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- Convenors:
-
Reetta Toivanen
(University of Helsinki)
Vladislava Vladimirova (Uppsala University)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Location:
- Peter Froggatt Centre (PFC), 02/011
- Sessions:
- Thursday 28 July, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This session invites presentations that evaluate the role and implementation of SDGs in the context of Indigenous peoples. We discuss what impact anthropology has in the analysis of environmental knowledge production and its political and economic implications, especially for Indigenous communities.
Long Abstract:
Anthropologists have contributed to the research on climate change and sustainable development through in-depth analysis of local experience and emic conceptions, and knowledge of nature. In the last decade, anthropology has been at the front line pushing for knowledge co-production with Indigenous and local stakeholders. Research has engaged with power over the environment, resources and Indigenous people’s knowledges: But, have anthropologists problematized enough the power of environmental knowledge production itself?
As the world experiences growing effects of climate change, there is a need for further ethnographic research examining its future transformational impact on numerous areas of public law and policy, and economy. Ethnography addressing the effects of climate change through measures ensuring sustainability and protecting human rights is especially vital. But in some instances, implementing SDGs conflicts with social justice principles. Actions addressing the effects of climate change do not always coordinate well with Indigenous rights. Indigenous residents are neglected in decision making regarding the UN Agenda for 2030 and Sustainability Development Goals implementation. Anthropologists whose research promotes the co-production of knowledge and community-based management of the environment have marginal positions in interdisciplinary research programs, and in political and economic decision-making.
We welcome papers that critically examine the effects of SDG implementation on Indigenous peoples and minorities. Second, we would like to explore the possibilities for anthropology to take a more prominent position in the critical analysis of environmental knowledge production and its political and economic implications, especially for local and Indigenous communities.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 28 July, 2022, -Paper short abstract:
Drawing on a case study on the rural livelihood and indigenous activism in Yucatan, this paper argues that approaches to biodiversity conservation should consider multiple conceptions of the good life and ways of relating to the environment, which go beyond the vision articulated in the 2030 Agenda.
Paper long abstract:
As addressed by SDG 15, loss of biodiversity in the Anthropocene is an urgent issue which requires immediate action. The debate on biodiversity conservation has long focused on the role of human beings in threatening ecosystems through exploitation of natural resources. However, more nuanced approaches to human-environment relationships from the social sciences demonstrate that environmental practices of indigenous and small-scale societies have often contributed to sustaining or even enhancing local biodiversity.
The role of indigenous knowledge and actions for biodiversity conservation is also clearly manifest in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Yucatec Maya speakers have conserved landraces, above all, those of the staple crop, maize in situ through their continued practice of milpa agriculture. However, the system of production primarily oriented towards subsistence is facing a crisis owing to several ecological, political and socioeconomic factors, which include climate change, pressures from the global market and increased demands for cash. Consequently, there is an increasing tendency to turn away from the traditional milpa agriculture. At the same time, a considerable number of Yucatec Maya speakers strive to resist this trend, taking actions based on their own conceptions of the good life and human-environment-relationships.
Drawing on a case study on the rural livelihood and indigenous activism in Yucatan, this paper argues that approaches to biodiversity conservation should take into account multiple conceptions of the good life and ways of relating to the environment, which go beyond the vision articulated in the 2030 Agenda.
Paper short abstract:
SDGs could also be the abbreviation of Sanctioning Disciplined Grabs: The paper shows the options the SDGs provide in legitimizing commons grabbing in indigenous territories as the commons are not mentioned. Sustainability becomes the only task of governments and the private sector.
Paper long abstract:
This paper addresses the issue of the SDGs as becoming a tool of a green development ideology acting as a new form of anti-politics machine to be used by governments to claim territories of local indigenous groups. The SDGs can be used to justify what we call commons grabbing processes because alienation of territories and common property of indigenous groups can be legitimized with the notion of sustainable development. The paper will show that the SDGs provide this option for governments because on the one hand SDGs neglect the common property institutions of indigenous peoples, which in fact helped to maintain biodiverse cultural landscape ecosystems. On the other hand, the SDGs provide governments and private sector actors new options and financial means to implement an environmentally sound development controlled by them. This is evident in conservation and energy policies. Conservation policies were challenged as being a kind of top down fortress conservation, leading to often also top-down co-conservation projects in the past. Now these can be re-shaped again in a more centralized way as common property is not integrated in the SDGs, which is helpful in grabbing indigenous lands. In a similar way, green energy and mega-infrastructure projects on indigenous lands can be legitimized. The paper will address cases from indigenous territories in Latin America, Africa and Europe, which illustrate these processes in the context of conservation and energy projects related to and legitimized by the SDGs. It will also show reactions of indigenous peoples to these sanctioned disciplined grabs.
Paper short abstract:
This presentation engages with indigenous reindeer herders in the Kola Peninsula, who describe their experiences and observations of the effects that the growing military sector in Russia has on their subsistence economy, on reindeer and the natural environment that they inhabit.
Paper long abstract:
The latest Foundations of State Policy of the Russian Federation in the Arctic until 2035, signed by President Putin on 5 March 2020, put in central focus national security, to which most activities of ‘mastering the Arctic’ are subjected. Human wellbeing in the Arctic, according to this legal document, seems to be grounded in expanding military security, extractive industry and infrastructure, and scientific exploration. Environmental protection and knowledge have been subsumed entirely under paragraphs about preventing climate change’s unpredictable impacts on economic development and infrastructure.
The impact of military security on local societies and the natural environment in the Post-Soviet Arctic has received little attention. This is surprising in the context of the growing number of studies about the environmental and social impacts of industrialization, the impact of climate change on Russian Arctic security, and on human security in the region. In this presentation, I will address the topic through the perspective of indigenous reindeer herders in the Kola Peninsula, who describe their experiences and observations of the effects that the growing military sector in Russia has on their subsistence economy, on reindeer and the natural environment that they inhabit. A special focus of the study is on the combined effect that militarization and climate change in the Arctic have on the environment, and on indigenous sustainable nature use practices and ecological knowledge.
Paper short abstract:
The strategic utilization of Islamic sentiments in Jakarta's environmental activism provides insights into how urban activists perceive the city's underlying problems and how they aim to transform the relationship between residents and the environment towards a more sustainable future.
Paper long abstract:
This article discusses the strategic instrumentalization of so-called Eco-Islam in Jakarta's environmental activism landscape- particularly in waste and wastewater campaigns. For this purpose, the author explores how Jakarta's activists perceive and link the city's ecological and social problems and thus, integrates historical, political and theoretical perspectives in her analysis.
The study discusses the (re)vitalization and (re-)interpretation of religious norms in Jakarta's public and private sphere against the backdrop of capitalistic modernization and economic developmentalism permeating Indonesia's political agenda for decades and which have its roots in the archipelago's colonial past.
Additionally, by including Islamic notions in their campaigns and interventions, activists participate in a transgressive form of environmentalism. Namely, they challenge and transform the design of established environmental knowledge production and ethics. The Quran offers a sound basis for this approach, since the holy text presents an elaborate environmental concept and practical guidelines that contrast dominant ecologies and prevailing behavioral routines. With the given maxims and in collaboration with scientists, economists, and religious leaders, Jakarta's activists aim for a more sustainable relationship between Jakarta's residents and its environment.
Paper short abstract:
This paper will present a study on clean energy projects across Sápmi, the home area of Indigenous peoples in the European north, and discuss the ways in which green energy transition may be conceptualized as a continuum of colonial practices.
Paper long abstract:
The SDGs call for the engagement of Indigenous peoples in implementing the agenda and queries to what extent Indigenous knowledges can contribute to the SDGs in terms of education, poverty, climate change, and ecological sustainability. However, Indigenous voices have also raised some serious concerns related to the SDGs. The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues warned that “The 2030 Agenda...involves serious risks for Indigenous Peoples, such as clean energy projects that encroach on their lands and territories. (…). It is also important that programs to implement the 2030 Agenda are culturally sensitive and respect Indigenous Peoples’ self-determination as well as collective rights in terms of land, health, education, culture, and ways of living.” (2015). This paper will present a study on clean energy projects across Sápmi, the home area of Indigenous peoples in the European north, and discuss the ways in which green energy transition may be conceptualized as a continuum of colonial practices.