Environmental Peacebuilding through Defense of Territory, Indigenous Protected Zones and Land Return

Elaine (Lan Yin) Hsiao, Kent State University School of Peace and Conflict Studies (United States)

The ecological importance of Indigenous territories is undeniable, as is their vulnerability to socionatural disruption from armed conflict. While Indigenous land management encompasses 28% of the planet’s land cover, 79% of these lands (i.e., Territories of Life) occur within biodiversity hotspots that have experienced armed conflict, emphasizing a significant overlap between armed conflict and Indigenous territories (Beattie et al, 2023: 3). This presentation explores three mechanisms through which environmental peacebuilding through Territories of Life is practiced: nonviolent resistance or defense of Territory, establishment of demilitarized protected zones and land return. The paper looks at examples of socionatural disruption from armed conflict on Indigenous Peoples in Guatemala, The Khyber Pass, Micronesia and Colombia and some of the reparative processes that followed to better understand the challenges and opportunities for protecting Indigenous Peoples and their Territories of Life. This presentation proposes that in safeguarding Indigenous lands, practices of Indigenous conservation and environmental peacebuilding are also preserved, protecting alternatives for restorative environmental justice and more-than-human post-conflict reconciliation that can benefit both biodiversity and positive peace.