"Actually Existing Conservation" : A case study in the Catskills

Keywords: Catskill Mountains, Political Ecology, “Actually existing conservation”, capitalist imperatives, urban/rural dynamics
Session Type: Virtual Poster Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 38

Abstract

The Catskills are located 100 miles north of New York City on the western banks of the Hudson River. The creation of the Catskill Forest Preserve at the end of the nineteenth century has been heralded as landmark environmental legislation for both New York State and the country. However, the circumstances surrounding the establishment of the Forest Preserve reveal complex and non-environment forces at work in getting conservation passed and sustained. Bernauer & Roth (2021) articulate this tension within conservation spaces by arguing that conservation is a process that allows both for capital accumulation to be extended into natural spaces and for it to simultaneously be contested. Drawing on this understanding, the historical context of conservation in the Catskills illustrates how environmental ideals and knowledge hybridize with political, social and economic discourses in ways that shape conservation both materially and ideologically, resulting in, what I call, “actually existing conservation.” I argue that non-environmental actors have been central to ensuring the long-term success of conservation projects and that “actually existing conservation” in the Catskills created space in which the negotiations between capitalist imperatives, urban desires, cultural aesthetics, and environmental ideals were ultimately key to long term conservation success.