Analyze

Aotearoa (New Zealand)

Misria
In response to

When Aotearoa was colonised, settler colonisers brought with them myriad species (rats, mustelids, cats, rabbits, possums) that have predated upon or outcompeted native birds. With habitat clearance for agriculture and residential development, this produced a contemporary in which over 51 native bird species are extinct, and over 75% of all remaining species are at risk of extinction. Many of these species are taonga (treasures) to Māori. Conservation efforts seek to protect those that are left, but certain methods are controversial, due in part to different understandings of the problem. Some see possums as a threat (to forest health, and, as vectors of bovine TB, to the agricultural sector) that should be removed by any means necessary; others, as a resource whose killing should be undertaken by trappers who can collect and sell their furs and gain honest work in doing so. Some believe conservation is a public good to be achieved using public money; others see it as a site for innovation, warranting private and philanthropic investment in biodiverse futures, perhaps even at the expense of nearer-term outcomes. 'Environmental governance' is now a patchwork enterprise shared between the state, state-owned enterprises, hundreds of volunteer groups, and private innovators and operators. 

Image credit: Steve Shattuck

Addison, Courtney. 2023. "Conservation controversies in Aotearoa." In 4S Paraconference X EiJ: Building a Global Record, curated by Misria Shaik Ali, Kim Fortun, Phillip Baum and Prerna Srigyan. Annual Meeting of the Society of Social Studies of Science. Honolulu, Hawai'i, Nov 8-11.

second thoughts on willowick

mikefortun
Annotation of
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Katie Cox Shrader10:44 AM Today@kimfortun@uci.edu I know what you mean about that anxiety. Two thoughts: 

- Re working with urban planners and others on gentrification: Santa Ana has a long, rich history of anti-gentrification organizing, and many of the groups involved in those have worked with UCI including planners. I recall from my time working with Montoya that some of the politics there are sensitive. I think an important next step is to be researching/documenting some of that history and reaching out to groups like el Centro Cultural de México and the Kennedy Commission. Maybe the OC library archive too. It seems really important to include gentrification as a central part of our analysis of EiJ in SA and I think we have a lot to learn from them. Those conversations may give us some insight into how outside planners might help or support, and how they might already be doing so.

- This kind of discursive risk does seem really important to track... AB 617 certainly comes to mind here. I also wonder how we might discern the difference between instances where well-intentioned interventions are captured or coopted in implementation, and those where legislation is compromised from the outset. Not to be cynical, but I am very curious about what developers supported the Surplus Land Act. Is the kind of development that Rise Up Willowick is fighting a "detour from intent" or is it a predictable/anticipated outcome of incentivizing the auction of public land for (private) redevelopment? In other words, is the Surplus Land Act a mechanism for progressive redistribution (golf courses become affordable housing), or neoliberal privatization of public assets (city-owned green space becomes a Jamba Juice)? Such a very California question.Show lessReassigned to kimfortun@uci.eduKatie Cox Shrader10:46 AM Today@mike.fortun@uci.edu  ... Now am thinking we need to have a workflow for moving these side-bar conversations into PECE as analysis of field notes. Maybe we could be in the habit of having these conversations in the text of the document, rather than the comments?