Paradoxically, conservation efforts in Liberia and Senegal are threatening native ecology.
The Underbelly of Conservation
The two essays in this series emerged from two academic projects: a joint Ludwig Maximilian University-NYU workshop called "Ecologies of Extraction in Africa," held in the Department of History at New York University, and an ongoing project at Ludwig Maximilian University’s Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, called "Fragments of the Forest: Hot Zones, Disease Ecologies, and the Changing Landscape of Environment and Health in West Africa."
Far from signaling a break from the past, the convergence of mining and conservation in West Africa underscores a recurring pattern that stretches back to colonialism.