Seminar: "Time to Let it Go? Rethinking Conservation without Violence", by Bilal Butt

We are pleased to announce that Professor Bilal Butt from the University of Michigan will be visiting ICTA-UAB to give a talk. His core research sits at the intersection of environmental justice and political ecology. 

Title: "Time to Let it Go? Rethinking Conservation without Violence"

Speaker: Bilal Butt, University of Michigan.

• Date: Thursday, November 6th 2025
• Time: 11am
• Venue: Sala Montseny (Z/022 and Z/023) ICTA-UAB
   

Around the world, various forms of environmental governance are being deployed to counter the sixth mass extinction of species. National parks have been a staple of conservation approaches. Still, the social costs of conservation have been high, from human rights abuses to displacement and eviction of people who ancestrally occupied these landscapes. Today, national parks are often managed in ways that do not adequately consider the spatiality of indigenous livelihood practices. In this talk, I use a case study from Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve, one of the world's most biodiverse regions, to interrogate a core principle of conservation: the competition between wildlife and livestock for resources. I first trace the origins of conservation in Kenya. I then detail how place-based and long-term research, utilizing statistical, modeling, and qualitative methods, can unveil new ways of understanding human-environment interactions. I argue that it's time to revert our approach to conservation in ways that reflect indigenous and traditional practices of environmental sustainability. I conclude by offering an abolitionist future for people and parks.

Bilal Butt is a Professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability and the Department of AfroAmerican and African Affairs at the University of Michigan. His core research sits at the intersection of environmental justice and political ecology. His work is concerned with environmental and social change under uncertainty in East African drylands. He examines how socio-environmental life and the volatility of climate change have led to transformations in political institutions, sociotechnical knowledge, and material environments. Dr. Butt received the US National Science Foundation’s Career Award and is the recipient of the Superior Teaching Award from the University of Michigan. He has published in diverse journals, including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Remote Sensing of Environment, Journal of Applied Ecology, and Humanity. He teaches courses on Conservation Justice, Environmental Data Justice, Political Ecology, and Environmental Violence Conflict.