Linking well-being with cultural revitalization for greater cognitive justice in conservation: lessons from Venezuela in Canaima National Park

Across the globe, conservation policies have often suppressed nonscientific forms of knowledge and ways of knowing nature, along with the social practices of the groups that are informed by such knowledge. Reversing this process of epistemic supremacy is crucial both for achieving greater cognitive justice in conservation areas and ensuring that conservation aims are achieved. Doing so, however, is not an easy task. In situations of cultural violence, hidden environmental knowledge is not easily made visible unless adequate conditions for it to emerge are created. I show that one way forward is by conservation engaging with the well-being agendas of indigenous people, in particular, with the construction of their life plans. This discussion is illustrated through a case study in Canaima National Park, Venezuela, where over the last 20 years, social-ecological research has been studying existing conflicts over the use of fire while supporting the development of Pemon (the indigenous peoples in this area) Life Plans. Assisting in the development of life plans through participatory historical reconstructions, territorial self-demarcation processes, and facilitation of community reflexivity about its social-ecological changes and desired future has been decisive for the Pemon, and has revealed fire management knowledge that challenges conventional explanations of landscape change that simplistically place the blame for such changes on the local use of fire. This local knowledge, combined with results from studies of Pemon fire regimes, fire behavior ecology, and paleoecological research, now informs a counter narrative of landscape change that is influencing a shift in environmental discourse and policy-making toward an intercultural fire management approach. By documenting how social-ecological research has engaged with the Pemon Life Plan processes, I show the important role that cultural revitalization plays in making hidden and silenced local environmental knowledge more visible, and hence, in achieving greater cognitive justice in conservation

Engaging with environmental justice through conflict transformation: experiences in Latin America with Indigenous peoples

A pesar de que la justicia ambiental y la transformación de conflictos tienen muchos objetivos comunes, poco hablan la una con la otra. En este artículo tratamos de acercar a ambas ramas del conocimiento un través de una discusión del potencial que ofrece la teoría y práctica de la transformación de conflictos para el campo de la justicia ambiental. Para ello se basa en el marco de Transformación de Conflictos Socio-ambientales desarrollado por el Grupo Confluencias, un grupo de profesionales de América Latina que ha venido trabajando desde el 2005 como plataforma de deliberación, investigación conjunta y de desarrollo de capacidades en este tema. Un aspecto central de este marco es la atención prestada a la comprensión del papel que las dinámicas del poder y la cultura juegan en los conflictos ambientales y su transformación. Discutimos este marco e ilustramos su utilidad práctica a la luz de experiencias en marcha con pueblos indígenas en América Latina, donde el Grupo Confluencias ha venido desarrollando experiencias de transformación de conflictos socio-ambientales desde diferentes tipos de intervenciones que buscan impactar en el poder hegemónico, para ayudar a reducir las asimetrías e injusticias sociales que dan origen a los conflictos socio ambientales. Mostramos, en particular, la necesidad y la eficacia de impactar, simultáneamente o no, en tres diferentes esferas: las personas y redes, las instituciones y el poder cultural. Se demuestra que, a través del fortalecimiento del poder estratégico de actores vulnerables, es posible generar cambios sociales que redunden en mayor justicia ambiental y social en territorios indígenas. Although environmental justice and conflict transformation have many common goals, they rarely talk to each other. In this article we try to bring these two bodies of knowledge closer with a discussion of the contributions that the theory and practice of conflict transformation offer to the field of environmental justice. In order to do so, it draws on an Environmental Conflict Transformation framework developed by Grupo Confluencias, a consortium of professionals from Latin America, who have been working since 2005 as a platform for deliberation, joint research and capacity building on this topic. Central to this framework is the focus on understanding the role that power dynamics and culture play in environmental conflicts and their transformation. We discuss this framework and its practical use in the light of ongoing experiences with indigenous peoples in Latin America, where Grupo Confluencias has been developing conflict transformation processes that seek to impact on hegemonic powers, in order to reduce the asymmetries and injustices that give rise to environmental conflicts. We emphasize, in particular, both the need and efficacy to create impacts, simultaneously or not, in three different spheres: people and networks, institutions and cultural power. We show that, through strengthening the power of agency of vulnerable actors, it is possible to produce a change in favor of a greater social and environmental justice in indigenous peoples’ territories

Justice and conservation: The need to incorporate recognition

In light of the Aichi target to manage protected areas equitably by 2020, we ask how the conservation sector should define justice. We focus in particular on ‘recognition’, because it is the least well understood aspect of environmental justice, and yet highly relevant to conservation because of its concern with respect for local knowledge and cultures. In order to explore the meaning of recognition in the conservation context, we take four main steps. First, we identify four components of recognition to serve as our analytical framework: subjects of justice, the harms that constitute injustice, the mechanisms that produce injustices, and the responses to alleviate these. Secondly, we apply this framework to explore four traditions of thinking about recognition: Hegelian inter-subjectivity, critical theory, southern decolonial theory, and the capabilities approach. Thirdly, we provide three case studies of conservation conflicts highlighting how different theoretical perspectives are illustrated in the claims and practices of real world conservation struggles. Fourthly, we finish the paper by drawing out some key differences between traditions of thinking, but also important areas of convergence. The convergences provide a basis for concluding that conservation should look beyond a distributive model of justice to incorporate concerns for social recognition, including careful attention to ways to pursue equality of status for local conservation stakeholders. This will require reflection on working practices and looking at forms of intercultural engagement that, for example, respect alternative ways of relating to nature and biodiversity

A perspective on radical transformations to sustainability: resistances, movements and alternatives

A transformation to sustainability calls for radical and systemic societal shifts. Yet what this entails in practice and who the agents of this radical transformation are require further elaboration. This article recenters the role of environmental justice movements in transformations, arguing that the systemic, multi-dimensional and intersectional approach inherent in EJ activism is uniquely placed to contribute to the realization of equitable sustainable futures. Based on a perspective of conflict as productive, and a “conflict transformation” approach that can address the root issues of ecological conflicts and promote the emergence of alternatives, we lay out a conceptual framework for understanding transformations through a power analysis that aims to confront and subvert hegemonic power relations; that is, multi-dimensional and intersectional; balancing ecological concerns with social, economic, cultural and democratic spheres; and is multi-scalar, and mindful of impacts across place and space. Such a framework can help analyze and recognize the contribution of grassroots EJ movements to societal transformations to sustainability and support and aid radical transformation processes. While transitions literature tends to focus on artifacts and technologies, we suggest that a resistance-centred perspective focuses on the creation of new subjectivities, power relations, values and institutions. This recenters the agency of those who are engaged in the creation and recuperation of ecological and new ways of being in the world in the needed transformation

Restor(y)ing the Past to Envision an ‘Other’ Future:A Decolonial Environmental Restorative Justice Perspective

In this chapter I argue that an environmental restorative justice approach can be enriched by getting in touch with Latin American decolonial thinking and praxis and incorporating it into its disciplinary practice. To do so, I frst discuss some main propositions of Latin American decolonial environmental justice theory, which ground my approach to restorative justice. Secondly, drawing on John Paul Lederach’s (2008) long-term peacebuilding perspective, I define how I understand a restorative environmental approach from a cultural revitalisation perspective. Tirdly, to exemplify what such an approach looks like in practice, I discuss two case studies: one in Canaima National Park, Venezuela, and another in the Indigenous Territory of Lomerio, in Bolivia, in which I have been involved in environmental restorative justice process using participatory action research for cultural revitalisation with Indigenous peoples in contexts of prolonged environmental conficts. Fourth and finally, I discuss some key lessons from the two key studies with the hope that they can guide the eforts at conceptualising and doing environmental restorative justice in Latin America and beyond

Alternative Futures: India Unshackled Ashish Kothari y K . J. Joy (eds.)

Crítica del libro: Iokiñe Rodriguez - Año: 2017 - Editorial: AuthorsUpFront Publishing Services Private Limited, Nueva Delhi - Idioma: Inglés - Páginas: 68

Transforming knowledge systems for life on Earth: Visions of future systems and how to get there

Formalised knowledge systems, including universities and research institutes, are important for contemporary societies. They are, however, also arguably failing humanity when their impact is measured against the level of progress being made in stimulating the societal changes needed to address challenges like climate change. In this research we used a novel futures-oriented and participatory approach that asked what future envisioned knowledge systems might need to look like and how we might get there. Findings suggest that envisioned future systems will need to be much more collaborative, open, diverse, egalitarian, and able to work with values and systemic issues. They will also need to go beyond producing knowledge about our world to generating wisdom about how to act within it. To get to envisioned systems we will need to rapidly scale methodological innovations, connect innovators, and creatively accelerate learning about working with intractable challenges. We will also need to create new funding schemes, a global knowledge commons, and challenge deeply held assumptions. To genuinely be a creative force in supporting longevity of human and non-human life on our planet, the shift in knowledge systems will probably need to be at the scale of the enlightenment and speed of the scientific and technological revolution accompanying the second World War. This will require bold and strategic action from governments, scientists, civic society and sustained transformational intent

Transforming knowledge systems for life on Earth : Visions of future systems and how to get there

Formalised knowledge systems, including universities and research institutes, are important for contemporary societies. They are, however, also arguably failing humanity when their impact is measured against the level of progress being made in stimulating the societal changes needed to address challenges like climate change. In this research we used a novel futures-oriented and participatory approach that asked what future envisioned knowledge systems might need to look like and how we might get there. Findings suggest that envisioned future systems will need to be much more collaborative, open, diverse, egalitarian, and able to work with values and systemic issues. They will also need to go beyond producing knowledge about our world to generating wisdom about how to act within it. To get to envisioned systems we will need to rapidly scale methodological innovations, connect innovators, and creatively accelerate learning about working with intractable challenges. We will also need to create new funding schemes, a global knowledge commons, and challenge deeply held assumptions. To genuinely be a creative force in supporting longevity of human and non-human life on our planet, the shift in knowledge systems will probably need to be at the scale of the enlightenment and speed of the scientific and technological revolution accompanying the second World War. This will require bold and strategic action from governments, scientists, civic society and sustained transformational intent.Peer reviewe