Green grabbing debate and Madagascar: did we learn anything?

Green grabbing is a scholarly critique of conservation efforts. Scholars of green grabbing argue that many conservation strategies - such as the designation of protected areas and the creation of market-based conservation mechanisms - are designed with the intent to dispossess local peoples and capitalise natural assets. First, to provide some context on the green grabbing debate, we discuss the trade-offs between conservation and development objectives. In addition, we refer briefly to the broader land grabbing debate of which green grabbing is a sub-component. Second, we question the theoretical foundations of green grabbing, the concepts of primitive accumulation and commodification of nature. Third, we compare data collected by the green grabbing scholars and conservation NGOs from the very same site in Madagascar. We conclude that rigorous post-intervention stakeholder analysis, rather than pre-intervention analysis, is needed to effectively evaluate conservation outcomes, and that research on conservation strategies should pay attention to the role of the state, and the heterogeneity of local communities.