Indigenous rights’ relationship to ecological justice in Amazonia has not been explicitly explored in the literature. As social scientists rarely talk about violence against non-humans, this case study of conservation in Amazonia will explore this new area of concern. Ethical inquiries in conservation also engage with the manifold ways through which human and nonhuman lives are entangled and emplaced within wider ecological relationships, converging in the notion of environmental justice, which often fails to account for overt violence or exploitation of non-humans. Reflecting on this omission, this chapter discusses the applicability of engaged social science and conservation to habitat destruction in Amazonia, and broader contexts involving violence against non-humans. The questions addressed in this chapter are: is the idea of ecological justice sufficiently supported in conservation debate, and more practical Amazonian contexts? Can advocacy of inherent rights be applied to the case of non-humans? Can indigenous communities still be considered 'traditional' considering population growth and increased consumptive practices? Concluding that the existing forms of justice are inadequate in dealing with the massive scale of non-human abuse, this chapter provides directions for conservation that engage with deep ecology and ecological justice in the Amazonian context. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-29153-2 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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Indonesia’s peat forests remain severely threatened by forest fires, oil palm plantation development and extractive industries, which leads to biodiversity loss, increased emissions of greenhouse gases, and the marginalization of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. In 2008 the Government of Indonesia introduced the Social Forestry Programme under which Indigenous Peoples and local communities can acquire a 35-year management permit. Since then, about 10 percent of Indonesian State Forest has been designated for community-based forest conservation and restoration initiatives. The devolution of authority to the local level has created a new playing field. The Social Forestry Programme reverses more than a century of centralistic forest policy, and requires a fundamental re-orientation of all actors working in the forestry sector. The central question underlying this proposal is how Dutch civil society organizations (applied universities and NGOs) can effectively support Indigenous Peoples and local communities in the protection and restoration of peat forests in Indonesia. This project aims to set up a Living Lab in Ketapang District in West Kalimantan to study, identify and test novel ways to work together with a variety of stakeholders to effectively conserve and restore peat forest. In Ketapang District, Tropenbos Indonesia has assisted three Village Forest Management Groups (Pematang Gadung, Sungai Pelang and Sungai Besar) in securing a Social Forestry Permit. Students from three Dutch Universities (Van Hall Larenstein, Aeres Hogeschool and Inholland) will conduct research in partnership with students from Universitas Tanjungpura on the integration of local ecological knowledge and technical expertise, on the economic feasibility of community-based forestry enterprises, and on new polycentric governance structures. The results of these studies will be disseminated to policy makers and civil society groups working in Indonesia, using the extensive networks of IUCN NL and Tropenbos Indonesia.
