‘…the Hardest Working People on This Planet…’: Conservation Practitioners' Narratives of Heroism and Indigenous Erasure in the Manu National Park, Perú

ABSTRACT The influence of exclusionary narratives on conservation practice is often concealed by a veneer of scientific objectivity and apoliticism. Nonetheless, conservation practitioners often rely on such narratives to carry out their work, often reproducing wilderness discourses and contributing to their long‐term embeddedness in conservation practice. Understanding the narratives that shape conservation practitioners' work, therefore, can facilitate an understanding of the role these actors have in maintaining or challenging exclusionary conservation approaches. In this article, I critically analyse conservation practitioners' personal narratives to understand if and how their work is still shaped by exclusionary wilderness discourses. Based on the case of the Manu National Park, regarded as the crown gem of Peruvian conservation, and from my experience having worked for conservation organisations in this protected area, I examine archival material and online interviews with conservation practitioners. My analysis shows that conservation practitioners' narratives often emphasise their own heroism and the supposed progress generated by conservation interventions, while erasing Indigenous people or framing them as an environmental threat. Occasional exceptions to these self‐serving narratives bring some hope for change but still fail to question conservation at a fundamental level. This illustrates the need for conservation practitioners to engage in processes of reflexivity where they deliberately seek to de‐centre themselves from their own narratives and acknowledge the valuable role that Indigenous communities continue to have.