The session focuses on the everyday relationships between frontline conservation workers or forest rangers and their day-to-day experiences with local (forest) communities. The relationship is often characterized by contestation and competition rather than cooperation, giving rise to adverse effects for conservation and for communities’ human rights. The session introduces the wider governance landscape within which good governance for conservation challenges arise; it unpacks the structures that influence frontline rangers’ behaviours, illustrating corruption entry points such as rent-seeking and how rangers can become pawns in militarized conservation laws and approaches; and, it unravels the fluidities of categories between ranger, poacher and community member to examine conservation practice through a human rights lens. This event will support campus session led by GIZ and partners , and the Forum session by World Resources Institute and an additional WWF forum session.
