Conservation Refugees: The Hundred-Year Conflict between Global Conservation and Native Peoples

Conservation Refugees: The Hundred-Year Conflict between Global Conservation and Native Peoples

Conservation Refugees: The Hundred-Year Conflict between Global Conservation and Native Peoples
Mark Dowie, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2009, 336 pages.

Over the last century, millions of indigenous people around the world have been evicted from their traditional lands in the interests of conservation. Many have been reduced to poaching and trespassing on their ancestral land, or “assimilated” into chronic poverty. The good news is that native people are beginning to shift the global conservation agenda to one that treats them fairly. In Conservation Refugees, investigative journalist Mark Dowie makes a compelling argument for people-centred conservation that recognizes native people as central to protecting biological diversity. Rich in rarely published details from every corner of the Earth, this is an important book for students of conservation, international development and native cultures. Continue reading Conservation Refugees: The Hundred-Year Conflict between Global Conservation and Native Peoples

Losing Confidence: Power, Politics, and the Crisis in Canadian Democracy

The tone of May’s warning will make staid Canadians who have faith in the tenets of peace, order and good governance mighty uncomfortable. Described as they are in quick succession from this slim text in May’s energetic prose, the threats to our political process are disturbing. Continue reading Losing Confidence: Power, Politics, and the Crisis in Canadian Democracy