“They Have Stolen Our Land”

Abstract

This paper takes enclosure and commodification processes of "nature" one step beyond a political economy perspective conceptualising them from ontological notions of nature-culture relations. Taking the case of enclosure for large-scale commercial agriculture schemes and a game reserve in northeastern Ethiopia, the paper argues that enclosure and nature commodification are part of neoliberal environmental governance that has been built on the notion of subduing nature and subaltern groups into the power of capitalism. More specifically, while the economic and political dimensions of these processes are salient, the ontological notions of the natureculture dualism has been invoked by states in their justification of expropriating pastoralist lands, thus nullifying indigenous people's claim to ancestral homelands. The data for this paper was collected from 2013 to 2016 through ethnographic fieldwork, mainly conducted by the authors. The findings show oscillating perceptions of humanenvironment relations among the Afar pastoralists: from humanenvironment, conjointly constituted by humans and non-humans, to the utilitarian dualist approach of environmental use which is mainly caused by the infiltration of capitalist economy and state driven development and conservation projects.

Can PA Governance Improve PA Outcomes: A Review of the Debates

“…Governments, among other things, have devolved responsibilities from government agencies to individuals and communities and favoured market-based instruments (Lockwood, 2010). Again, neoliberalism is complemented by the current global shift towards the commodification of nature and the reworking of environmental governance (Liverman, 2004;Debelo et al, 2018). Application of governance in current PA management is important since efforts to conserve nature has been largely undermined by world trade and neoliberalism that creates easy opportunities for natural resources to be traded.…”