When reading anthropological writings on global nature conservation, one may wonder: Where are the conservationists? Anthropologists have written nuanced ethnographies of how native people encounter and are dispossessed by transnational environmental NGOs and conservation policies. Yet, anthropologists have neglected the other side of those worldwide encounters: the conservation practitioners. Instead, conservationists are sometimes misrepresented as homogenous, impersonal and voiceless. This is surprising, considering anthropologists’ increasing interest in cultures of expertise, including that of professionals in international development. This paper contributes to building the anthropology of professionals in global biodiversity conservation. It locates and reviews disparate material on conservationists from across the ethnographic literature. It argues for attending to the perspectives and diversity of conservation professionals and institutions, their transnational social worlds, naturalist worldviews and emotional lives. A section discusses the key contradictory positionality of the Global South’s local-national professionals. Lastly, the paper reflects on practical challenges to fieldwork in ‘Conservationland’.

中文翻译：

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Conservationland：走向全球自然保护专业人士的人类学

在阅读有关全球自然保护的人类学著作时，人们可能会想：保护主义者在哪里？人类学家撰写了关于土著人如何遭遇跨国环境非政府组织和保护政策并被剥夺的细致入微的民族志。然而，人类学家忽略了这些世界性遭遇的另一面：保护从业者。相反，环保主义者有时被误认为是同质的、没有人情味的和没有发言权的。考虑到人类学家对专业文化，包括国际发展专业人士的文化越来越感兴趣，这令人惊讶。本文有助于建立全球生物多样性保护专业人员的人类学。它从人种学文献中查找和审查关于保护主义者的不同材料。它主张关注保护专业人士和机构的观点和多样性、他们的跨国社会世界、自然主义世界观和情感生活。一节讨论了全球南方的地方-国家专业人员的主要矛盾定位。最后，本文反思了“保护区”实地工作面临的实际挑战。