Replanting a Forest in Post-Colonial Society: Ordinary and Participatory Conservations at Reunion Island

Abstract

During an ethnographic study, we studied a project of sustainable and participatory development initiated by members of the National Park of La Reunion. This project involves the creation of Nurseries of Indigenous Species (PEIRun). Seek to understand the development and implementation of this project reveals firstly the empowerment strategies of the stakeholders - professional or ordinary - involved in this project and also how each way of nature conservation meets and rises up against what is perceived as an hegemonic form of biodiversity conservation. The project lies in an island - Reunion, whose specificity lies in a postcolonial context that promotes relations of domination between stakeholders. After explaining how the postcolonial reading grid leads to understand the feelings of injustice of the stakeholders, we will analyze to what extent these environmental justices would reconcile. We will see that participation becomes an issue of environmental justice at the local level. As we interested in empowerment strategies of the stakeholders involved in the project, we will explore how the project managers are seeking to redress the injustices they perceive in their professional practices and how the population meets or does not meet this aim with their own expectations.