TY - JOUR
T1 - Overcoming racism in the twin spheres of conservation science and practice
AU - Rudd, Lauren F.
AU - Allred, Shorna
AU - Bright Ross, Julius G.
AU - Hare, Darragh
AU - Nkomo, Merlyn Nomusa
AU - Shanker, Kartik
AU - Allen, Tanesha
AU - Biggs, Duan
AU - Dickman, Amy
AU - Dunaway, Michael
AU - Ghosh, Ritwick
AU - González, Nicole Thompson
AU - Kepe, Thembela
AU - Mbizah, Moreangels M.
AU - Middleton, Sara L.
AU - Oommen, Meera Anna
AU - Paudel, Kumar
AU - Sillero-Zubiri, Claudio
AU - Dávalos, Andrea
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - It is time to acknowledge and overcome conservation's deep-seated systemic racism, which has historically marginalized Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) communities and continues to do so. We describe how the mutually reinforcing 'twin spheres' of conservation science and conservation practice perpetuate this systemic racism. We trace how institutional structures in conservation science (e.g. degree programmes, support and advancement opportunities, course syllabuses) can systematically produce conservation graduates with partial and problematic conceptions of conservation's history and contemporary purposes. Many of these graduates go on to work in conservation practice, reproducing conservation's colonial history by contributing to programmes based on outmoded conservation models that disproportionately harm rural BIPOC communities and further restrict access and inclusion for BIPOC conservationists. We provide practical, actionable proposals for breaking vicious cycles of racism in the system of conservation we have with virtuous cycles of inclusion, equality, equity and participation in the system of conservation we want.
AB - It is time to acknowledge and overcome conservation's deep-seated systemic racism, which has historically marginalized Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) communities and continues to do so. We describe how the mutually reinforcing 'twin spheres' of conservation science and conservation practice perpetuate this systemic racism. We trace how institutional structures in conservation science (e.g. degree programmes, support and advancement opportunities, course syllabuses) can systematically produce conservation graduates with partial and problematic conceptions of conservation's history and contemporary purposes. Many of these graduates go on to work in conservation practice, reproducing conservation's colonial history by contributing to programmes based on outmoded conservation models that disproportionately harm rural BIPOC communities and further restrict access and inclusion for BIPOC conservationists. We provide practical, actionable proposals for breaking vicious cycles of racism in the system of conservation we have with virtuous cycles of inclusion, equality, equity and participation in the system of conservation we want.
KW - anti-racism
KW - BIPOC
KW - colonialism
KW - diversity
KW - equity
KW - inclusion
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U2 - 10.1098/rspb.2021.1871
DO - 10.1098/rspb.2021.1871
M3 - Article
C2 - 34727721
AN - SCOPUS:85119982540
SN - 0962-8452
VL - 288
JO - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
JF - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
IS - 1962
M1 - 20211871
ER -