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Living Landscapes in Action Masterclass: Decolonising conservation, rights, livelihoods, access – cases from southern Africa

By May 29, 2025June 12th, 2025No Comments
Thursday, 12 June 2025
10.00 – 13.00 SAST
Register on Zoom: https://shorturl.at/jmsAS
With the increasing acknowledgement of the legacy of colonialism on conservation, including related land dispossession, race-based exclusionary practices of accessing natural resources, to mention a few, calls for decolonising conservation have become common. Indeed, there are numerous efforts (at least on paper) that aim to redress the imbalances of the past. These efforts focus on strengthening rights of local/indigenous people in land and natural resources, as well as to enhance their livelihoods. This session explores what some of these efforts to decolonise biodiversity conservation look like, including why the challenges continue. The participants’ ideas of decolonisation of conservation, particularly related practices in their own situations, will serve as a basis of discussion.
Join Professor Thembela Kepe for this Masterclass, offered by the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies’ Living Landscapes in Action project.

Readings
1. Prakash Kashwan, Rosaleen V. Duffy, Francis Massé, Adeniyi P. Asiyanbi, & Esther Marijnen (2021) From Racialized Neocolonial Global Conservation to an Inclusive and Regenerative Conservation, Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 63:4, 4-19.
2. Bluwstein, J., 2021. Colonizing landscapes/landscaping colonies: from a global history of landscapism to the contemporary landscape approach in nature conservation. Journal of political ecology, 28(1).
3. Mullenbach, E and others. 2022 An antiracist, anticolonial agenda for urban greening and conservation. Conservation Letters, 16(4),1-11. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12889

Professor Kepe’s bio:
Thembela Kepe is a Professor in the Department of Human Geography, and is cross-appointed to the Department of Global Development Studies, University of Toronto, Canada. He has interdisciplinary training, including an undergraduate training in agriculture and land use planning. Over the last few years his research interests have been in the areas of land rights, rural resistance politics, politics of development and political ecology. His field research has mostly been in southern Africa, particularly his home country, South Africa, but has also carried out research in Liberia, Somalia and in Canada. In addition to publishing about 60 peer-reviewed journal articles, he has co-edited four books, on topics that include land claims; rural revolts; freedom and politics of conservation.

In 2020 Kepe was awarded the Fellowship of the Society of South Africa Geographers (FSSAG), which recognises outstanding contribution to the field of geography. At the University of Toronto he teaches courses on political ecology, conservation, land rights and research design in development fieldwork. Thembela is the Associate Editor in two peer-reviewed journals related to natural resources and conservation.

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