Portrait with background: today's conservation activists

Who are the activists who serve on the front line of the conservation movement, as in logging blockades? They are drawn from the margins of the economy, not from the university educated professionals who dominate the conservation elite and the Australian Greens Party. Their motives derive from a form of local patriotism involving defence of Australia’s unique natural environment. A significant minority are sceptical of the internationalist human rights agenda of the Green Party. They see their task as saving the natural world from humans, not for humans. Copyright. Monash University and the author/s