Wildlife in human spaces: bringing naturalization and landscape-scale conservation into the sustainable organization

Human life is an integral part of nature and, at the same time, a powerful force for organising nature. Indeed, at the heart of nature conservation is a basic tension over whether particular landscapes and seascapes can/should be organised principally to benefit the economic interests of human life or the ecological interests of wildlife. Proponents of landscape-scale conservation try to ease this tension by making economically productive land less hostile to wildlife. This idea has spawned industry-led initiatives using ideas from landscape-scale conservation to enhance sustainability credentials. In this chapter, I will examine one such initiative: a sustainability certification scheme purportedly aimed at better supporting wildlife on golf courses through “naturalization”. My analysis highlights how this involves territorializing the landscape into spaces managed for economic and ecological purposes respectively, with implications for our understanding of human-wildlife relations in a world where humanity strives to live in harmony with nature.