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Net-A-Porter is collaborating with Gemfields on a 'responsibly-sourced coloured gemstone' capsule collection from Mozambique and Zambia with proceeds to fight elephant poaching and wildlife trade in Kenya. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/08/9969461/space-for-giants-net-a-porter-gemfields-elephant-conservation-collaboration?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twitter_share
The goal of this special collection is to turn "a unit of consumption into a unit of conservation", but can a special collection of rings and necklaces featuring Zambian emeralds and Mozambican rubies save Kenyan elephants?
Over-consumption is a cause of the biodiversity crisis. There is widespread agreement that we need a radical change to protect biodiversity, rather than a simple shift towards consuming differently.
See @brambuscher: https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4578-the-conservation-revolution-radical-ideas-for-saving-nature-beyond-the-anthropocene-bram-buscher
See @brambuscher: https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4578-the-conservation-revolution-radical-ideas-for-saving-nature-beyond-the-anthropocene-bram-buscher
This calls into question new and deepening partnerships between the extractive, conservation and fashion sectors that promote the continuation of unsustainable and unjust consumption practices.
See @brocksaglio, @adamsneyd and I for more on this here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2514848619867615
See @brocksaglio, @adamsneyd and I for more on this here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2514848619867615
Partnership like this also risk directing resources away from existing local conservation initiatives towards international conservation organisations that reinforce, rather than disrupt, the racist and imperial legacies of the conservation sector.
In this case, funds from this capsule collection are being directed towards new, international efforts to conserve the Ewaso Ng'iro River Basin rather than existing and successful initiatives in the region, such as @Kenya_IMPACT annual Camel Caravan to protect the Ewaso Ng'iro.
As @m_ogada has argued, new and growing forms of conservation finance too often upholds the white supremacist underpinnings of the conservation sector.
Read more at: https://www.theelephant.info/features/2020/06/12/why-black-lives-dont-matter-in-kenyas-colonial-conservancies/
Read more at: https://www.theelephant.info/features/2020/06/12/why-black-lives-dont-matter-in-kenyas-colonial-conservancies/
Finally, whether the ongoing pandemic is leading to a rise in elephant poaching and wildlife trade remains to be determined. In some contexts, there is reason to believe that the opposite may be true: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/01/south-african-rhino-poaching-halves-in-six-months-thanks-to-covid-19-lockdown
This is likely because supply chains and consumption were impacted by travel restrictions during the pandemic. This reinforces the idea of using conservation finance to alter consumption, rather than promote consumption as a solution to the biodiversity crisis.
