Brokering justice: global indigenous rights and struggles over hydropower in Nepal

ABSTRACT

This article explores the dynamics of brokerage at the intersection between the justice conceptions enshrined in global norms and the notions of justice asserted in specific socio-environmental struggles. Using the case of a small hydropower project in Nepal, we trace the attempts of an indigenous activist to enrol villagers in his campaign against the background of villagers’ everyday negotiations with the hydropower company. The study shows how global norms, such as indigenous peoples’ rights, may fail to gain traction on the ground or even become sources of injustice in particular contexts.

RÉSUMÉ

Cet article explore les négociations et les dynamiques d’intermédiation qui interviennent à l’intersection des conceptions de la justice inscrites dans les normes internationales et celles qui sont revendiquées dans des luttes socio-environnementales spécifiques. À partir du cas d’un petit projet hydroélectrique au Népal, nous décrivons comment un activiste autochtone a tenté de convaincre les villageois de se joindre à sa campagne, dans le contexte de négociations quotidiennes entre les villageois et l’entreprise hydroélectrique. L’étude montre que les normes internationales, comme les droits des peuples autochtones, risquent de ne pas être respectées sur le terrain ou même d'être des sources d’injustice dans certains contextes.

KEYWORDS:

• Global norms
• brokerage
• indigenous rights
• hydropower
• Nepal

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Acknowledgements

We thank the people of the place we call Bargachhi in this article for their time and support, as well as Hemant Ojha and Mark Zeitoun for constructive comments. The article also benefitted from the feedback and comments of three anonymous reviewers.

Notes on contributors

Thomas Sikor is Emeritus Professor at the School of International Development, University of East Anglia. He has published on resource rights, governance and institutions with an empirical focus on forestry, agriculture and land use. He approaches these issues from a grounded political ecology perspective, with a particular interest in the practices and processes constituting property, authority and value. His PhD in energy and resources is from the University of California (1999).

Poshendra Satyal is a Senior Research Associate at the School of International Development, University of East Anglia. With a background in the natural and social sciences, he has interests in interdisciplinary and policy relevant research on environment and development, in particular environmental governance, natural resources management and climate change in Asia and Africa. He holds a PhD from the Open University, UK (2009) and an MPhil from the University of Cambridge (2002).

Hari Dhungana is a Senior Research Fellow at the Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies in Kathmandu, with a focus on the forestry and climate change sectors and on hydropower and public policy. He maintains engagement with a variety of stakeholders and research institutions working in these areas in Nepal. Hari holds a PhD from the University of East Anglia (2010) and MSc from Pokhara University, Nepal (2003).

Gyanu Maskey is a researcher at the Southasia Insitute of Advanced Studies. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the School of Arts, Kathmandu University, with a focus on urban water security in Nepal in the context of urbanisation and climate change. She also holds an MSc in Environmental Science from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. Her other research interests include climate change, hydropower, resource governance and forest management.

ORCID

Poshendra Satyal http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3503-5011

Data availability statement

The data relating to this article is available from the UK Data Archive: http://reshare.ukdataservice.ac.uk/851871/.

Notes

1 Personal and place names in this article are pseudonyms, to protect the anonymity of our informants.

2 Policy provisions and practices for hydropower project benefit sharing in Nepal include: a royalty mechanism, local share offers, support for local livelihoods (such as employment and training), investment in community development and local infrastructure, and allocated budget for environmental enhancement activities (Shrestha et al. 2016; Lord 2016).

3 Available at: http://mowss.gov.np/assets/uploads/files/Environment_Protection_Rules.pdf

4 After years of conflicts arising from bad governance, underdevelopment, widening inequality and discrimination, Nepal has undergone a number of political changes since 2006. These include: the peace agreement between the Maoists and the government (2006); declaration of a republic following the end of the Nepalese monarchy (2008); Constituent Assembly elections (2008 and 2013); promulgation of the new constitution by the Constituent Assembly (2015); and local, state and national elections under a federal governance set-up (2017 and 2018).

5 The consensus today among major political actors is that Nepal cannot become a modern nation-state without acknowledging and addressing layers of exclusionary practices based on class, caste, ethnicity, region and gender. These sentiments are broadly documented in Nepal’s 2015 constitution (see, for example, Article 18).

6 See Articles 7.1 and 7.3 of ILO Convention 169 (1989) and Articles 1–4 and 25–30 of UNDRIP (2007). ILO 169 is legally binding, whereas UNDRIP is not.

7 Local elections were held in Nepal in 2017 after a gap of almost 20 years. These were the first to be held after the promulgation of 2015 constitution.

8 With this, the company met the regulatory requirement that hydropower developers spend one per cent of the construction budget on the provision of compensation and benefits to the local population.

9 On the latter, the company had already agreed with the DDC on the payment of NPR 2.2 million, of which 35 per cent would have to be transferred to Bargachhi VDC according to Nepali law.

10 Just for this one project, we estimate that the royalties expected by the DDC are significant, contributing an additional 5 per cent to the district budget in the first 15 years and a staggering 75 per cent thereafter.

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported by a Development Frontiers Award by the UK Economic and Social Research Council and Department for International Development [grant number ES/K012460/1].