Agency and Structure in Militarized Conservation and Armed Mobilization: Evidence from Eastern DRC's Kahuzi‐Biega National Park

ABSTRACT Ongoing debates in conservation studies stress the dire consequences of ‘fortress’ and ‘militarized’ at violent frontiers. Presenting evidence from Kahuzi‐Biega National Park war‐torn eastern Democratic Republic Congo (DRC), this article shows how park has become a focal point for armed insurgent groups region. Although fortress contributed to one major incident resistance recent years, it plays only marginal role defining structures shaping actions groups. These — some which are reproduced (occasionally) reshaped by include legacies poverty insecurity, geographical features presence illicit trading networks. This perspective emerges when we zoom out place within context history broader political economy DRC. On hand, these dynamics severely constrain agency organizations, leaving militarized as feasible form enforcement. approach times generates outcomes certain people produces resource‐rich, isolated terrain provides staging ground conflicts play out. other could provide basic law order forest's edge. Ultimately, therefore, an ambivalent vis‐à‐vis security stability.