“Colonialism and neo-colonialism are not relevant factors in the scientific debate over trophy hunting.”

First, the foundations of the trophy hunting industry are analyzed, with references to early indigenous ways of knowing, colonial literature, and neocolonial theory. … The very foundation of why trophy hunting is harmful is because it is rooted in neo-colonial practices. … The majority of these issues are rooted in colonial systems, which have evolved into modern neo-colonial behaviours that hinder the trophy hunting industry's success.

Both MBIs contain a strong colonial legacy, often leading to neo-colonial power structures, including contemporary states that are sometimes seen as new colonisers. … Employment created by the hunting industry is often based on neo-colonial and socio-economic power inequalities (e.g. Mkono 2019; Sullivan 2022).

Remaining implicated in the practice of trophy hunting does not befit us as moral, rational beings, and it is time for the conservation community to wake up and face up to the chauvinistic, colonialist, and utilitarian anthropocentric undertones of the practice.

This review is informed by political ecology, which focuses on political, economic and social structures and processes underpinning human practices that lead to environmental problems. … In the context of this study the political ecology perspective is used to support an analysis of the association between historical developments in the form of politics, power and economic events, and the viewpoints taken over wildlife conservation and trophy hunting. … Past political, economic and environmental injustices dating to the colonial period underpin some of the controversies unfolding in the conservation sector.

The dominant pattern was resentment towards what was viewed as the neo-colonial character of trophy hunting, in the way it privileges Western elites in accessing Africa’s wildlife resources. … Interestingly, trophy hunting was not objectionable from an animal rights perspective, but as a consequence of its complex historical and postcolonial associations.

A key discursive tactic here is to neutralize expressed concerns regarding the trophy hunting industry through charges of 'neocolonialism.' … In alignment with the SCI-financed #LetAfricaLive campaign outlined above, and the SCI Strategic Plan for Africa prior to that, any criticism of trophy-hunting today is thus being framed paradoxically as 'neocolonial.'

I argue that the transplantation of European aristocratic traditions of 'The Hunt' and the understanding of nature and society as separate spheres delegitimized pre-colonial modes of nature-use and reinforced a racist hierarchy of societies. … The systematic dispossession of precolonial landholders, their forceful but selective inclusion in the settler economy and the eradication of wildlife for profitable agrobusiness irreversibly degraded the various forms of precolonial economies and consolidated the settler's presence in Laikipia until today.

In the case of natural history objects, the history of collections has been tied to the history of hunting and to questions of empire and environment, making the political dimensions of appropriating “nature” increasingly clear (Gissibl Reference Gissibl2016a; Greer Reference Greer2020; MacKenzie Reference MacKenzie, Mangan and Walvin1987).

In the context of this study the political ecology perspective is used to support an analysis of the association between historical developments in the form of politics, power and economic events, and the viewpoints taken over wildlife conservation and trophy hunting. … Past political, economic and environmental injustices dating to the colonial period underpin some of the controversies unfolding in the conservation sector.

I work with recent political ecology engagements with 'post-truth politics' to unpack SCI-supported advocacy for using accusations of 'neocolonialism' to counter critique of the neocolonial dimensions of trophy-hunting; showing how elite and greened extractivism through recreational access to land and African fauna is thereby consolidated.

I work with recent political ecology engagements with 'post-truth politics' to unpack SCI-supported advocacy for using accusations of 'neocolonialism' to counter critique of the neocolonial dimensions of trophy-hunting; showing how elite and greened extractivism through recreational access to land and African fauna is thereby consolidated.

Trophy hunting has also been described as an ongoing re-enactment of Western colonialist history, wherein the hunting of wildlife is viewed as symbolically representing the conquering and subjugation of “subhuman” indigenous peoples (Batavia et al., Citation2018; see also Kalof & Fitzgerald, Citation2003; Mullin, Citation1999). Thus recent debates have sought to demonstrate that the trophy hunting controversy is not only about whether the practice supports or impedes conservation agendas, but also about the welfare of animals, and its more complex historical associations (Batavia et al., Citation2018; Nelson et al., Citation2016).

The hunting of elephants for ivory, of endemic species for scientific inventories, of large game for the leisurely hunt, and clandestine poaching by South African officials and military, as well as contemporary forms of legalised hunting for trophies and saleable game meat, have continuously connected local pastoral communities, the environment, the state, and external globally operating actors. … It then proceeds to look at ‘subsistence’ hunting, and leisure hunting by colonial officials, and finally deals with modern trophy-hunting in the context of community-based natural resource management.

The myth that sport hunting can be used as a means to raise conservation funds, especially in sub-Saharan Africa has been and continues to be subject of debate around the world.

But the final nail in the coffin for African tradition of conservation and sustainable hunting came with the advent of colonialism when white settlers established protected areas and made hunting a preserve for their visiting kith and kin from the West while promulgating laws that virtually barred indigenous Africans from hunting.

the depletion of Kenya’s wildlife populations was not the result of hunting by locals or increased poaching, but rather the product of intensified hunting by white settlers and licensed sportsmen from the end of the nineteenth century through the 1950s, combined with major changes in land use brought about under colonial rule from the 1920s.

Situating this practice in a Western cultural nar rative of chauvinism, colonialism, and anthropocentrism, we argue trophy hunting is morally inappropriate. … Trophy hunting has also been interpreted as an ongoing rehearsal of Western imperialist history. Mullin (1999) suggests modern trophy hunting reenacts a vainglo rious history of colonization, wherein the hunt of wildlife symbolically represents the conquering and subjugation of “subhuman” indigenous peoples.

Little is documented about the political ecology of conservation and trophy hunting in the pre-colonial period in Africa (Newsham 2002;Murombedzi 2003), hence, the main themes emerging from a review of literature focused on the colonial and post-colonial periods. … The colonial and post-colonial periods had profound effects on the course of the hunting and conservation narrative (Gibson 1999). The effects and impacts associated with these periods were also linked to the politicization and commodification of conservation and natural resources driven by capitalist interests(Murombedzi 2003).

The records of the colonial Game Department provide a key source for the reconstruction of the attempts to control African poaching and regulate European hunting in the interests of the preservation of game and the control of the colonial economy.

Situating this practice in a Western cultural nar rative of chauvinism, colonialism, and anthropocentrism, we argue trophy hunting is morally inappropriate. … We suggest the scientific conservation community needs to begin thinking more critically about trophy hunting, not just in economic and instrumental terms, but also as a symbolic and perhaps ritual reification of a deeply entrenched Western narrative of (predominantly white, male) human supremacy. … Remaining implicated in the practice of trophy hunting does not befit us as moral, rational beings, and it is time for the conservation com munity to wake up and face up to the chauvinistic, colonial ist, and utilitarian anthropocentric undertones of the practice.

Situating this practice in a Western cultural nar rative of chauvinism, colonialism, and anthropocentrism, we argue trophy hunting is morally inappropriate. … Trophy hunting has also been interpreted as an ongoing rehearsal of Western imperialist history. Mullin (1999) suggests modern trophy hunting reenacts a vainglo rious history of colonization, wherein the hunt of wildlife symbolically represents the conquering and subjugation of “subhuman” indigenous peoples.

I interrogate the intersection of colonialism, capitalism, and conservation, which at its nexus are the discourses, policies, and logics that greenwash the production of nature. … This dissertation interrogates the spatiotemporal convergence of colonialism, capitalism, and conservation. … Despite efforts and well-intentioned individuals, the nature of nature conservation in South Africa remains colonial.

This article draws attention to the structural inequalities that characterize the position of Africans within the global symbolic and political economies of African wildlife conservation, and theorizes these inequalities in ways that move beyond the critique of conservation as simply a colonial or neocolonial imposition.

A vibrant and growing body of scholarship has recently begun to target wildlife crime, but has largely omitted the perspective offered by critical examination of the hegemonic neoliberal regime as a driver of wildlife crime. … In this essay we argue that critically evaluating impositions of neoliberal governmentality onto wildlife conservation (neoliberal colonialism) confers two novel perspectives on wildlife criminology, its attendant fields of interest, and to wildlife conservation practitioners.

Trophy hunters, hunting operators and some conservation scientists cast the practice as positive for the conservation of habitats, populations and species (for example, Lindsey et al. 2006: 284; Dickman et al. 2019; Clark et al. 2023), and thus as embodying a form of 'green' praxis––suggesting that critique of trophy hunting must exhibit "neocolonialism" (Section 3) (cf. Bichel & Hart 2023: 251). I will argue instead that trophy hunting meets definitions of both neocolonialism and 'extractivism.'

Overall, the study highlights the harms of trophy hunting through a lens of racial tension, colonialism, and economic imbalances.

This colonial legacy of managing wildlife reinforces existing global inequities in which the biodiversity of the Global South is commodified for leisure purposes and consumption by the Global North.

While highlighting historical drivers of GPN articulation, we advance the GPN framework by integrating a practice-based perspective on value making. … The historical perspective, however, reveals that former elites are able to take advantage of these newly emerging opportunities and maintain a powerful position in the GPN until today.

This article traces how wilderness, wildlife, and livelihood discourses are deployed in tandem by states, imperialist institutions, researchers, and foreign capital to subjugate African economies to new logics of accumulation from above and below in the neocolonial stage.

Curiously he does not acknowledge the systematic attempts by SCI and associates to disqualify and close down voices expressing legitimate concern about the neocolonial character of the trophy hunting industry. … Interconnected lobbying for SCI/NRA-aligned memes such as ‘trophy hunting = sustainable use = conservation’ and ‘critique of hunting = neocolonialism’ is likely to go up a gear in the near future. … Applying the term ‘neocolonial’ to critics of the neocolonial character of trophy hunting masks both the frequently neocolonial character of trophy-hunting businesses, and the land grabbing central to trophy hunting expansion.

At this point, we should highlight the intrinsic causal link between the conservation movement, tourism and trophy hunting in Africa. All are vestiges of colonialist endeavours. … Those conservationists from the Global North jumping to trophy hunting’s defence profess support for African communities. If that is indeed the case, then (at the very least) acknowledging the raw white supremacy forming the bedrock of the industry in countries like Namibia, should assume a pivotal position in any related discussions.