Indigenous rights in changing forest landscapes in South-East Asia : How narratives in science and practice frame indigenous environmental justice and stewardship

Abstract: Indigenous environmental justice and rights to land are often compromised in favour of state and corporate land control. Narratives that oppose indigenous peoples to development and conservation, and portray communities as either “backwards” or “environmentally destructive”, have been used since the colonial period to justify dispossession of indigenous lands and displacements of indigenous peoples. In parallel, an indigenous justice movementhas been growing, that has absorbed a “counter-narrative” that depicts indigenous peoples as environmental stewards, and stresses the importance of indigenous rights to land as part ofeffective climate change mitigation. This thesis investigates how narratives in the scientific literature and practice frame indigenous peoples’ rights to land in Southeast Asia. A review of 60 scientific articles was conducted and complemented with a small sample of in-depthinterviews with practitioners working with development, conservation and indigenous rights in Southeast Asia. Through the creation of a novel framework that combines environmental justice and stewardship, this study uncovers how modern narratives continue to perpetuate entrenched colonial and business-as-usual pathways.