Strange powers: Conservation, science, and transparency in an indigenous political project (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

Abstract

The Cofán people of Amazonian Ecuador are important players within global movements for indigenous rights and biodiversity conservation. Scholars, non‐governmental organizations, and donor agencies laud their efforts to protect more than 430,000 hectares of forestland from an expanding colonization front, the transnational petroleum industry, and the spillover of violence from the Colombian civil war and drug trade. In this article, I examine how a set of discourses surrounding indigenous politics enable and constrain Cofán projects. In the context of an ethnographic account of Cofán political practice, I differentiate between the ‘expressive’, ‘instrumental’, and ‘obstructive’ nature of ‘conservation’, ‘science’, and ‘transparency’, respectively. More specifically, I develop three arguments: first, that the discourse of conservation serves to express deeply held conceptions of the ties between Cofán culture, Cofán territory, and Cofán politics; second, that the discourse of science functions as an instrument that Cofán activists use to ground a political‐economic exchange with outside powers; and third, that the discourse of transparency stymies Cofán collective action and is neither locally meaningful nor politically useful. By analyzing the social life of these terms and concepts in Cofán activism, I argue for a more nuanced understanding of discursive power, which always exists in tension with the cultural sensibilities and political perspectives that it supposedly transforms.

Koreksi terhadap Pilihan Hidup: Kuasa Amal Bijak di balik Pengelolaan Taman Nasional di Kalimantan Barat

“…Kasus-kasus dalam konservasi taman nasional menggambarkan masalah dan kebijakan tata kelola hutan, berada dalam hubungan-hubungan majemuk, kompleks, koersif, bersitegang, dan kolaboratif. Sejumlah literatur telah menunjukkan situasi-situasi politik pengaturan itu dengan mempelajari lagi formasi identitas baru dari interaksi perbedaan sistem ekonomi-politik, reproduksi sosial, penguatan agensi individu, praktik pemberdayaan wali masyarakat, serta hubungan-hubungan kapitalis di masa sekarang (Li 2000(Li , 2007a(Li , 2008Cepek 2008Cepek , 2012Wenk 2012). Oleh karenanya, intervensi kebijakan taman nasional adalah produk campuran kepentingan, sebuah intervensi dengan bahasabahasa moralitas untuk menjamin keadilan, moral, dan hak asasi (Mosse 2004;West, Igoe, dan Brockington 2006;Carrier dan West 2009).…”