Title: Sailing the flagship: mobilizing wildlife in geographies of conservation
Proposal Due: 28th September
AAG Annual Meeting, New York, 24-28 February 2012
Organizers: Maan Barua (University of Oxford), Meredith Root-Bernstein (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile), Leo Douglas (Columbia University), Daniel Gurdak (State University of New York)
Proposed theme:
Plants and animals are frequently mobilized by governments, conservation organizations and the public to enable a range of conservation actions. Polar bears index a changing climate, pandas represent a nature in need of conservation, and whales are totems for groups promoting sustainable resource use. These iconic animals embody diverse naturecultures, both Western and non-Western. As rallying points, they are inherently caught up in the practices and politics of protected area creation, climate change adaptation and networks of environmental governance. Indeed, the geographies of conservation are co-produced in conjunction with nonhuman animals and plants.
In this session, we would like to foster interdisciplinary conversations between geographers, anthropologists and conservationists to unpack the concept of the “flagship species”: a symbol and rallying point that enables conservation action and environmental governance to take place.
This session invites papers on, but not restricted to the following themes:
(1) The deployment of iconic plants and animals in the politics and practices of biodiversity conservation
(2) The nonhuman charisma of plants and animals
(3) Human interactions with plants and animals that are apathetic or trigger disgust
(4) Past and contemporary symbolism of animals and plants, its mobilization in environmental governance
(5) Heuristic insights for selecting flagship species to promote and catalyze conservation actions
Please send abstracts to Leo Douglas ([log in to unmask]) or Maan Barua ([log in to unmask]).