Unruly landscapes: politics of biodiversity, energy and livelihoods in India

Global concerns on climate change mitigation and reduction in emissions are influencing sustainable projects worldwide. The global discourse on sustainability is manifested locally in various forms that re-arrange human-environment relationships. Such ‘green geographies’ are inevitably rooted in territoriality and are operationalized through controlling access to natural resources. The re-working of the spatial arrangements demarcating control over access to natural resources can pose a threat to local livelihoods that depend on nature. For projects located next to areas of conservation concern, it necessitates a political process of prioritization between conservation, development and livelihoods. In this dissertation, I focus on the re-working of these green geographies. I examine cases of local opposition against renewable power projects that are located in or around areas of prime conservation. The case sites are located in the Western Ghats and near the Great Himalayan National Park in India. I argue that these green geographies are inherently dynamic and democracy provides the context within which these landscapes are contested and re-defined. Further, I argue that the introduction of renewable energy projects in pre-territorialized landscapes reorients spatial arrangements, resulting in a re-territorialization of these geographies. Further, I position this re-territorialization as an outcome of intense political wrangling that traverses multiple scales and is influenced by the larger politics of environment and development at higher scales. This study contributes to an understanding of how low-carbon geographies are operationalized

Contesting renewable energy in the global south: A case-study of local opposition to a wind power project in the Western Ghats of India

Influenced by global concerns around climate change mitigation, reduction in carbon emissions and energy security, countries are increasingly focussing on increasing the share of renewable energy. Various national and provincial level authorities are aggressively promoting renewable energy expansion, resulting in new geographies of renewable energy. The expansion of renewable energy, particularly large-scale projects, is contingent upon access to natural resources. However, areas that have high natural resource endowment for renewable energy, often have other overlapping uses of natural resources, including livelihoods and biodiversity. And renewable energy projects located in these areas compete with these other multiple uses of natural resources, often leading to unintended consequences. This study employs ethnographic methods to analyse the case of local opposition to a 113 MW wind power project, located in the Western Ghats of India. India, an emerging economy, is the fourth largest producer of wind energy worldwide and is expanding the share of renewable energy through national as well as provincial level policies. The Western Ghats are a designated UNESCO world heritage site for their exceptional biodiversity and the wind power project conflicted with natural resource-based livelihoods of indigenous populations and threatened their subsistence agricultural practices along with posing a threat to the ecology of the landscape. As a result, local activists protested against the wind power project and this contestation was animated and influenced by a variety of public, civic and private actors and institutions across scale. This paper uses insights from political ecology and energy geography to shed light on the interaction between these multiple actors and how this interaction mediated the contestations around renewable energy. It focuses on the micropolitics of this contestation to highlight the social and political processes that underpin the transition to sustainable energy. It sheds light on local struggles and contestations around renewable energy projects in conjunction with national and global commitments and shows how contestations around renewable energy in the Global South are distinct from the largely prevalent NIMBY approaches in the developed countries. This study contributes to global debates around governing renewable energy, particularly in developing countries

Social safeguards and co-benefits in REDD+:A review of the adjacent possible

We provide a synthesis of recent scholarship on social safeguards and co-benefits in REDD+ with a focus on debates on: first, tenure security, and second, effective participation of local communities. Scholars have explored both proximate and long-term co-benefits of REDD+ interventions, with an emerging trend that links safeguards to improved social co-benefits. Proximate co-benefits include improved rural livelihoods and lower costs of implementation. Long-term co-benefits include greater adaptive capacity of local communities and increasing transparency and accountability in forest governance. Our review suggests that greater tenure security and effective participation of local communities in management will not only prevent adverse social outcomes, but will also enable better forest outcomes and improved capacity for forest governance.</p

Social safeguards and co-benefits in REDD+: a review of the adjacent possible

We provide a synthesis of recent scholarship on social safeguards and co-benefits in REDD+ with a focus on debates on: first, tenure security, and second, effective participation of local communities. Scholars have explored both proximate and long-term co-benefits of REDD+ interventions, with an emerging trend that links safeguards to improved social co-benefits. Proximate co-benefits include improved rural livelihoods and lower costs of implementation. Long-term co-benefits include greater adaptive capacity of local communities and increasing transparency and accountability in forest governance. Our review suggests that greater tenure security and effective participation of local communities in management will not only prevent adverse social outcomes, but will also enable better forest outcomes and improved capacity for forest governance.</p