From edenic island to endemic park: A historical political ecology of environmental degradation narratives on Réunion (West Indian Ocean)

Abstract

Exploring the premise that environmental injustices date back centuries, this article provides an overview of the long trajectory of degradation narratives on Réunion, from the earliest colonial concerns in the late seventeenth century to the contemporary National Park. Through a historical political ecology approach, we identify distinct phases where degradation narratives became prominent, and sometimes entered into conflict, in the environmental history of this French overseas territory, which was a French colony until 1946. Although degradation narratives have shifted significantly over time, they have also gradually converged to a condemnation of the uplands' inhabitants. So far, this move has reproduced socio-spatial inequalities between the uplands region, dedicated to environmental policies, and the lowlands region, dedicated to a plantation economy. Such an account suggests that environmental inequalities may be constituted through a process of continuous change that involves negotiations and often conflicts among multiple dominant stakeholders. Thus, contemporary conservation regimes should not only improve their governance mode, but need to start by doing justice to conservation’ history, especially dynamics of misrecognition with colonial roots.