‘We are soldiers now’: green militarism and (foreign-assisted) military training in conservation

Militarized conservation is accelerated when insecurity—violent conflict or heavily armed poaching—poses an immediate threat to wildlife and the integrity of protected areas. However, militarization often remains long after acute threats fade. To understand how violent conservation becomes an ingrained state of affairs, this article focuses on the broader geopolitics of green militarism. It explains why rangers continue to be trained for war even without any immediate security threats. Focusing on the case of Uganda, we show how the NRA/M government has extended military logics into nearly all civilian sectors and issues, including conservation. We explore how training curriculums and practices encourage park rangers in Uganda to become ‘like soldiers’ and adopt a warfare mentality. In-depth fieldwork in the Murchison Falls National Park reveals how such training represents occupational violence against the rangers themselves and contributes to their use of lethal violence against park intruders. This training is provided both by the Ugandan army and through partnerships with foreign militaries and private military companies, who use the same curriculum when training soldiers for warfare. Therefore, we argue that militarization is not only prompted by immediate security threats, but by the broader geopolitics of green militarism—reflecting the political interests of authoritarian–military governments and their international backers.