As protected spaces for nature are becoming a key global policy for preserving biodiversity for the future, this thesis uses a novel theoretical approach to propose a multispecies history of conservation that re-evaluates their origins. I selected the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust’s reserve at Slimbridge, in Gloucester, England as my case study to demonstrate this. Slimbridge is well suited because of its early origins (1946 – present day) and strong archival record. The trust published annual reports every year from 1946 and these large documents containscientific reports, anecdotal observations, and administrative decision-making processes that are an untapped resource for writing histories of the development of conservation spaces. Looking for moments of tension between known and unknown nature, charismatic and mundane animal experiences, and the construction of multispecies political orderings within the reports drew my analysis towards a narrative around these zones that blends environmental history writing with theoretical analysis. Slimbridge is re-situated through this work as a complex process of creating, sustaining, and reproducing new relationships between the trust, semi-tame animals, and wild birds that came to constitute what I describe as a conservation space. Crucially, it is the relationships that conservation builds that it reproduces and protects, so we should think of conservation as a way to build new, more resilient, and just ecologies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-532850 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Cornish, Nathan |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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