Global governance of the environment, indigenous peoples and the rights of nature

Linda Etchart’s book illustrates the struggles faced by Amazonian indigenous communities to preserve their own rights vis-à-vis the powerful economic and political dynamics that threaten these communities’ environment and lifestyles. Empirically grounded in different case studies within the Ecuadorian context, the book represents a valuable and admirable attempt to link the local and global spheres of environmental and sustainability governance.

In her ambitious endeavor, the author brings into the picture a wide range of issues, themes and actors. These include, but are not limited to: the increasing participation of indigenous people in international environmental and legal processes within the United Nations; the failure of developing country governments to uphold the rights of indigenous people; the poor record of the extractive industry in terms of corporate social responsibility; the overwhelming power and influence of large investment management companies; the ambivalent role played by nongovernmental organizations; the agency of indigenous communities in fighting climate change and preserving biodiversity; buen vivir and its particular conception of the human-nature relationship; the legal uptake of the ‘rights of nature’ in national and international contexts; the championing role of local judges. Although this thematic density allows the author to cover several aspects of the plight of indigenous peoples in the Ecuadorian Amazon region, it often comes at the cost of deviating from the main focus (the role of indigenous peoples in global environmental governance), leaving the reader with limited means to identify a logical sequence in the book’s chapters and sections.

Offering an extraordinarily thorough and extensive account of legal provisions on human rights and the environment at the international, regional and national levels, Etchart successfully shows the ineffectiveness of such institutional arrangements in protecting indigenous peoples’ rights and ecosystems.

The book is extremely rich in detail, including thoroughly documented and well-referenced descriptions of events and episodes. Perhaps as a consequence of this, it is often difficult to hear the author’s own voice, as her accurate descriptions are seldom matched by reflections and interpretations about the meaning of the facts narrated. By paying scrupulous attention to contingent details, the author sometimes risks losing sight of the bigger picture, missing valuable opportunities for conceptual development. For instance, several institutions, treaties and actors of global environmental governance are enumerated, but influential theoretical debates in the field (fragmentation, density, regime complexes, orchestration, to name a few) are overlooked. Along the same lines, since the author claims to talk to an International Relations (IR) audience, the reader may have appreciated a more elaborate articulation of the author’s constructivist position, as well as a more explicit connection of the latter with the empirical material. Another example of the author’s limited engagement with theoretical debates can be found in her account of ‘greenwashing’, where she could have seized the opportunity to tap into relevant environmental governance discourses such as ecological modernization.

The book aptly exposes several ways in which international law is circumvented, illustrating, for example, how international environmental agreements can be used by national governments to legitimize their extractivist strategies at the detriment of indigenous peoples’ rights and environmental protection. Overall, the portrayal of the Ecuadorian government, including the Correa administration, is mixed: on the one hand, connections with extractivist industry as well as a climate of widespread bribery are decried; on the other hand, Ecuador’s financial vulnerability is indicated as a key reason for the country’s failure to meet its environmental and human rights commitments. Based on a painstaking account of the immense influence exercised by investment management companies on the global political economy, Etchart expresses disappointment at the fact that these powerful actors did not fill the power vacuum left by international law and UN institutions, failing to steer global environmental governance in a direction that upholds indigenous peoples’ rights.

At times, the author actually gives the impression of conflating international law with global environmental governance, assimilating the limitations of international legal agreements to the weakness of United Nations institutions. Since the evidence provided in the book seriously undermines the credibility of international law, the author could have drawn bolder conclusions in some passages, for instance questioning the idea of international courts’ neutrality and immunity to power dynamics.

The book’s main conclusions are that indigenous communities’ agency is seriously constrained by higher governance levels and by the structure of the global political economy, and that ‘the forces confronting those who wish to challenge both extractive and infrastructural projects can be irresistible, as a consequence of the marriage of government and multinational companies’ (247). The author also points to the ineffectiveness and weakness of UN institutions against these ‘forces’, including their lack of power to enforce international law (this, however, may hardly be news for an IR scholar). At the end of the book, Etchart also offers recommendations to revive the buen vivir spirit as a way to reimagine social and economic structures. Nevertheless, such calls are largely predicated on the work of other scholars (Eduardo Gudynas, Alberto Acosta), demonstrating the challenge of devising innovative political strategies in situations of imbalance of power such as those presented in the book. Perhaps there could have been an opportunity here to develop an argument about the role of communication and social media in promoting environmental campaigns and international law: although this topic emerges recurrently in the empirical chapters, its implications and prospects are not elaborated in detail.

In sum, Etchart’s book is a highly recommended reading for those interested in making sense of the complex social, economic and political dynamics that characterize indigenous communities’ resistance to extractivist activities and growth-driven imperatives. In her outstanding empirical study, the author effectively shows the challenge of redressing power imbalances in the Ecuadorian context. Where the book fails to deliver is on a theoretical level. In fact, although the author claims to have examined environmental governance discourses and narratives, what mostly emerges from the book is a collection of stories and events. Aside from more conceptually robust understandings of power relations, an IR audience would have probably appreciated more explicit and better warranted considerations about the book’s contribution to global environmental governance theory.