Browsing by Subject "Indigenous rights"

This dissertation research explored how indigenous peoples have responded to increasing conservation and development pressures in Suriname using two case study communities. One, in West Suriname, faced a proposed protected area and large-scale mining operation on the communities' traditional lands. The other community, in East Suriname, has been involved in a long-term co-management arrangement over an existing protected area. Community responses to these protected areas and development projects were considered through the important influence of a national indigenous rights organization and its multi-scalar networks. A total of 68 in-depth interviews with indigenous community leaders, indigenous rights organization leaders, conservation NGO personnel, company, and government representatives were conducted over a period of 9 months. In addition, 13 documents including conference proceedings, editorials, letters, and presentations were collected and analyzed. Results showed that strategies in the form of scalar politics, information politics, accountability politics, and cultural politics that drew from international legal instruments, guidelines, and the larger indigenous rights movement were used. These strategies enhanced the power, knowledge, and negotiating ability of the communities and NGOs, leading to the eventual rejection of a protected area and a stronger role in the mining project. However, the larger goal of land rights for indigenous peoples in Suriname has not yet been realized, and remains the focal point of indigenous struggles there.

There is growing recognition that conventional Western approaches to fisheries governance and management are globally falling short in addressing many social and ecological challenges. Calls to “reinvent” or “reimagine” fisheries institutions through adaptations of ecosystem-based approaches increasingly intersect with interest in the “integration,” “bridging,” or “weaving” of knowledges and values held by Indigenous peoples with Western approaches. Generally, the intent is to improve decision-making processes and management outcomes, and to better recognize Indigenous rights following national and international legislative commitments such as UNDRIP. However, without appropriate strategies these efforts can echo harmful colonial histories, further marginalize Indigenous communities, and fail to restore fisheries of concern. Reimagining fisheries institutions will fundamental systemic changes to dominant worldviews, including how we approach multiple knowledges, conceptualize social and environmental relations, and even the very question of what constitutes “good” fisheries governance.The purpose of the dissertation is to consider what it means to pursue “integration” of Indigenous and Western scientific ways of knowing for improved fisheries governance and management and to meaningfully recognize Indigenous rights and knowledges. I present a case study of salmon in Clayoquot Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island (WCVI). Salmon are highly valued by WCVI coastal communities and are integral to the wellbeing of local Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations, but are at risk of extirpation. The federal government, through Fisheries and Oceans Canada, is tasked with recognizing Indigenous knowledges and the recently formalized commercial fishing rights of five Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations into WCVI fisheries. Development of the five Nations’ fisheries within a context of multiple overlapping Indigenous and Canadian actors and authorities presents a particularly entangled challenge for local governance reform and directly confronts colonial legacies and the historical distribution of power between Canadian and Nuu-chah-nulth governance structures. In this dissertation, I present the findings of research built through five years of partnership with Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations and Ha’oom Fisheries Society and based in the Tla-o-qui-aht hahouthli (traditional territory). The methodology includes a combination of archival and place-based methods informed by approaches in critical geographies and Indigenous relational practice. The broader goal of our partnership is to support ongoing efforts to mobilize Nuu-chah-nulth knowledges and values in WCVI salmon governance and management for productive, healthy, and abundant salmon fisheries. In presenting the work, I first review the case study context with attention to colonial histories of BC salmon fisheries. I then present a literature review summarizing primary concerns and recommendations from other efforts to “integrate” or mobilize Indigenous and Western ways of knowing in fisheries. With these recommendations in mind, I detail the case study findings considering the mobilizations of knowledge and governance relations in WCVI salmon governance. I first identify pluralistic approaches to Indigenous and Western ways of knowing in Tla-o-qui-aht’s internal management and governance structures. I then consider how specific relational approaches to knowledge coproduction and institution building support local decision-making and knowledge mobilization in the entangled salmon governance arrangements of Clayoquot Sound. Finally, I consider how the five Nations’ fisheries are impacted by and strategically respond to colonial structures and knowledge hegemonies in State fisheries management, with implications for disrupting feedbacks between colonialism and conventional Western fisheries science. Throughout, I discuss insights regarding strategies for Indigenous rights implementation and knowledge mobilization which transform governance and power relations in small scale, multispecies fisheries. The dissertation chapters collectively contribute to the following findings. First, Nuu-chah-nulth governance structures approach fisheries management through knowledge pluralisms and should be recognized as legitimate and capable governing bodies for self management. Second, relational strategies to partnership building between rightsholders and governance actors support coordinated decision-making, adaptive management actions, increased local capacity, and robust knowledge co-development, especially in when reflecting Nuu-chah-nulth embodied relational practice and with deference to Nuu-chah-nulth governing authority. Finally, strategically utilizing pluralisms and relational partnerships to challenge knowledge hegemonies and the settler state’s authority can disrupt feedbacks between colonialism and conventional Western fisheries science and offers a potential avenue for decolonization in the context of a resistant bureaucratic structure. The findings of this dissertation also contribute insight regarding broadly applicable steps forward through alternate pathways of information, understandings of relation, and arrangements of governance. Pluralistic approaches to knowledge and governance conducted in collaboration with Indigenous scholars and communities should be prioritized in efforts to mobilize multiple knowledges in the management of fisheries. Indigenous leadership and power sharing through co-governance are imperative to these approaches. Broadly, knowledge pluralisms and more-than-capitalist relational reimaginings present promising avenues for meaningful fisheries reform.

Claims of injustice in global forest governance are prolific: assertions of colonization, marginalization and disenfranchisement of forest-dependent people, and privatization of common resources are some of the most severe allegations of injustice resulting from globally-driven forest conservation initiatives. At its core, the debate over the future of the world's forests is fraught with ethical concerns. Policy makers are not only deciding how forests should be governed, but also who will be winners, losers, and who should have a voice in the decision-making processes. For 30 years, policy makers have sought to redress the concerns of the world's 1.6 billion forest-dependent poor by introducing rights-based and participatory approaches to conservation. Despite these efforts, however, claims of injustice persist. This research examines possible explanations for continued claims of injustice by asking: What are the barriers to delivering justice to forest-dependent communities? Using data collected through surveys, interviews, and collaborative event ethnography in Laos and at the Tenth Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, this dissertation examines the pursuit of justice in global forest governance across multiple scales of governance. The findings reveal that particular conceptualizations of justice have become a central part of the metanormative fabric of global environmental governance, inhibiting institutional evolution and therewith perpetuating the justice gap in global forest governance.