Alain Karsenty, Christian Leclerc and Didier Bazile

In the context of unprecedented population growth on the African continent, ways to preserve the region’s biodiversity are at the centre of lively debate at the Convention for Biological Diversity – particularly in light of a proposal to classify 30% of national territories as protected areas and with 10% of them to be strictly conserved.

In his 2020 essay  The invention of green colonialism, Guillaume Blanc attacked the IUCN, WWF and UNESCO  operating in natural parks in Africa. He accused park managers of excluding and violating local populations, and of creating misery to satisfy a fantasy of virgin nature for the sole benefit of Western tourists.