Social scientists and indigenous advocates have critiqued conservation organisations for displacing local people in order to create protected areas (PAs). By pointing out that some protected areas, including Yellowstone, the model for the modern concept of national parks, were established by expelling local people, the critique shines a harsh light on conservationists and can undermine the moral arguments for protecting biodiversity. The competing ethical positions of those defending wildlife and wild places and those defending the rights of people living in the same area has led to a tortured, ideological standoff with no obvious solution and little documented positive experience to inform it.
