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Green Militarization: Anti-Poaching Efforts and the Spatial Contours of Kruger National Park

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  • Elizabeth Lunstrum

Abstract

Building from scholarship charting the complex, often ambivalent, relationship between military activity and the environment, and the more recent critical geographical work on militarization, this article sheds light on a particular meshing of militarization and conservation: green militarization. An intensifying yet surprisingly understudied trend around the world, this is the use of military and paramilitary personnel, training, technologies, and partnerships in the pursuit of conservation efforts. I introduce this concept, first, as a call for more sustained scholarly investigation into the militarization of conservation practice. More modestly, the article offers its own contribution to this end by turning to South Africa's Kruger National Park, the world's most concentrated site of commercial rhino poaching. Focusing on the state's multilayered and increasingly lethal militarized response to what is itself a highly militarized practice, I illustrate how the spatial qualities of protected areas matter immensely for the convergence of conservation and militarization and the concrete forms this convergence takes. For Kruger, these include its status as a national park framed by a semiporous international border and its expansive, often dense terrain. Steering clear of spatial determinism, I equally show how spatial contours authorize militarization only once they articulate with particular assumptions and values; for Kruger these amount to political–ecological values regarding the nation-state, its sovereignty, and its natural heritage. The result is an intensifying interlocking of conservation and militarization that frequently produces unforeseen consequences.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth Lunstrum, 2014. "Green Militarization: Anti-Poaching Efforts and the Spatial Contours of Kruger National Park," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 104(4), pages 816-832, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:raagxx:v:104:y:2014:i:4:p:816-832
    DOI: 10.1080/00045608.2014.912545
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    13. Sjöstedt, Martin & Sundström, Aksel & Jagers, Sverker C. & Ntuli, Herbert, 2022. "Governance through community policing: What makes citizens report poaching of wildlife to state officials?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
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    15. Barry Ackers, 2024. "EL IMPACTO DE LA CAZA FURTIVA DE RINOCERONTES EN LA RENDICION DE CUENTAS DE UNA ORGANIZACION DE CONSERVACION FINANCIADA POR EL ESTADO(The impact of rhino poaching on the accountability disclosures of ," Revista Internacional de Gestión del Conocimiento y la Tecnología (GECONTEC), Revista Internacional de Gestión del Conocimiento y la Tecnología (GECONTEC), vol. 9(1), pages 65-81, March.
    16. Ide, Tobias, 2020. "The dark side of environmental peacebuilding," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    17. Strong, Michael & Silva, Julie A., 2021. "‘We would like this place to be a town’: The benefits and challenges of rural development near protected areas," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    18. Michel Notelid & Anneli Ekblom, 2021. "Household Vulnerability and Transformability in Limpopo National Park," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-22, March.
    19. Esther Marijnen, 2018. "Public Authority and Conservation in Areas of Armed Conflict: Virunga National Park as a ‘State within a State’ in Eastern Congo," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 49(3), pages 790-814, May.
    20. Chambers, Josephine M. & Massarella, Kate & Fletcher, Robert, 2022. "The right to fail? Problematizing failure discourse in international conservation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).

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