Book launch on Thursday, February 22, 2024, 4.30-6.30pm GMT. This event will be chaired by Shreya Sinha (QMUL) and Sian Sullivan (Bath-Spa University) will act as a discussant. If around…
Book launch on Thursday, February 22, 2024, 4.30-6.30pm GMT. This event will be chaired by Shreya Sinha (QMUL) and Sian Sullivan (Bath-Spa University) will act as a discussant.
If around London, please feel free to come in person. If not, here is the Eventbrite link to register online: https://bit.ly/3SKM4vk
Cheers,
Ben Neimark
Event Details:
Book title: ‘Hottest of the Hotspots: The Rise of Eco-precarious Conservation Labor in Madagascar’
Author: Benjmain Neimark
Location: G.O. Jones LT
Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Campus, London E1 4NS
Special Guest Discussant: Professor Sian Sullivan, Bath-Spa University
Chaired by Shreya Sinha
Sponsored by: The Centre on Labour, Sustainability and Global Production (CLaSP), School of Business Management, Queen Mary, University of London, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences and Political Ecology Network, POLLEN, London-Node
About the book:
Continually recognized as one of the “hottest” of all the world’s biodiversity hotspots, the island of Madagascar has become ground zero for the most intensive market-based conservation interventions on Earth.
This book details the rollout of market conservation programs, including the finding of drugs from nature—or “bioprospecting”—biodiversity offsetting, and the selling of blue carbon credits from mangroves. It documents the tensions that exist at the local level, as many of these programs incorporate populations highly dependent on the same biodiversity now turned into global commodities for purposes of saving it. Proponents of market conservation mobilize groups of ecologically precarious workers, or the local “eco-precariat,” who do the hidden work of collecting and counting species, monitoring and enforcing the vital biodiversity used in everything from drug discovery to carbon sequestration and large mining company offsets.
Providing a voice for those community workers many times left out of environmental policy discussions, this volume proposes critiques that aim to build better conservation interventions with perspectives of the local eco-precariat.