Huggan, G (2022) From the Serengeti to the Bavarian Forest, and back again: Bernhard Grzimek, celebrity conservation, and the transnational politics of national parks. Ecozon@, 13 (2). pp. 109-118. ISSN 2171-9594
Abstract
This short piece focuses on the work of the German “celebrity conservationist,” Bernhard Grzimek, situating it in the context of historical and contemporary debates about the political and ecological importance of national parks. Grzimek’s role in the creation of Bavarian Forest National Park may not be as well-known as his public ministrations on behalf of the wild animals of the Serengeti, but in several ways his work in and for these two national parks, engaging with the fraught politics of the period, was intertwined. The essay looks at some of these overlaps, using them to make the case for national parks as complex geopolitical formations in which human and animal interests alternately collide and converge. The essay also makes the case for national parks as multi-scalar entities that need to be understood – politically and ecologically – in both local and global, both national and transnational terms. Finally, the essay cites the multiple roles of Grzimek to re-examine the ambivalent role of the celebrity conservationist as a media spokesperson and publicity-conscious advocate for the world’s wildlife.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Ecozon@ 2022. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Grzimek, conservation, celebrity, transnationalism, National Parks |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of English (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number AHRC (Arts & Humanities Research Council) AH/T013621/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 07 Apr 2022 11:43 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 22:56 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | University of Alcalá |
Identification Number: | 10.37536/ECOZONA.2022.13.2.4525 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:185136 |