CITES and the African Elephant

This article focuses on the impact of the ban of international trade of the ivory of the African elephant under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. This species is overpopulated in some countries and threatened in other countries. Overall, its current population and the level of decline suggest a species that is endangered. The population disparities have created misunderstandings in terms of how to address the issues. Controversy has surrounded the two instances of legal sales of ivory, and the continuing ban on ivory trade from 1989 has contributed to animosity between pro-ban Western ‘conservationists’ and anti-ban African countries, with accusations of ‘ecological imperialism’ being levelled at some of the protagonists. The article observes that the vast global ivory market has largely been sustained by countries that have failed to effectively enact laws and/or enforce them, as well as failing to deal with corruption and illegal markets within their jurisdictions. It is argued that identifying such culprit countries and their role in promoting elephant poaching and ivory trade, and identifying the reasons behind the poaching and illegal trade, is crucial in reducing the incidence of poaching. The article argues that with a better understanding of the illegal trade, CITES can take deliberate steps to assist countries involved in the ivory trade where they need that support.

Epilogue

The epilogue re-assesses Alfred Crosby’s thesis of “ecological imperialism” in the light of new scientific and historical findings in order to establish a coherent understanding of global ecological and biological change during the past 500 years. It draws on concepts from evolutionary theory and ecology—including “niche construction,” “propogule pressure,” “vector,” and “invasion”—to argue that perhaps Crosby’s most important point, that Europeans established themselves best in environments where they could grow and use familiar crops and animals, is still correct. The epilogue argues for closer interdisciplinary cooperation of the historical and ecological sciences to explain the biological and ecological reordering of the world in the context of globalization.

Biota Barons, 'Neo-Eurasias' and Indian-New Zealand Informal Eco-Cultural Networks, 1830s–1870s

This article examines informal (private and commercial) imperial networks and environmental modification by former English East India Company (EIC) employees in New Zealand, as well as the introduction of subcontinental species into that colony. Several very wealthy settlers from India, it argues, single-handedly introduced a cornucopia of Indian plants and animals into different parts of nineteenth-century New Zealand and used money earned in India to engage in large-scale environmental modification. Such was the scale of their enterprise 'in the business of shifting biota from place to place' and in remaking environments in parts of New Zealand that these individuals can be considered 'biota barons'. A focus on the informal eco-cultural networks they created helps refine the thesis of ecological imperialism. It also expands the more recent concept of neo-ecological imperialism, by highlighting the role of non-European natures and models in the re-making of Britain's colonies of settlement and by tracing exchanges between white settler colonies and colonies of extraction. In sum, the paper demonstrates the influence of particular private individuals with the necessary wealth and will to effect certain kinds of environmental change, and tentatively suggests that we might usefully consider Australasia as 'neo-Eurasias' rather than 'neo-Europes'.

The Arboreal Empire and the 'Parliament of Things': Australian Trees in Colonial South India

In the second half of the nineteenth century India and Australia were linked through a series of ecological exchanges, among the most important of which was the introduction of such Australian trees as eucalyptus, casuarina and acacia. South India was particularly affected by these importations, especially the Nilgiri hills, a plausible 'neo-Europe'. But, contrary to A. W. Crosby's argument about 'ecological imperialism', many of these introductions relied heavily on calculated human agency and transoceanic networks of foresters and horticulturalists for their success; other attempted transfers either failed or took off in unpredictable ways. The motives behind the introduction of Australian tree species varied but included the acute shortage of fuelwood in south India, colonial landscape aesthetics, an ideology of 'improvement' and belief in the transferability of species within the same temperate or tropical climatic zone. By 1914 experience had revealed the complexity of these ecological exchanges and their limitations, as well as the ability of some introduced species to become 'wild' and 'invasive'.

Air-appropriation: The imperial origins and legacies of the Anthropocene

This article elucidates the spatial order that underpins the politics of the Anthropocene – the ecological nomos of the earth – and criticizes its imperial origins and legacies. It provides a critical reading of Carl Schmitt’s spatial thought to not only illuminate the spatio-political ontology but also the violence and usurpations that characterize the Anthropocene condition. The article first shows how with the emergence of the ecological nomos seemingly ‘natural’ spaces like the biosphere and the atmosphere became politically charged. This challenges the modernist separation between natural facts and political norms. It then underlines the imperial origins of this nomos by introducing the concept of air-appropriation understood as the colonization of atmospheric space by CO2 emissions. Instead of assuming that the ecological nomos represents a transition from a colonial to an ecological and cosmopolitan world order, focusing on air-appropriation highlights forms of ecological imperialism that go along with the new nomos. Accordingly, the article calls for a just redistribution of ecospace that takes into account the imperial legacies and ongoing effects of air-appropriation.

Ecogothic

Reading Ecogothic depictions of nature from cultural traditions outside of Euro-America reveals how socio-ecological relations are inextricably bound up with hierarchies of race, class and gender, but also how environmental catastrophes intersect with wider geopolitical contexts such as imperialism. This chapter compares contemporary examples of ‘resource Gothic’ fictions that figure the socio-ecological violence of extractivism, plantation and ecological imperialism in postcolonial nations, including the sugar Gothic of Roger McTair’s ‘Just a Lark (or the Crypt of Matthew Ashdown)’ (2000), set in Jamaica, the oil Gothic of HelonHabila’sOil on Water (2010), set in Nigeria, and the toxic nuclear Gothic of Robert Barclay’s Meļaļ (2003), set in the Marshall Islands. It also examines Ecogothic aesthetics in contemporary television and video games, exploring the oil and sugar imaginary of the first season of HBO television series True Detective (2014) and the nuclear magnetism of Bethesda Game Studio’s Fallout 4:Far Harbor DLC (2016).