The “European Yellowstone”: Entrepreneurs of the Wilderness and Transnational Elites in the Romanian Carpathians

Abstract

Carpathia—dubbed the “European Yellowstone”—is a private nature conservation project in Romania. Its establishment activates a critical linkage between entrepreneurs of the wilderness and transnational conservation elites. We indicate the contribution of entrepreneurialism to the expansion and adaptation of neoliberal conservation and reveal how biographical contingencies are involved in the making of conservation projects. At the same time, the focus on transnationalism reveals how local projects are designed, scaled-up, and connected to global neoliberal conservation networks. Carpathia reveals the adaptability of neoliberal conservation and its expansion into the Eastern European peripheries through transnational elites. Its establishment illustrates how private conservation projects become essential sites for securing privileged access to nature in times of global ecological crises and uncovers the varieties of the global geographies of capitalist conservation.