Justice as recognition and the conservation of biodiversity

Justice concerns are at the core of struggles and conflicts related to conservation. Contemporary academic framings of environmental justice tend to use a tripartite typology of concerns: distribution, procedure and recognition. While distributive and participatory justice dimensions are increasingly incorporated in conservation practice, recognition is currently under-addressed. The paper explores four traditions of thinking about recognition: Hegelian inter-subjectivity, critical theory, southern decolonial theory, and the capabilities approach. Through three case studies in the Global North and South, it highlights how these different theoretical perspectives are illustrated in the claims and practices of real world conservation struggles.