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Presentation short abstract

Indigenous-state interactions in Hulunbuir's Chinese Ewenki community reveal how Indigenous knowledge and biocultural ethics challenge technocratic conservation and reshape the structure, process, and outcome of local environmental governance.

Presentation long abstract

Indigenous communities experience environmental transformations across the high-latitude northern frontiers of China, where state-led conservation and resource policies intersect with Indigenous customary institutions and knowledge systems. This study examines the co-production of environmental governance between the Ewenki people, whose knowledge and ecological practices are largely marginalized, and local state administrations in Hulunbuir, China, exploring how Indigenous biocultural ethics and local environmental knowledge are negotiated within multi-level governance structures. Applying the community-based action research (CBAR), this study collaborates with Indigenous participants to document and interpret place-based ecological practices and land relations. By foregrounding Indigenous biocultural ethics and environmental histories, the study reveals how governance encounters are shaped by differing ontologies and epistemologies, and how local Indigenous and state actors assert agency in developing environmental governance policies. The findings contribute to debates on Indigenous sovereignty and climate justice by situating China’s coldest-region Indigenous governance within broader discussions on epistemic pluralism and political ecology. Ultimately, this study reveals a dynamic interactive process that theoretically reframes the political ecology beyond static power hierarchies, advancing comparative insights for just and sustainable northern communities in the Global South.