Law enforcement technologies and the government of conservation from international conferences to Indonesian protected areas

Places dedicated to the protection of wildlife have not escaped the spread of monitoring and surveillance technologies. Systems enabling the collection and analysis of data to support the enforcement of conservation regulations have become commonplace in protected areas over the last ten years. Yet the influence these technologies have on the processes of government of protected areas and vice versa have been relatively little analysed and documented. This thesis explores these relationships.

I adopted a qualitative multi-sited approach to follow conservation technologies from the non-governmental organisations and international conferences where they are designed and promoted to some of the protected areas and conservation organisations where they are used in North and Eastern Sumatra, Indonesia.

This research highlights three important dimensions of the relationship between surveillance technologies and the government of protected areas. Firstly, I analyse the relationships between international non-governmental organisations, donors and states which structure the mainstream conservation sector and the government of protected areas. I argue that these relationships shape the choice of hardware and software deployed for conservation in biodiversity-rich regions. Secondly, I found that, through the tasks associated with their use and the enhanced staff oversight they enable, surveillance technologies affect the work of field conservation staff. Thirdly, I focus how what goes on in protected areas is framed and documented through surveillance technologies. I show that this knowledge feeds into both technocratic and policing-inspired approaches to protected areas management. Finally, I suggest that some of the ways in which these systems are currently used present under-acknowledged risks for in-situ conservation of endangered wildlife.