Conservation needs a revolution. This is the only way it can contribute to the drastic transformations needed to come to a truly sustainable model of development. The good news is that conservation is ready for revolution. Heated debates about the rise of the Anthropocene and the current ‘sixth extinction’ crisis demonstrate an urgent need and desire to move beyond mainstream approaches. Yet the conservation community is deeply divided over where to go from here. Some want to place ‘half earth’ into protected areas. Others want to move away from parks to focus on unexpected and ‘new’ natures. Many believe conservation requires full integration into capitalist production processes.

Building a razor-sharp critique of current conservation proposals and their contradictions, Büscher and Fletcher argue in their book that the Anthropocene challenge demands something bigger, better and bolder. Something truly revolutionary. They propose convivial conservation as the way forward. This approach goes beyond protected areas and faith in markets to incorporate the needs of humans and nonhumans within integrated and just landscapes. Theoretically astute and practically relevant, The Conservation Revolution offers a manifesto for conservation in the twenty-first century—a clarion call that cannot be ignored.

The German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) in collaboration with Wageningen University & Research (WUR) invited to take part in the online book launch of “The Conservation Revolution: Radical Ideas for Saving Nature Beyond the Anthropocene” by Bram Büscher and Robert Fletcher. The idea of the book launch was to bridge academic research ideas with policy makers’ reality by entering into productive dialogue that puts the ideas of the book to the “reality-check” and to contribute to the discussion feeding target setting for the Post 2020 Biodiversity framework.

The online book launch took place online on 19 May 2020 from 16:15 to 17:15 (CEST)

Programme

Opening Remarks

• Steffen Bauer, Senior Researcher and Head of Klimalog, Research Programme “Environmental Governance and Transformation to Sustainability”, German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)

The Authors

• Bram Büscher, Professor and Chair of the Sociology of Development and Change group, Wageningen University & Research (WUR)
• Robert Fletcher, Associate Professor, Sociology of Development and Change group, Wageningen University & Research (WUR)

Discussants

• Fatema Rajabali, Associate Programme Officer, Adaptation Division, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
• Ina Lehmann, Researcher in the Research Programme “Environmental Governance and Transformation to Sustainability”, German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)

Moderation

• Jean Carlo Rodriguez, Senior Researcher in the Research Programme “Environmental Governance and Transformation to Sustainability”, German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)