Unlikely Allies? The Intersections of Conservation and Extraction in Tanzania

Tanzania is largely considered the epicenter of the Second Poaching Crisis, having experienced dramatic declines in wildlife populations, in particular elephants. In response, the country has established a new (para)military wildlife authority, enhanced international partnerships and projects aimed at curbing illegal elephant killings, and embarked on widespread anti-poaching operations as part of the countrys so-called war on poaching. Attuned to these characteristics of green militarization and the conditions of biodiversity crisis in Tanzania, this dissertation examines the emergence of anti-poaching partnerships between conservation and extractive industry actors. Based on 11 months of research in Tanzania, focusing specifically on the Selous Game Reserve, I illustrate that mainstream state and non-state conservation efforts, under the conditions of biodiversity crisis, enable the expansion of the mining, oil and gas industries. Building on this argument, the dissertation offers three contributions to political ecological and broader critical geographical scholarship. First, I show how Tanzanias categorization of the poacher as an economic saboteur who threatens the national economy forms one aspect of a broader economic rationale directing the countrys increasingly militarized approach to conservation. Such an economic rationale, utilized by both state and non-state conservation actors, authorizes controversial partnerships with the extractive industries. Second, I show how Tanzanias militarization of conservation is enabled in part by extractive industry actors who, in addition to securing access to its desired mineral deposits, temporarily fix the broader social and political crises facing the industry. Finally, I show that the Tanzanian state and its conservation authority mobilize conservation territory as a means to secure a range of resources for the developmental trajectory of the state, blurring the lines between territories of conservation and mineral extraction. Taken together, this research sheds light on the growing roster of actors involved in biodiversity conservation, the novel ways they enable and benefit from the intensification of green militarization, and the varying impacts of conservation-extraction articulations on conservation policy, practice, and territory.