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Loss of biodiversity is one of the great environmental challenges facing humanity but unfortunately efforts to reduce the rate of loss have so far failed. At the same time, these efforts have too often resulted in unjust social outcomes in which people living in or near to areas designated for conservation lose access to their territories and resources. In Just Conservation the author argues that our approach to biodiversity conservation needs to be more strongly informed by a concern for and understanding of social justice issues.
Injustice can be a driver of biodiversity loss and a barrier to efforts at preservation. Conversely, the pursuit of social justice can be a strong motivation to find solutions to environmental problems. Just Conservation therefore argues that the pursuit of socially just conservation is not only intrinsically the right thing to do, but will also be instrumental in bringing about greater success.
The argument for a more socially just conservation is initially developed conceptually, drawing upon ideas of environmental justice that incorporate concerns for distribution, procedure and recognition. It is then applied to a range of approaches to conservation including benefit sharing arrangements, integrated conservation and development projects and market-based approaches such as sustainable timber certification and payments for ecosystem services schemes. Case studies are drawn from the author's research in Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Laos, Bolivia, China and India.
1. Introduction
2. Extinction: Can We Be Fair During a Crisis?
3. Justice as Motive
4. The conduct of Environmental Justice Inquiry
5. Taking Distribution Seriously
6. Justice as Recognition: Reconciling Social Justice with Environmental Sustainability
7. From ‘Conservation and Development’ to ‘Conservation and Justice’
8. Conservation, Markets and Justice
9. Conservation and Justice: Researching and Assessing Progress
Adrian Martin is Professor of Environment and Development at the School of International Development, University of East Anglia, UK.
"Adrian Martin sees the solution to this loss of biodiversity and ecosystem endangerment from a rather different perspective to the usual – that of social justice, especially for the local people [...] There is much that should concern us all in this book."
– David W.H. Walton, BES Bulletin 49(2), June 2018
"Can nature be protected without harming local people? Just Conservation argues that it must, and shows how it can be done. Eloquently and simply, Adrian Martin makes a powerful case for placing the issue of social justice at the heart of biodiversity conservation."
– Professor Bill Adams, University of Cambridge
