Linking Neoprotectionism and Environmental Governance: On the Rapidly Increasing Tensions between Actors in the Environment-Development Nexus

There are rapidly increasing tensions between actors engaged in the governance of environment and natural resources in Africa. This becomes clear when reviewing current trends in the conservation-development debate and combining these insights with trends in environmental governance, most especially the commodification of 'nature' under pressures of neoliberalism. Our argument starts by showing how the conservation-development debate has become polarised due to increasing criticism of community-based approaches to nature conservation and how these unfold in terms of value and scale. We argue that the strong sense of urgency involved in this neoprotectionist turn amongst conservation practitioners has been reciprocated by an equally strong reply from community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) advocates, thereby further straining the choices that must be made with respect to conservation practice. Through a discussion of the current neoliberal turn in environmental governance, we suggest that the potential of actors to promote divergent and ambiguous values in policy and practice across scale has increased over the past decade and will continue to do so. This, in turn, may lead to environmental governance that favours the 'sustained' polarisation of actors' priorities in research and policy concerning conservation-development. We provide evidence for our case with empirical data from research done on the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTP) in Southern Africa

Geographies of the Sea: Negotiating Human–Fish Interactions in the Waterscapes of Colombia’s Pacific Coast

The realities of many coastal dwellers have been shaped by their interactions with fish and water along the world’s waterscapes. However, human and cultural geographers have largely overlooked how waterscapes influence coastal people’s behaviors and social interactions. Studies of geographies of the sea have acknowledged the importance of human–nonhuman interactions in the context of fluid ocean spaces and political economies. Critically engaging capitalist, industrialized perspectives of oceans, our article contributes to this literature to study how Afro-descendant small-scale fishers in the Gulf of Tribugá respond to intensifying neoliberal fishing regimes in Colombia’s Pacific coast. We do so by examining how fishers negotiate diverse representations of fish and how these influence their behaviors and practices over time and space. We bring the sea to the center of inquiry to investigate how the sociomaterial character of fish intersects with political, economic, and cultural forces and how they influence perceptions, access, and use of oceans. We argue that the scarcity induced by industrial fisheries overexploitation has changed people’s access to and control over fish and enabled biodiversity conservation discourses to marketize and transform fishing practices. This process has added value to fish through the creation of marine protected areas and the rebranding of fish in terms of traceability and “valued-added” sustainability. In this context, however, we highlight how fishers and their practices have endured through situated institutional practices despite being wrapped up in the complex power dynamics that have marginalized Afro-descendant people in Colombia since colonial times. Key Words: assemblage, Colombia, geographies of the sea, institutions, neoliberalism

La creación entera gime y sufre dolores de parto. Reflexiones alrededor de Romanos 8,22s

Le da lo mismo un pedazo de tierra que el otro porque él es un extrañoque llega en la noche a sacar de la tierra lo que necesita. La tierra no essu hermano sino su enemigo. Cuando la ha conquistado la abandona ysigue su camino. Deja detrás de él las sepulturas de sus padres sin quele importe. Despoja de la tierra a sus hijos sin que le importe. Olvidala sepultura de su padre y los derechos de sus hijos. Trata a su madre,la Tierra, y a su hermano, el Cielo, como si fuesen cosas que se puedencomprar, saquear y vender, como si fuesen corderos y cuentas de vidrio.Su insaciable apetito devorará la tierra y dejará tras sí sólo un desierto.”SeattleAunque en “LAUDATO SI” el Papa Francisco define el mundo como “Lacasa común”, la mayoría de la gente se comporta como miopes. No ve más allá de lo cotidiano. Aunque a través de los medios le llegan noticias de todo el mundo, no le afecta. ¿Seremos capaces de convertirnos para salvar nuestra casa

From pro-growth and planetary limits to degrowth and decoloniality: An emerging bioeconomy policy and research agenda

In 2012, the European Commission (EC) introduced the new bio-based economy or bioeconomy policy project, since adopted by about 50 countries. Alongside politicians, various research and other interest groups have promoted the bioeconomy as inevitable, apolitical, and a triple-win strategy for nature, people, and the economy. Recently, bioeconomy is also actively promoted and framed as transformative. Yet what is transformative or even new in the EU bioeconomy policy, and why is it important to critically engage with the concept of bioeconomy, especially but not only in the so-called Global South? To address these questions, we revisit the discursive field of the bioeconomy, outlining two dominant yet opposed visions that focus on economic growth and planetary limits respectively. We term them ‘pro-economic growth’ and ‘pro-planetary limits’ bioeconomy visions. Drawing on the literature and our own empirical research in market-based, ‘green’, ‘climate friendly’, and ‘bio-based’ economy policy approaches and initiatives, we highlight the EU bioeconomy's embeddedness in colonial and neocolonial logics of domination and green extractivism. While our examples are drawn from the Global South they connect and resonate with the wider European bioeconomy project. We argue that the existing EU bioeconomy visions are poorly suited to address multidimensional and intertwined existential and civilisational challenges, including overconsumption, extractivism, and global socioecological inequalities and injustices. Employing the decolonial environmental justice, feminist political ecology and degrowth literature we outline the missing narratives, ideas and logics and their potentials for fundamental and systemic change in and beyond the bioeconomy project. Finally, we highlight gaps in policy and research that warrant further attention, including: self-reflexivity in identifying policy problems and solutions; historical contextualisation of the EU's role in global environmental governance; silencing and (mis)representation; and reprioritisation of multiple existences and life-supporting practices, together with the relevant epistemologies and ontologies that support them.Peer reviewe

Commodity conservation. The restructuring of community conservation

a b s t r a c t The world over, neoliberal modes of conservation are hybridising with, or even replacing, other forms of conservation. Under the banner of 'win-win' policies, planners actively work to commoditize natural resources and the social relations that determine the use and conservation of these resources. While these general processes seem to hold sway globally, it is crucial not to lose sight of the context specific ways in which neo-liberalism influences conservation practice and local outcomes. The paper examines how neo-liberalism's global pervasiveness becomes manifest across different levels and scales in South Africa and the Philippines. The conclusion suggests that as a result of these neoliberal pressures, emphasis is shifting from local constructions of 'nature' by communities to what the environment should mean for communities in terms of commodified resources and growing capitalist markets

Silences in the midst of the boom: coal seam gas, neoliberalizing discourse, and the future of regional Australia

In high-stakes resource use struggles currently playing out across the world, different beliefs about economics and "growth-first" regional development underpin decisions and dynamics that have far-reaching consequences. Neoliberalizing political economies rely on the maintenance of particular beliefs associated with these themes, and work to delegitimize and silence alternatives. Thus understanding the beliefs of actors concerning these themes, especially with respect to neoliberal ideas, is key to understanding these socio-political struggles. This article uses a combination of literature review, critical discourse analysis and selected fieldwork data to explore the recent debate about coal seam gas (CSG) in Eastern Australia. In particular, it examines the ideas that underlie texts produced by CSG production companies, the Queensland Government, and Lock the Gate (a key group opposed to rapid CSG industry expansion). The analysis indicates that with respect to the above themes, Lock the Gate expresses their opposition to CSG through perspectives that mostly depart from those with a key role in maintaining neoliberalizing political economies. In contrast, the Queensland government and CSG companies, despite each encompassing significant internal diversity, have expressed relatively similar and consistent positions, aligned with neoliberalizing ideas. The article problematizes descriptions of the state government as a neutral arbitrator that can restore balance between the beliefs of gas companies and groups like Lock the Gate, and advances consideration of deeper differences

Mapping value in a 'green' commodity frontier:revisiting commodity chain analysis

Analysis of commodity chains has provided important insights on how power, resource and market access mediate the distribution of benefits and risks. Given this analytical potential, Commodity Chain Analysis (CCA) is now being applied to the study of biofuels and carbon markets to gain systematic insight into the circumstances, relationships and transformations involved in their production and exchange. By building on and adapting this approach to three distinct case studies (biofuels in Madagascar and forest carbon in Cambodia and Laos), this article contributes new insights on the emergence of value within market environmentalism. The analysis highlights methodological challenges in applying CCA to commodified forms of nature, and the significance of knowledge and value negotiations. All three cases illustrate that it remains highly uncertain whether or not market exchange can ultimately be realized. As in the case of traditional commodities, pre-existing conditions of power and access shape modes of production and network configuration. Parallel and intersecting commodity networks (e.g. for land and timber) also require us to think beyond the traditional single-commodity focus. Thus, we call for an expanded analytical focus in applying CCA to non-material ‘green’ commodities that places greater emphasis on value negotiations and connections within new ‘commodity frontiers’

Not Just Participation: The Rise of the Eco-Precariat in the Green Economy

Despite recent attention to “frontier” green economies and the governance of emerging ecosystem services, the specific division of labour in these economies has been little studied. As many such initiatives are in the global South, labour’s marginality potentially contributes to the existing precariousness of those who are more often identified as “participants”. This article examines the roles and vulnerabilities of these actors: the carbon counters, species identifiers, GIS mappers, tree planters and others operating in the shadows. We draw on current understandings of labour and precarity to examine the geographical contours of an apparent and emerging “eco-precariat”: a socio-economically diverse group of labourers that address the volatile demands of an ever-expanding environmental service-based economy. We illustrate our analysis drawing on examples from a Blue Carbon project in Kenya, ecosystem services project in the Philippines, and REDD+ scheme in Cambodia. We use these examples to theorise the nature of labour in these frontier economies and put forward a framework for analysing the eco-precariat. We highlight the need to understand the precarity and marginalisation potentially created by this green division of labour in the provision of new ecosystem products and services. This framework contributes to ongoing analyses of labour as a central part of the green economy discourse and to larger discussions in the geographies of labour literature around the future of work in the global South and beyond.We would like to thank all those co-collaborators who supported this work with their intel-lectual and physical labour. Earlier versions of this work benefited from participants at thePolitical Ecology Network (POLLEN) 2018 Conference in Oslo on Eco-precariat labor and atfeedback from the Political Ecology Research Group at Cambridge University. The Cambo-dian research discussed in this paper (Mahanty) was jointly conducted with Dr Sarah Milnewith support from the Australian Research Council (#DP120100270) and supported by aEuropean Research Council Starting Grant (Hicks) (ERC #759457

Between a rock and a hard place: The burdens of uncontrolled fire for smallholders across the tropics

Once fire-resistant rainforests are becoming fire prone. Uncontrolled fires reflect new ecologies of the Anthropocene, driven by interactions of multiple actors and sectors across scales. They threaten the ecological integrity of tropical forests, impact global climate regimes and importantly cause considerable social and economic burdens. Numerous smallholder farming communities throughout the forested tropics experience the immediate place-based damages of uncontrolled fires and increasingly flammable landscapes. However, these burdens remain largely ‘invisible’ as leading narratives concentrate on losses accrued at aggregate scales, including to climate and biodiversity. Rather, smallholder farmers are often cast as culprits of contagion rooted in colonial condemnation of their customary fire-based agricultural practices. We use an environmental justice lens, notably the dimensions of recognition and distribution, to reveal the distributional burdens of uncontrolled fires for these land managers. We use empirical data from four case studies in three countries: Brazil, Madagascar and the Philippines, to explore the i) burdens of uncontrolled fire, ii) changing risks, iii) drivers and iv) responses to uncontrolled fire, and finally, the v) level of smallholder dependence on intentional fire. We show that place-based burdens of uncontrolled landscape fire are significant, including in landscapes where fire frequency is low. Burdens are both material and non-material and include infringements on food security, health, livelihoods, social relations and the burden of prohibitive fire policy itself. Equitable responses to uncontrolled fires must be sensitive to the distinctions between fire types. Further, we suggest that through bringing visibility to the place-based burdens of uncontrolled fires, we can begin to co-design resilient responses that avoid placing the final burden of risk reduction on to marginalized smallholder farming communities

The impact of swidden decline on livelihoods and ecosystem services in Southeast Asia: a review of the evidence from 1990 to 2015

Global economic change and policy interventions are driving transitions from long-fallow swidden (LFS) systems to alternative land uses in Southeast Asia’s uplands. This study presents a systematic review of how these transitions impact upon livelihoods and ecosystem services in the region. Over 17 000 studies published between 1950 and 2015 were narrowed, based on relevance and quality, to 93 studies for further analysis. Our analysis of land-use transitions from swidden to intensified cropping systems showed several outcomes: more households had increased overall income, but these benefits came at significant cost such as reductions of customary practice, socio-economic wellbeing, livelihood options, and staple yields. Examining the effects of transitions on soil properties revealed negative impacts on soil organic carbon, cation-exchange capacity, and aboveground carbon. Taken together, the proximate and underlying drivers of the transitions from LFS to alternative land uses, especially intensified perennial and annual cash cropping, led to significant declines in pre-existing livelihood security and the ecosystem services supporting this security. Our results suggest that policies imposing land-use transitions on upland farmers so as to improve livelihoods and environments have been misguided; in the context of varied land uses, swidden agriculture can support livelihoods and ecosystem services that will help buffer the impacts of climate change in Southeast AsiaThe authors wish to acknowledge the support of the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) via the award of an Evidence-Based Forestry grant administered on behalf of the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DfID) under the KNOW-FOR programme