Bram Büscher
brambuscher.bsky.social
Bram Büscher
@brambuscher.bsky.social

Chair @SDC_WUR & Prof @go2uj

Books:

Environmentalism under digital capitalism: http://truthaboutnature.com

The Conservation Revolution: http://convivialconservation.com

Environmental science 37%
Political science 16%

Reposted by Bram Büscher

"The wealthiest 0.1% emit an average of 2.2 tonnes of CO2 every day, equivalent to the weight of a rhinoceros or an SUV.

A citizen of Somalia burns off just 82 grams of CO2 each day, barely the mass of a single tomato or half a cup of rice."

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
America’s super-rich are running down the planet’s safe climate spaces, says Oxfam
Data shows wealthiest 0.1% of the US burn carbon at 4,000 times the rate of the world’s poorest 10%
www.theguardian.com

For those in Roskilde, Denmark next week - please join!

Reposted by Fabián Muniesa

CfP @pollenetwork.bsky.social 2026:

Conservation without Liberal Reason: Unsustainable Virtues, Illiberal Technopolitics, and Residual Histories.

Organizers: Jim Igoe & Bram Büscher

More info: pollenpoliticalecology.network/pollen-2026/...

We look forward to proposals & meeting in Barcelona!
Programme - POLLEN
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pollenpoliticalecology.network
#POLLEN"2026 panels are now live.

What happens now is a vital part of the preparation

Hundreds of potential participants will be sending in their ideas to the hundreds of different convenors. It is a rich moment of exchange and interaction.

Please spread the word.

shorturl.at/fCGhB
Call for presentations & posters - POLLEN
The call for presentations and posters is now open until 23:59 CET on Friday 5th December. Before proposing anything, please read the conference rationale & purpose, the rules below, and then browse t...
shorturl.at
News that shocks no one: Carbon offsets do nothing for climate.
Carbon offsets fail to cut global heating due to ‘intractable’ systemic problems, study says
Analysis of 25 years of evidence shows most schemes are poor quality and fail to lower emissions
www.theguardian.com

Thanks for all the hard work, Dan and Barcelona team! This will certainly be another POLLEN to remember.

ohhh! intriguing.. you coming to NL?!

Was great indeed to do this piece on The Value of Political Ecology in Biodiversity Conservation for Nature Reviews biodiversity with a great group of colleagues. Next time in person @jaredmargulies.bsky.social ?
I wish this could have been an interactive conversation because its a wonderful group of folks, but nevertheless I enjoyed taking some time to reflect on questions related to the value of political ecology for biodiversity conservation with @brambuscher.bsky.social and others rdcu.be/eEKqA
The value of political ecology in biodiversity conservation
Nature Reviews Biodiversity - Political ecology aims to understand how politics and power influence both social and ecological dynamics. Conservation biologists and political ecologists tackle many...
rdcu.be
I wish this could have been an interactive conversation because its a wonderful group of folks, but nevertheless I enjoyed taking some time to reflect on questions related to the value of political ecology for biodiversity conservation with @brambuscher.bsky.social and others rdcu.be/eEKqA
The value of political ecology in biodiversity conservation
Nature Reviews Biodiversity - Political ecology aims to understand how politics and power influence both social and ecological dynamics. Conservation biologists and political ecologists tackle many...
rdcu.be

Reposted by Bram Büscher

2012 #ivory - Al Shabab vibes here when naive conservationists jumped on the idea environmental protection = global security. It doesn’t - just take one look at the Military Emissions Gap project. #Militarisation harms the environment

www.politico.eu/article/russ...
From Kyiv to the Suwałki Gap, bogs return as Europe’s defensive shield
Restoring the EU’s drained bogs would stop both Russian tanks and planet-warming pollution.
www.politico.eu
We are in the middle of it.

Another year, another "crucial global summit".

Except that no summit before has actually gone to the roots of the climate crisis and have altogether had near-zero impact.

We need to drastically rethink global environmental governance.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘Climate is our biggest war’, warns CEO of Cop30 ahead of UN summit in Brazil
Negotiators doubt countries’ financial and environmental commitment as military and trade wars divert attention
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Bram Büscher

Reposted by Bram Büscher

📣 New Paper on #ConvivialConservation in Biological Conservation, brilliantly led by @judithekrauss.bsky.social We argue for greater transdisciplinary research to develop convivial forms of human-predator #coexistence. It’s #OA and you can read it here ⬇️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Coexistence beyond disciplinary silos: Five dimensions of analysis for more convivial human-predator interactions
Understanding human-predator interactions has been a central goal of conservation for decades, yet many previous efforts have approached this challeng…
www.sciencedirect.com

This was horrible, but I'm afraid we havent seen close to rock bottom yet. If post-truth becomes the norm, nothing is out of limits.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Trump’s ambush of South Africa’s president shows how low the US has fallen | Justice Malala
Instead of embarrassing Cyril Ramaphosa, the US president’s ‘gotcha’ moment illuminates the fact-free reality show that is Trump’s America
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Bram Büscher

Koot, S 2025 Book review of Van Beemen, O. Ondernemers in het wild: Het ontluisterende verhaal van een club witte weldoeners in Afrika. J of Political Ecology 32(1). journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/jpe/ @pollenetwork.bsky.social @brambuscher.bsky.social Book is in Dutch German & French
Journal of Political Ecology
journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu

Ha - interesting! fences play a big part of the problems of this world, but the main problems are deeper - curious what you think of this:

Convivial fences? Property, ‘right to wildlife’ and the need for redistributive justice in South African conservation

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com

Reposted by Bram Büscher

New article: Authoritarianism isn’t just chaos—it’s a power reshuffle. Under Bolsonaro, a “new elite” tore down protections, fueling socioecological crises while hiding their own downfall. 🔥🌍 #Brazil #Authoritarianism onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Upsetting the Double Movement? Elite Schisms and Bolsonaro's Brazil in the Context of Global Authoritarian Capitalism
The brazen political antics and mystifying logics accompanying the contemporary rise of authoritarianism have garnered much interest in academic and popular media. A key question is how to make sense...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reposted by Bram Büscher

The UN’s new biodiversity deal aims to protect 30% of Earth by 2030—but does it tackle the root causes of nature’s destruction? Without addressing economic expansion, pollution & systemic issues, conservation alone won’t be enough. #Biodiversity #NatureCrisis theconversation.com/biodiversity...
Biodiversity treaty: UN deal fails to address the root causes of nature’s destruction
Global summits to arrest Earth’s deteriorating health look increasingly farcical.
theconversation.com

Right, one of the biggest 'free' market capitalists believes that 'free-market thinking' is under threat and must become the official opinion of his newspaper

Seems Bezos is hellbent on ensuring his newspaper's creed 'democracy dies in darkness' becomes reality.

www.theguardian.com/media/2025/f...
Washington Post opinion editor departs as Bezos pushes to promote ‘personal liberties and free markets’
Opinion editor leaves as Amazon executive and newspaper owner says ‘viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others’
www.theguardian.com

"Another approach to conservation is needed, one that takes seriously our economic system’s structural pressures, violent socio-ecological realities, cascading extinctions and increasingly authoritarian politics"

We wrote this 5 years ago. Could have been yesterday.

www.jstor.org/stable/26677...
www.jstor.org

AMEN.

Of course not. If you deliberately do not address root causes you will never meet your targets.

theconversation.com/biodiversity...

Convivial conservation goes to the roots of the problem: 1) the capitalist growth economy; 2) the structural alienation of people from the rest of nature

Only by directly targeting these can we move beyond virtue signaling to push for a revolutionary alternative

www.convivialconservation.com
Homepage - Convivial Conservation
www.convivialconservation.com

Surely well intentioned, but typical of what Catherine Liu calls 'virtue hoarding',

"the credentialed elite class that serves capitalism while insisting on its own progressive heroism"

One wonders how this can come from the US given the ongoing politics?

www.upress.umn.edu/978151791225...
Virtue Hoarders
A denunciation of the credentialed elite class that serves capitalism while insisting on its own progressive heroism Professional Managerial Class (PMC) elit...
www.upress.umn.edu

From the paper: "These tools are interlinked with the blue economy and can drive the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and job creation while preserving the health of ocean ecosystems"

In other words: business-as-usual.

Another 'groundbreaking' conservation approach full of nice-sounding virtue-signals (innovation, livelihoods, prosperit, etc) without going to the roots of the problem

Nothing critical about capitalism, authoritarianism or growth.

What we need is an actual CONVIVIAL conservation revolution.
🌊 A new study led by Scripps Oceanography marine biologist @octavioaburto.bsky.social introduces #MarineProsperityAreas — a groundbreaking approach to balancing ocean conservation and community livelihoods. Dive into this innovative framework for marine conservation.
scripps.ucsd.edu/news/marine-...

Reposted by Floriane Clément

This is so frightening - authoritarian fascism in full frontal attack mode. As prof. Pagel emphasises, we must acknowledge we are in a full-blown democratic crisis, call it out for what it is and fight it with every means possible.

@sierra-deutsch.bsky.social @esthermarijnen.bsky.social
🧵"So this is how liberty dies..."

Trump’s first 3 weeks have been a relentless flood of actions. It's incredibly hard to keep up.

I’ve gone through 69 actions & mapped out the pattern - showing how they fall within 5 broad domains consistent with authoritarian states 1/9