academic and mainstream press but in the end, Indigenous Peoples are still becoming refugees in the name of conservation. Perhaps Dowie's book will bring a new perspective to the diversity dilemma.