Conservation Conflict: A Political Ecology Meta-Synthesis of East Africa

Protected areas (PAs) are often seen as a solution to the biodiversity crisis, however, such conservation intervention can drive environmental change and conflict. Despite being presented as neutral and technically informed, PA establishment is highly political, often concealing social, economic, and political factors. Political ecology research examines how dominant narratives shape PA establishment, helping to better understand multi-layered conflicts involving often marginalized communities, conservation actors and wildlife in East Africa. This paper presents a meta-synthesis of PA expansion in the region, revealing the intricate relationship between conservation and conflict. The analysis identifies four key themes: ‘commodification of wilderness’, ‘the war for biodiversity’, ‘community marginalization on the periphery’, and ‘conservation biopolitics’. By novel utilization of meta-synthesis methodology, this paper contributes two-fold: themes provide nuanced regional understandings of the processes driving conservation conflicts while drawing theoretical insights from case study research which reveal the general applicability of findings from political ecology research.