Offering insights on violence in conservation in Africa, this timely book demonstrates how and why the state pursues conservation objectives to the detriment of its citizens. It focuses on how the dehumanization of black people and indigenous groups, the insertion of global green agendas onto the continent, a lack of resource sovereignty, and neoliberal conservation account for why violence is a permanent feature of conservation in Africa. Chapters uncover various forms of violence experienced on the continent, revealing the local and global conditions that enable them, and propose pathways towards non-violent conservation. The book concludes that the ideology of conservation is also an ideology about people. Crucially, it highlights the implications of increasing investment in violent instruments and the institutionalization of militarized approaches for conservation, the state, and ordinary people. Scholars and students of political ecology and environmental policy and planning will greatly benefit from this book's drawing together of perspectives encompassing green violence and the militarization of conservation. It will also be an invigorating read for African studies researchers looking at coloniality and the re-evaluation of the African state, particularly through the lens of nature conservation.

This book brings together perspectives on resource exploitation to expose the continued environmental and socio-political concerns in post-colonial Africa. The continent is host to a myriad of environmental issues, largely resulting from its rich diversity of natural resources that have been historically subjected to exploitation. Colonial patterns of resource use and capital accumulation continue unabated, making environmental and related socio-political problems a dominant feature of African economies. The book pursues the manifestation of these problems through four themes: environmental justice, violent capitalocenes, indigenous knowledge, and climate change. The editors locate the book within the broad fields of political ecology and environmental geopolitics to highlight the intricate geographies of resource exploitation across Africa. It uniquely focuses on the socio-political and geopolitical dynamics associated with the exploitation of Africa's natural resources and its people. The case studies from different parts of Africa tell a compelling story of resource exploitation, related issues of environmental degradation in a continent particularly vulnerable to climate change, and the continued plundering of its natural resources. The book will be of great interest to scholars and students from the interdisciplinary fields of the environmental humanities and environmental studies more broadly, as well as those studying political ecology, environmental policy, and natural resources with a specific focus on Africa.