From Racialized Neocolonial Global Conservation to an Inclusive and Regenerative Conservation

The natural world is built on the foundations of co-existence. Here, gnus, antelopes, flamingos, and other animals coexist in the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. The recent antiracist movement in the United States and beyond inspired the Sierra Club, one of the oldest and most prestigious global conservation organizations, to distance itself from its founder John Muir’s racist views. In a statement issued in July, 2020, Sierra Club’s Executive Director, Michael Brune, said, “As defenders of Black life pull down Confederate monuments across the country, we must also take this moment to reexamine our past and our substantial role in perpetuating white supremacy.”1 However, the legacies and consequences of the racist history of American environmentalism extend far beyond the words and actions of the founding fathers of European and American environmentalism.