Presentation short abstract

This article draws on Amazonian socio-bioeconomies to advance critical conceptions of security, showing how alternative visions on development are key to advance forms of security that support life, as opposed to extractivist development models which reproduce insecurities across worlds and species.

Presentation long abstract

This article draws on the experiences of socio-bioeconomies in the Amazon to advance critical and alternative conceptions of environmental security. The concept of security, and particularly environmental security, has been the subject of intense debate and has evolved significantly in recent decades to address the complex socio-ecological issues of our time. However, critical perspectives on environmental security have lacked an engagement with development, not confronting how deeply intertwined they are. Amazonian socio-bioeconomies are production models which prioritise biological and human diversity and the well-being of more-than-human communities, rooted in the responsible use and restoration of forests and rivers and on the recognition of the interconnectedness human and non-human life and land, as well as committed to economic and epistemological justice and democracy. By looking at various socio-bioeconomy projects led by Amazonian communities, we show how alternative perspectives on development, rooted in plurality and relationality, are fundamental for advancing forms of security that truly serve the flourishing of socio-ecological life, as opposed to conventional, capitalist, extractivist and predatory development models which reproduce insecurities across worlds and species. By critically unpacking the security-development dichotomy, we come to recognise security as a lived and co-produced process grounded in the relationships among many forms of life.