stephen Corry: 'Pristine Wildernesses and Other Myths Peddled by the BBC' Archived Message Posted by Ian M on March 1, 2019, 11:51 am Interesting article and expose from the director of Survival International. Shocking that people are getting shot in India for being in the wrong place at the wrong time (and the wrong skin colour obvs) around tiger reserves https://www.theelephant.info/culture/2019/02/15/an-inconvenient-truth-pristine-wildernesses-and-other-myths-peddled-by-the-bbc/ A few snippets but the whole thing is worth a read: 'BBC Natural History has just announced a new series, “One Planet, Seven Worlds”, fronted by veteran broadcaster David Attenborough, to tell “the fundamental truth about what makes each [continent] unique.” I’d be astonished if it covered one of the most important aspects of the “fundamental truth”, which is the way local people have enhanced biodiversity and shaped “nature” since time immemorial, and what happened and is still happening to those people who have largely escaped being subsumed into the mainstream by colonialism and industrialisation. (These minorities are now labelled as ethnic, indigenous or tribal, depending on the regional context.) [...] the BBC Natural History Unit has also presented a single, unshakable view of wildlife and conservation. No one doubts that it works magnificently; it’s the corporation’s biggest money earner. It formed and still shapes the public’s view of what conservation actually means in distant continents. This specialised BBC unit shows us a pristine wilderness full of photogenic beasts whose existence, we are told (usually by the same David Attenborough), is endangered by loss of habitat, human overpopulation, and of course “poaching” – such threats apparently emanating from Africans or Asians. The same narrative is also peddled by the big conservation organisations, which thrive in financial symbiosis with the BBC’s orthodoxy as the corporation makes money from its programmes and as donations from the viewing public flow to the NGOs. Each presents the complex question of conservation in exactly the same way, and each proposes the same, simple – and entirely wrong – solution. It is“fortress conservation” with more and more “brave guards” and increasing military force and weaponry to defend the animals against the human killers (who are never white). To anyone who knows the other sides of conservation, the bias is obvious, but the BBC unit’s ideology is relentless and impacts the wider BBC as a whole.' cheers, I Message Thread: stephen Corry: 'Pristine Wildernesses and Other Myths Peddled by the BBC' - Ian M March 1, 2019, 11:51 am Re: stephen Corry: 'Pristine Wildernesses and Other Myths Peddled by the BBC' - margo March 1, 2019, 12:43 pm Re: stephen Corry: 'Pristine Wildernesses and Other Myths Peddled by the BBC' - Ian M March 1, 2019, 10:34 pm Re: stephen Corry: 'Pristine Wildernesses and Other Myths Peddled by the BBC' - dereklane March 2, 2019, 8:40 am Ditto that, completely, Derek. NOM - Rhisiart Gwilym March 2, 2019, 8:51 am Re: Ditto that, completely, Derek. NOM - Ian M March 4, 2019, 3:08 pm WWF conservation project threatening Baka people in the Congo rainforest - Ian M March 4, 2019, 3:16 pm   Searching