Deadly Environmental Governance: Authoritarianism, Eco-populism, and the Repression of Environmental and Land Defenders

Abstract

Environmental and resource governance models emphasize the importance of local community and civil society participation to achieve social equity and environmental sustainability goals. Yet authoritarian political formations often undermine such participation through violent repression of dissent. This article seeks to advance understandings of violence against environmental and community activists challenging authoritarian forms of environmental and resource governance through eco-populist struggles. Authoritarianism and populism entertain complex relationships, including authoritarian practices toward and within eco-populist movements. Examining a major agrarian conflict and the killing of a prominent Indigenous leader in Honduras, we point to the frequent occurrence of deadly repression within societies experiencing high levels of inequalities, historical marginalization of Indigenous and peasant communities, a liberalization of foreign and private investments in land-based sectors, and recent reversals in partial democratization processes taking place within a broader context of high homicidal violence and impunity rates. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of deadly repression on environmental and land defenders. Key words: authoritarianism, environmental defenders, Honduras, populism, repression.

环境与资源治理模型, 强调在地社区与公民社会的参与以达到社会公平与环境可持续性目标的重要性。但威权政治的形成, 却经常通过对异议的暴力压迫, 破坏此般参与。本文企图推进我们对于对抗挑战威权的环境与资源治理形式之环境与社区行动者的暴力之理解, 该暴力是通过生态民粹主义的斗争。威权主义与民粹主义存在着复杂的关系, 包含迈向生态民粹主义运动、并存在于该运动中的威权实践。我们检视洪都拉斯国内一起重大的农业冲突与一位重要的原住民领导者的谋杀事件, 指向在经历高度不平等的社会中经常发生的致命压迫、原住民与农民社区在历史中的边缘化、以土地为基础的部门对外国与私人投资的自由化, 以及晚近在高度杀人暴力与免责率的更广泛脉络下民主化进程的部分倒退。我们于结论中讨论对环境与土地保卫者的致命压迫之意涵。 关键词：威权主义: 环境保卫者, 洪都拉斯, 民粹主义, 压迫。

Los modelos de gobernanza ambiental y de los recursos enfatizan la importancia de la comunidad local y la participación de la sociedad civil para alcanzar las metas de equidad social y sustentabilidad ambiental. No obstante, las formaciones políticas autoritarias a menudo socaban tal participación por medio de la represión violenta del disentimiento. Este artículo busca avanzar en el entendimiento de la violencia contra activistas ambientales y comunitarios que retan las formas autoritarias de la gobernanza ambiental y de los recursos por medio de luchas ecopopulistas. El autoritarismo y el populismo albergan relaciones complejas, incluso prácticas autoritarias, hacia y dentro de los movimientos eco-populistas. Con el examen de un conflicto agrario mayor y del asesinato de un prominente líder indígena en Honduras, señalamos la ocurrencia frecuente de represión letal en sociedades que experimentan altos niveles de desigualdad, marginación histórica de comunidades indígenas y campesinas, una liberalización de inversiones extranjeras y privadas en los sectores basados en la tierra y recientes reveses en los procesos de democratización parcial que ocurren dentro de un contexto más amplio de altas tasas de violencia homicida e impunidad. Concluimos con una discusión de las implicaciones de la represión letal contra los defensores del medio ambiente y de la tierra.

Keywords:

• Palabras clave: autoritarismo
• defensores ambientales
• Honduras
• populismo
• represión.

Notes

1 As Borras (2018) suggested, populism can be defined as “the deliberate political act of aggregating disparate and even competing and contradictory class and group interests and demands into a relatively homogenized voice, i.e., ‘us, the people’, against an ‘adversarial them’ for tactical or strategic political purposes” (3; see also Laclau 2007).

2 On the concept of environmental authoritarianism, see Beeson (2010); on authoritarian resource governance and its relational dimensions between states, companies, and local communities in the case of Laos, see Kenney-Lazar (2018).

3 These insidious forms of repression are complemented by various forms of divide-and-rule and cooptation strategies not discussed in this article (see Schilling-Vacaflor and Eichler 2017; Brock and Dunlap 2018).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nick Middeldorp

NICK MIDDELDORP holds a master’s degree in International Development Studies from Wageningen University and is currently a doctoral student in geography at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]. He works on extractive projects, consent processes, violence, environmental justice, and coping strategies of land and environmental defenders.

Philippe Le Billon

PHILIPPE LE BILLON is a Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include conflicts over natural resources, political economy of war, and corruption.