Presentation short abstract

Examining how CPR governance in Thailand's north and south has become a site of struggle. State-corporate actors reframe communities as ecological threats, legitimising repression through technocratic climate narratives while communities resist through cultural revival and solidarity networks.

Presentation long abstract

This paper examines the political ecology of shrinking civic space in Thailand through two contested common-pool resource (CPR) frontiers: Karen highland forests in Ban Klang and Muslim coastal fisheries in Sakom–Chana. Drawing on participatory action research under the Guardians Under Pressure study, the analysis shows how CPR governance has become a site where state authorities, private developers, and local stewards struggle over sovereignty, legitimacy, and meaning. While communities assert collective governance grounded in customary law, cultural identity, and spiritual ecologies, state and corporate actors reframe forests, coastlines, and fisheries as commodities for conservation markets, infrastructure expansion, and "green" climate solutions. These hegemonic framings—rooted in technocratic, Global-North-oriented climate narratives—depoliticise CPR conflicts by portraying local stewards as ecological threats. This discourse legitimises criminalisation, SLAPP lawsuits, administrative harassment, and surveillance against community movements, while fuelling internal fragmentation through elite co-optation, generational divides, and disinformation campaigns.

Despite intense pressures, communities resist through revitalising customary practices, invoking cultural and religious identity, mobilising youth networks, forging inter-community solidarity, and producing counter-narratives that challenge dominant knowledge and representations. Yet long-term collective stewardship remains precarious. The paper argues that deconstructing hegemonic climate and conservation narratives is essential for reclaiming CPR governance, protecting environmental defenders, and enabling more just socio-ecological futures in Thailand and beyond.