Against Wildlife Republics

Global capitalism both caused and accelerated the unprecedented ecological crisis and the resulting global biodiversity loss. The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services reports that the main direct drivers of biodiversity loss are land use and climate change. In Africa particularly, natural habitats are being transformed for commercial farming to produce commodities (i.e. biofuels and grains) for export to the global North. Nonetheless, Africa still supports one quarter of the world’s biodiversity and the largest assemblages of megafauna. As a result, the continent plays a fundamental role in nature conservation.