Presentation of the book “Im Namen der Tiere: Wie eine NGO große Teile Afrikas beherrscht“ and discussion with Olivier van Beemen (author) and Tahani Nadim (Research Professor, Universitätsallianz Ruhr)
African Parks (AP) is a conservation NGO active in the management of protected areas in thirteen African countries.[1] It is considered a spectacular success story in conservation and has become the darling of philanthropists, celebrities like Prince Harry, Taylor Swift and Leonardo DiCaprio as well as donor agencies (including the EU, KfW and GIZ). The NGO was co-founded by Dutch billionaire Paul van Vlissingen and is currently managing over twenty Protected Areas in Africa, effectively controlling and patrolling an area the size of Britain. While African Parks is claiming to protect nature, it also stands accused of promoting a colonial model of conservation based on violence and military-like domination. Critics call them ‘a state within the state’.
We hear from the award-winning Dutch journalist Olivier van Beemen about his years-long investigation into African Parks, which turned into a thriller about the conservation industry hijacking "nature" from local and Indigenous people.
Afterwards, Olivier van Beemen and Tahani Nadim will discuss the problematic aspects of 'green solutions' with the audience.
Olivier van Beemen is an investigative journalist. His articles have been published in international media such as The Guardian, Le Monde and The Continent. Im Namen der Tiere got rave reviews in Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine and other established German news media.
Tahani Nadim holds the research professorship ‘Curating Digital Objects of Cultural Knowledge and Memory’ at Ruhr University Bochum and the College for Social Sciences and Humanities. She has previously held a junior professorship in social and cultural anthropology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in a joint appointment with the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MfN). Her interdisciplinary research has focused on the politics of data, digitisation and collections, specifically in the context of natural history and biodiversity sciences. Her recent work engages with questions of conservation and preservation, silences in/of memory cultures and the role of archives in human-environment relations.
Organized by Sustainability Office Humboldt-Universität & Survival International
When: April 10, 2025, 6 pm
Where: Jacob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm Center of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Auditorium, Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 1-3, Berlin
Book presentation and discussion in English
[1] Angola, Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, the Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.