Conservation's Friends in High Places: Neoliberalism, Networks, and the Transnational Conservation Elite

George Holmes
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George Holmes: George Holmes is a Leverhulme Fellow in the Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds, UK. His interests are in the social impacts of protected areas and in the politics of protected area creation, particularly around private protected areas in the context of neoliberal conservation. He has previously published work on elite conservation networks in the Dominican Republic and on local resistance to protected areas.

Global Environmental Politics, 2011, vol. 11, issue 4, 1-21

Abstract: Global conservation has changed over the last two decades. As conservation NGOs have grown in size and stature, they have increasingly turned to businesses and market mechanisms and they are increasingly replacing the state in delivering conservation programs. This article argues that at the heart of global conservation lies a small, well-connected elite, made up of directors and senior staff of key conservation NGOs, state politicians and bureaucrats, corporate directors, scientists, celebrities, and media actors. This elite network works as influence, ideas, and money are spread in formal spaces, such as conferences and meeting rooms, and in informal occasions such as social events. Drawing on emerging studies of conservation bureaucracies and NGOs, this article outlines the workings and structure of this elite, illustrated through four detailed vignettes. It situates the elite in the emerging literature on neoliberalism, arguing that this elite is at the forefront of driving the neoliberalization of conservation. © 2011 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Date: 2011
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