Bervoets presenting on Blue Carbon Structures at the Green Growth Conference in Trinidad in January 2025.
PHILIPSBURG--The paper “Conservation Colonialism and the Persistence of Fortress Management in the Dutch and French Caribbean” by Tadzio Bervoets will be a key highlight of the 50th Annual Conference of the Caribbean Studies Association (CSA), taking place June 1-5, in Kingston, Jamaica.
The study examines how external governance structures, metropolitan policy frameworks, and donor-driven conservation models continue to shape environmental management in the Dutch and French Caribbean, often sidelining local knowledge and limiting community participation.
Bervoets argues that conservation governance in these territories remains dominated by top-down systems and “fortress” approaches that constrain Caribbean-led institutional development.
The research advocates for stronger institutional autonomy, localised leadership, community co-management, and greater recognition of Indigenous, Afro-Caribbean, and other local ecological knowledge within conservation policy and practice.
The CSA conference, widely regarded as the premier forum for Caribbean scholarship, brings together academics, practitioners, policymakers, artists, and writers from across the region and its diasporas. This year’s milestone gathering will be held under the theme “Caribbean Vibes and Vibrations: Culture, Identity and Development in Transformative Times.”
Bervoets brings more than 18 years of experience in marine conservation, climate governance, and environmental policy across Small Island Developing States and the wider Caribbean. He currently chairs the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO IOC) Ocean Decade Task Force for Latin America and actively participates in the Coral Restoration Consortium.
He has also held leadership roles as project leader at the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund and as director of the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance, guiding initiatives in coral reef protection, shark conservation, marine protected areas, and community engagement.
His academic credentials include a Master of Science, cum laude, in Environmental Resource Management from VU University Amsterdam, with a focus on coral reef and littoral ecosystem management, and a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, in International Studies from University of South Florida, with minors in Latin America and Caribbean Studies.
Bervoets has contributed extensively to regional and international discourse on Caribbean marine ecosystems, including peer-reviewed research on seagrass carbon dynamics, elasmobranch conservation, coral reef biodiversity, and large marine protected areas.
His upcoming CSA presentation will bring questions of power, institutional control, and representation to the forefront of Caribbean conservation debates. Amid growing climate pressures and biodiversity loss, his work emphasises the need for locally grounded, socially legitimate, and Caribbean-led conservation strategies.
The presentation is expected to spark discussion on rebalancing governance, community involvement, and local knowledge to create more effective and inclusive conservation practices throughout the Dutch and French Caribbean.
