Race, visual culture, and colonialism in wildlife conservation (World Wildlife Fund, 1960s)

• In Event: Environment, Scientific Racism, and Public Communication (C19–20th)

Abstract

Robert Gioielli will look at race, visual culture, and colonialism in wildlife conservation. In the early 1960s, the World Wildlife Fund successfully deployed images of slaughtered charismatic megafauna, particularly in Africa, to create and reinforce sentimental connections towards mobilizing global financial support (particularly in the US and Europe) for wildlife conservation. The implicit, and sometimes even explicit, message of these campaigns was that citizens and leaders of the newly independent countries in Africa were "not ready" to protect these animals, thus justifying neocolonial forms of "fortress conservation."

Author

• Robert Gioielli, KTH Royal Institute of Technology