Australian Conservation: Relationships to Land and First Nations Peoples

Australian conservation has seen a proliferation of non-government actors in recent decades, creating an incredibly diverse sector. This thesis seeks to understand how non-government conservation organisations think about the land they work on and the values they attribute to nature. Conservation has historically been informed by a human-nature dichotomy, and protected areas have been linked to the concept of wilderness. This is inherently problematic because it ideologically and physically removes people, including First Nations people, from the land. This thesis provides a recent update to this account by analysing the ways conservation organisations conceive of their relationships to land. This is also analysed in relation to the increasing prevalence of their partnerships with First Nations land and sea management organisations. How do conservation organisations’ ideas about land influence their relationships with First Nations peoples? This thesis uses a combination of literature review, grey literature analysis of a range of conservation organisations’ websites, and nine semi-structured interviews with employees of conservation organisations. This research finds that conservation organisations demonstrate a range of approaches to thinking about nature. Their relationships with First Nations peoples are similarly varied, with a range of approaches to working partnerships with First Nations land and sea management organisations. This thesis contributes a much-needed update on the way that contemporary mainstream, or settler-led, conservation is conducted in Australia.