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Using the US Agency for International Development's environmental program in Madagascar as a lens, I offer a historically grounded, relational, and multi‐sited methodology for understanding the transnational processes that constitute political forests in the contemporary era. I argue that neoliberal reforms conditioned the emergence of a public–private–non‐profit alliance, which promoted biodiversity conservation as a US foreign aid priority. As these reforms weakened state capacity and liberalised economies, the downsized Madagascar and US governments became reliant on conservation actors to mobilise political support for their programs. This reinforced the need to maintain strategic relationships with capital‐city actors, undermining prior efforts to devolve forest management to local communities. By isolating deforestation as a peasant problem "over there" and by expanding protected areas to meet global biodiversity targets, the conservation alliance created an avenue to be green that did not threaten extractive industries or key constituents. In this manner, saving the environment via protected areas expansion offered politicians a pathway through the inherent contradictions of green neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although increasingly common in the academy, collaboration is not yet the norm in human geography. Drawing on insights from ten years of experience with collaborative event ethnography (CEE), we argue that strong approaches to collaborative fieldwork offer rich opportunities for human geography. CEE involves teams of researchers conducting fieldwork together at large international events, collaborating on all aspects of the research process from research design to analysis and writing. This paper considers the benefits and challenges of CEE. Some of the benefits associated with strong collaborative fieldwork include: robust, collective interpretation of embodied data that makes room for difference; intellectual and social support for individual researchers; professional development and mentoring; and adaptability. Challenges encompass: Collectively interpreting data produced through individual, embodied experiences; managing team dynamics related to seniority, gender, and disciplinary training; meeting professional and institutional expectations and norms; valuing and recognizing individual contributions; and ensuring sufficient funding to support team preparation, data collection, and analysis. Strong collaborative approaches to fieldwork, like CEE, can cultivate slow scholarship and innovative knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We question whether the increasingly popular, radical idea of turning half the Earth into a network of protected areas is either feasible or just. We argue that this Half-Earth plan would have widespread negative consequences for human populations and would not meet its conservation objectives. It offers no agenda for managing biodiversity within a human half of Earth. We call instead for alternative radical action that is both more effective and more equitable, focused directly on the main drivers of biodiversity loss by shifting the global economy from its current foundation in growth while simultaneously redressing inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When Madagascar's former president announced at the 5th World Parks Congress his intention to triple the country's protected areas, he underscored that the new parks would engage local communities. Donors and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have since touted the program's commitment to community involvement. However, research in Madagascar's eastern rainforest revealed how a series of political decisions at multiple scales impeded village consultation. While the high-profile announcement successfully mobilized biodiversity conservation funds, it also drew attention toward meeting the demands of capital city-based politicians, foreign donors, and international NGOs and away from effectively engaging rural communities, thereby reinforcing nonlocal decision-making power. By revealing how conservation projects are embedded in and productive of politics in and among sponsoring organizations, the article responds to calls for greater analysis of the political, economic, and social contexts of conservation projects and specifically the politics among the donors, governents, and NGOs behind international conservation and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]