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Commodifying the Wild

As climate change, the loss of biodiversity, the irreversible destruction of nature, and the associated feared and imminent planetary dangers have increased the interest in ‘natural’ products sharply, the ‘green’ consumption in the Global North has paradoxically intensified the pressure on wild flora and fauna, significantly affecting the environments and local livelihoods of many people in various manners.

At the same time, production processes and supply chains are becoming increasingly complex and opaque as the industry oscillates between standardization through mass production and singularization through rare ‘exotic’ resources. Therefore, the two projects of the consortium aim to investigate the commodification of the ‘wild’ in depth, using the example of ornamental fish on the one hand and wild plants on the other.

The Political Ecology of Wild Resources

Through its multi-sited and multidisciplinary approach, the consortium contributes to a better understanding of the trans-regional ecological, social, and political dimensions of the commodification of natural “wild” resources and thus helps to improve our comprehension of human-wilderness relations in general. It combines perspectives from political ecology, anthropology, geography, and environmental science to gain a comprehensive insight into the complexity of commodification and human processes in the realm and ontology of ‘wilderness’.

Furthermore, it provides insights into the difficulties of neoliberal conservation strategies in the Anthropocene. With an approach that includes phenomenological and sensory aspects of perceiving more-than-human worlds, the consortium takes new paths towards an updated Political Ecology.