The Dictionary of Human Geography

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the Overfishing Convention agreed in London

in 1946, and the International Whaling

Commission established in Washington in

1946. Neither these, nor their successors,
      achieved the sustained exploitation of any sig-
      nificant open-water stock of fish or marine
      mammals. The boom–crash cycle of sealing
      in the nineteenth century, and of the herring
      fishery in the North Sea, ocean whaling and
      Atlantic cod fishing in the twentieth century,
      provide ample evidence of both the desirability
      of conservation and the political and economic
      difficulty of making conservation strategies
      work (Cushing, 1988).
      The language of fisheries science suggests
      the considerable influence of economics:
      stocks were renewed or depleted, and calcula-
      tions included estimates of catch per unit
      effort. In turn, economics reflected evolving
      understanding of the dynamics of resources,
      particularly in the distinction between
      renewable (flow) and non-renewable (stock)
      resources (Ciriacy-Wantrup, 1952). Such
      ideas have been widely applied; for example,
      in soil erosion andforestry. The US Dust
      Bowl stimulated concern about the manage-
      ment of soil resources in a way that could
      sustain production around the world; for
      example, in tropical Africa, where it provided
      the legitimization for widespread and unpopu-
      lar compulsory terracing (Beinart and Coates,
      1995). The concept of sustained yield forestry
      is long established, although its application to
      old-growth temperate forests (where ‘tree
      farming’ is regarded as environmentally highly
      destructive), and the failure to apply its prin-
      ciples to tropicalregionsforests remain highly
      controversial.
      At the end of the nineteenth century, the
      extinction of species such as the quagga (a
      barely striped plains zebra from the African
      Cape) and the North American passenger
      pigeon, and the near-extinction of others such
      as the American bison, became the rallying
      points for a species conservation movement
      in the USA, Europe and the colonial world
      (Sheail, 1976; Adams, 2004). This movement
      drew in particular onzoos(notably the New
      York Zoological Society, founded in 1895),
      and on the support of hunters turned conser-
      vationists; for example, in the Society for the
      Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire
      (founded in London in 1903). It campaigned
      for the establishment of game reserves, nature
      reserves and eventually national parks,
      and on the establishment of national legisla-
      tion for protected species (e.g. designating
      closed hunting seasons and protected species),

and for international treaties for conserv-

ation; for example, the 1918 Anglo-American

Convention for the Protection of Migratory

Birds and the 1973 Convention on Trade in

Endangered Species (CITES).

Wildlife conservation expanded rapidly after

the Second World War, with the establishment

of organizations such as the Conservation

Foundation (1948) and the Nature

Conservancy (1951) in the USA, and the

IUCN – the World Conservation Union

(1956) – and the Worldwide Fund for Nature

(1961). The membership, capacity and num-

ber of conservation organizations grew with

the widerenvironmental movement, devel-

oping from a series of small patrician interest

groups in a few industrialized countries into a

global movement.

By the 1990s, the power and sophistication

of conservation had grown, with the establish-

ment of new and strongly corporate organiza-

tions, such as Conservation International

(Brosius, 1999). The development of conser-

vation biology as a science lent growing confi-

dence to conservation planning; for example,

in the definition ofbiodiversity‘hotspots’

and protected area selection. The social

impacts of conservation came under increas-

ingly close scrutiny (Brechin, Wilhusen,

Fortwangler and West, 2003; Neumann,

2004a). However, the erosion of living diversity

through the operation of globalcapitalismand

patterns ofconsumptioncontinued unchecked

(Jenkins, 2003). The factors that created con-

servation in the nineteenth century remain

strong. wma

consumption Conventionally, the act of

purchasing and usingcommodities, although

some commentators insist that the term

should also refer to their transformation,

resale and exchange (Gregson and Crewe,

2003). Althougheconomic geographyhas

traditionally focused on spaces ofproduc-

tion, there has been a significant rise of interest

in consumption since the 1980s, accompanied

by increased dialogue between economic and

social geography. One reason for this is the

putative shift to apost-industrial society,

where retailing,leisureandtourismare

widely identified as major engines of growth

(in thewest, at least). Another is the theorized

importance of consumerism as a locus for

identity: in the consumer society, what we

buy has seemingly become more important in

defining our sense of self than what we pro-

duce. Finally, the rise of interest in consump-

tion appears to be related to important trends

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_C Final Proof page 108 31.3.2009 9:45pm

CONSUMPTION