Riel Talk #3 Is biodiversity conservation doomed to failure?

Protected areas (PAs) like national parks have long been the lynch pin of forest conservation. Protected Areas often fail to deliver effective outcomes because of the ways in which they treat peoples living in the forest. This has included imposing high levels of restriction from access to forest resources, punitive policing, levying ruinous fines, arbitrary arrest, mass expulsion and killing. In 2022, the International Community agreed to a new Global Biodiversity Framework that seeks to dramatically expand the number and size of Protected Areas, while also ensuring that the human rights of Forest-Dwellers are protected. How likely is it that this new framework will succeed in achieving these goals?

As part of his research in Bangladesh, Dr Oliver Scanlan has read the documentation disclosed by a major conservation project funded by the World Bank, currently still active in the country. His talk is based on his findings, which are clearly that human rights and environmental justice are simply not “part of the plan”. The project design therefore poses obvious, major risks to forest dwellers in Bangladesh. To the extent that this is typical or even common to conservation project design moving forward, the results may be disastrous. The good news is that certain international donors are publishing sufficiently detailed information in sufficient quantities for us to make relatively quick and relatively cost-effective judgements on these point. This should allow remedial action if we move swiftly enough.