Abstract

In this presentation, I will reflect on the historical development of British settler colonial activities on the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) and how these interacted with commodity narratives in the British-claimed Antarctic region. Utilising agricultural research, local periodicals, and other archival material, I will narrate the social and environmental impacts of local political uncertainties about landscape management and sovereignty, and its unfolding over a period of time. I will argue that this uncertainty enabled a discourse of pragmatic landscape management. This local emphasis on pragmatism in the Islands conflicted with idealism and international cooperation promoted in British Antarctic political negotiation from the mid-twentieth century. I examine how these contexts interacted to shape stories of environmental research and conservation in the Falkland Islands. Local interest in the Islands’ native environments transitioned post the 1982 conflict from a hobby to a complex component of local identity. Personalities speaking directly to British Antarctic history mediated and influenced this shift, suggesting the importance of taking a regional and relational perspective. To conclude, I offer some observations about the contemporary relationships between environmental conservation practice and local identity.