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- Convenors:
-
Rajindra Puri
(University of Kent)
Roy Ellen (University of Kent)
Dario Novellino (University of Kent)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 27 October, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Within a Southeast Asian context, this panel will assess the complexity and multiplicity of local voices and indigenous communities responses being deployed to ensure ecological and cultural integrity of their territories, especially in relation to threats from conservation and development schemes.
Long Abstract:
Indigenous resource management strategies are often opposed and/or seen as a solution to strict and top down conservation schemes being proposed by large environmental NGOs and governments alike. Similarly, recognition and enactment of customary rights is generally perceived as effective means for countering expansion of large scale development schemes. Although these assumptions might prove to be correct, indigenous and local communities' responses to conservation and development programmes cannot be seen as a panacea to environmental protection. Such responses, in fact, are continuously adjusted over time to socio-political and environmental changes, are shaped by contingencies of the moment and by opportunistic choices not necessary free from factionalism, political alliances and other factors. Within a Southeast Asian context, the authors of this panel aim at assessing the complexity and multiplicity of local voices and indigenous communities responses and coping strategies which are being deployed by the people to ensure the ecological and cultural integrity of their territories, especially in relation to threats posed by large-scale conservation and development schemes, transitional biocultural zones, etc. Our contention is that communities' micro-responses to these external factors may vary greatly from region to region and their assessment requires, not only an in-depth understanding of particular political and legislative contexts, but also of international processes and hegemonic global discourses. We believe that the assessment and comparison of this information within the specific geo-political milieu of Southeast Asia may provide best lessons for both advocacy and conservation, while adding new stimulus to current anthropological debate over these issues.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 27 October, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
Our presentation discusses how Pala’wan indigenous communities position themselves in relation to various parties (e.g. NGOs, lawyers, government agencies, local authorities, etc.) within highly contested environments and, here especially, within the context of the agribusiness industry.
Paper long abstract:
Our presentation discusses how conversion of land into industrial agriculture is endangering biodiversity, water resources, the quality of topsoil and the livelihood of indigenous peoples, while undermining Palawan local food sovereignty. On the other hand, it analyses how Pala’wan indigenous communities position themselves in relation to various parties (e.g. NGOs, lawyers, government agencies, local authorities, etc.) within highly contested and ‘politicised’ environments and, here especially, within the context of the agribusiness industry. Overall, people’s choices on collective land titling, livelihood strategies and perceptions of risk might vary significantly especially when communities’ cohesion, internal solidarity and reciprocity networks are breaking apart. On the other hand, such choices also depend on whether groups and factions, within the same community, begin to side themselves on opposite paths: i.e. against or ‘pro’ agribusiness firms. At the same time, people’s own standings in relation to ‘corporations’ are also subject to constant rethinking and change of positions, particularly when the affected community has no previous experience in dealing with large-scale enterprises. In addition to this, we wish to determine how and to what extent, the ‘Lion Heart Corporation’ has been able to bypass existing laws and regulations, which – instead - should have ensured sustainable development and environmental conservation on Palawan. To conclude, we propose that also the enactment of progressive environmental and ancestral land laws in the Philippines is still hindered by poor implementation coupled by a dysfunctional judicial system and, overall, by the inability of government agencies to stand by their own mandates.
Paper short abstract:
Using the case study of the Kui in Thailand, this paper explores how environmental protections focused on the Asian elephant and regulation of forest spaces, resulted in the endangerment of Kui heritage tied to these areas; presenting community and State responses (or lack thereof) to this loss.
Paper long abstract:
This paper focuses on the Indigenous Kui community in the Northeast of Thailand - who have a centuries-long culture centred around the live capture of elephants from the wild, and the impact that environmental conservation measures - in the form of protections placed on the Asian elephant and the governmental regulation of forest spaces, has had on their cultural heritage. This is informed by fieldwork that took place with the Kui community from 2018-2020. These protections, targeting the preservation of wildlife and 'natural resources', were made without considering the Kui's ties to the elephants and wild spaces. Thai regulation currently does not protect any heritage that conflicts with existing laws/regulation and further offers no recognition of Indigeneity (and thereby no protection of Indigenous rights); driving parts of Kui heritage to the verge of extinction while also leaving the preservation of this culture entirely within the hands of the community itself. This paper will explore the circumstances leading to this cultural endangerment, presenting the initial value conflict between environmental protection and Indigenous heritage, and the cultural adaptation that has occurred in response. However, not all aspects of Kui heritage have been able to overcome the environmental changes produced by national legislation and those traditions that have adapted are no longer considered authentic by many within the community. This paper will therefore also serve as a case study that is perhaps now too late to remedy, to highlight the crucial need for more integrated and dynamic nature conservation schemes and legislation.
Paper short abstract:
Despite legal recognition of forest rights, failure to incorporate divergent world views and ignoring power inequalities can pose a challenge in meeting socially-just conservation objectives. We present a case about Soligas in India to make our point.
Paper long abstract:
Soligas, living in Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve (BRT) of Karnataka, became the first indigenous community whose collective claims to forest rights were recognized in October 2011, within a strict protected area. These rights include ownership over non-timber forest products (NTFPs), traditional knowledge and, protecting and managing their forests. A decade later, these rights are exercised for their dwellings and ownership over NTFPs. The right to manage and govern forests has not been exercised due to resistance from the forest bureaucracy. Soligas' concept of conservation is implicit within their simple lifestyles and is not an explicit effort at protecting and managing vast landscapes. They believe that "nature is an ancestor" and the forest as reciprocating (Bird-David, 1990). However, exposure to conservation ideas espoused by NGOs, and adopted while claiming forest rights has brought them to challenge forest department authority. The status quo is a negotiated space of adapted ideas of conservation and livelihoods, mindful of changing landscapes and power inequalities.
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the strategies taken on by the Temiar Orang Asli in Kelantan, Malaysia, to protest against logging and a durian plantation project encroaching onto their customary land. We bring attention to the power dynamics and highlight the criminalisation of land protection in Malaysia.
Paper long abstract:
In the past years, the Temiar Orang Asli of Gua Musang, Kelantan have been actively protesting against logging and plantation expansion into their customary land. In 2018, the Temiar staged a large demonstration with 800 people and set up three blockades at the Gunung Stong Selatan Forest Reserve to protest logging activities and a Musang King durian plantation project. Increased China market demand for the Musang King durian has led to the creation of large-scale plantations, built by clear-cutting large tracks of forest. The Temiar’s action drew attention and support from civil society groups including human rights and environmental organisations. The land conflict did not end with this demonstration and the community have had to continue to fend off encroachment. They have been threatened with violence by the logging and durian companies, and criminalised by the state. The durian company filed a lawsuit against one the Temiar leaders for obstructing their entry. Even during the pandemic, loggers continued to breach the blockades. This constant assault has left the indigenous community in a constant state of battle. However, the Temiar remained committed to protect their ancestral land and the environment. They point out the impact of the depleting forest resources on their food security and the contamination of their water sources. We examine here the responses and strategies taken on by the Temiar to protect their ancestral land. We bring attention to the power dynamics and highlight the politics of environmental justice and the criminalisation of land protection in Malaysia.
Paper short abstract:
The presence of protected area undermines Mentawaians' labor and history attached to land and reverses their social values of transforming forest into social space. The reversal compels resistance against conservation, offering a lesson a mutual co-transformation of human and non-human entities.
Paper long abstract:
The presence of Siberut National Park (SNP) (West Sumatra, Indonesia) has been increasingly contested by the indigenous Mentawaians. The park has prevented half of the island's rainforest from large-scale extraction and biodiversity loss but seriously unsettled the relationship between Mentawaians with their forest. For the Mentawaians, the forest is unsociable and undomesticated space and should be transformed. Claiming and contesting forest have been inseparable from Mentawaianns's social histories and identity while altering the undomesticated space into social spaces (sago, taro and fruits gardens, settlement) and extracting animals and plants in it are valued human activities and important criteria in the development of Mentawaians personhood. The park has persuaded people to keep the forest intact and not to use and transform it. It also implies that the Indonesian government claims the land and the forest. This paper argues that establishing a protected area not only undermines local tenurial system but inverses the value of productive activities and the history of human labor attached and invested in the land and forest. The reversal of Mentawaians' social values has compelled the hostility toward the park and other conservation initiatives. This paper offers vital clues in understanding how forest transformation is inseparable from producing humans and discusses how a strict and legal conservation initiative should learn the mutual co-production of human and non-human subject.
Mentawaians, Siberut, protected areas, transforming forest, producing nature,