This document discusses the need for radical alternatives to the current models of conservation and development in India which have led to environmental destruction, loss of livelihoods, and growing inequities. It outlines how formal conservation in India continues the colonial legacy of marginalizing local communities and knowledge. Community-led initiatives show promising alternative approaches that integrate conservation and rights. True sustainability requires new paradigms that empower communities, respect ecological limits, and ensure well-being through equity and justice. The key choices going forward are between these transformative participatory models or continuing down the conventional paths of unsustainable economic growth, inequality, and oppression.

1. Radical Ecological Democracy:
Thinking out of the Conservation
and Development Boxes in India
Ashish Kothari
Kalpavriksh

3. Development vs. nature and people
Conservation out of the box
Radical post-development alternatives
Choices before all of us
Today’s menu

4. Current context:
Destruction of India’s environment,
livelihoods, communities
– 50% forest destroyed in last 200 years
– 70% waterbodies polluted or drained out
– 40% mangroves destroyed
– Many of the world’s most polluted areas
– Nearly 10% (?) wildlife threatened with extinction
– Displacement, loss of livelihoods, impoverishment of
several hundred million ecosystem-dependent people
– Commercialisation, declining community life / knowledge
(NBSAP Final Report, 2004)
Smitu Kothari

5. Dominant vision of ‘development’
Violence against nature, communities, and
cultures … growth as cancer

6. Growth-based ‘development’ is
inherently unsustainable
• Several planetary boundaries already crossed
• We are already at 1.5XEarth
• Runaway climate change is at our doorstep
• India (CII/GFN, 2008): Ecological footprint twice its
biocapacity .... So colonise other countries!
Rockstrom et al 2009

7. Violence against each of us: our identity, our health, our well-being!
Livelihoods to Deadlihoods
Illustrator unknown

8. Globalised development vs.
the environment …and people
• Increasing diversion of natural ecosystems and
community lands … in 2017, 6 projects every day!!!

9. You think Protected Areas are
safe?
2014-2019: 519 projects cleared within/around PAs

10. (Heart)Breaking news ....
Champion of the Earth
or
Chomping of the Earth?

11. Richest 5% earn as much as other 95%
Socio-economic impacts:
growing inequities

12. Cartoon by Vikram Nayak
World’s majority turned into nowhere people….

13. Over-consumption by the
rich
• Richest consume 17X
poorest
• Does this really bring
happiness?

14. Shrinking
democracy
Dilutions in public
participation spaces
in laws and policies
(e.g. development
project clearances)
Attack on dissenting
civil society: ‘anti-
development’, ‘anti-
national’, ‘terrorist’,
‘urban Naxal’

15. • Communities have longest history of ecosystem
conservation (sacred sites, water/resource reserves,
regulations on exploitation, etc): focus on range of
ecosystems and species across landscape
• Pre-colonial rulers: some (e.g. Ashoka) active
managers (forest reserves, hunting reserves, strict
protection reserves): mostly focused on timber and
megafauna
A bit of ‘conservation’ history (India)

16. • Colonial and post-independence state take-over of
forests (centralised control, ‘scientific’ forestry,
Indian Forest Act): earlier commercial, more recently
conservation focus
• Re-assertion of community conservation and
governance (Forest Rights Act, democratisation
movements): resource use & conservation focus
A bit of conservation history (contd)

17. • IUCN’s work on
conservation
governance: not only
what/how to conserve,
but who to take decisions
on what/how
International context:
Paradigm shifts

18. IUCN matrix of protected areas categories and
governance types (2008 Guidelines)
Governanc
e type
Category
(manag.
objective)
A. Governance
by Government
B. Shared
Governance (co-
management)
C. Private
Governance
D. Indigenous Peoples
& Community
Governance
Feder
al or
nation
al
minist
ry or
agenc
y
Local/
municip
al
ministry
or
agency
in
change
Govern
ment-
delegat
ed
manage
ment
(e.g. to
an
NGO)
Trans-
boundar
y
manage
ment
Collaborati
ve
manageme
nt (various
forms of
pluralist
influence)
Joint
manageme
nt (pluralist
manageme
nt board)
Declare
d and
run by
individu
al land-
owner
…by
non-
profit
organis
ations
(e.g.
NGOs,
univ.
etc.)
…by for
profit
organis
ations
(e.g.
corpora
te land-
owners
)
Indigenous bio-
cultural areas &
Territories-
declared and run
by Indigenous
Peoples
Community
Conserved
Areas -
declared and
run by
traditional
peoples and
local
communities
I - Strict Nature
Reserve/
Wilderness
Area
II – National
Park
(ecosystem
protection;
protection of
cultural values)
III – Natural
Monument
IV – Habitat/
Species
Management
V – Protected
Landscape/
Seascape
VI – Managed
Resource

19. Indigenous peoples’ and community
conserved areas (ICCAs): may cover
more of earth than official PAs
www.iccaconsortium.org

21. • Range of no-use to multiple-
use approaches
• Various governance types,
from govt-managed to
collaborative and community
conserved areas
• Integrating conservation into
all land/water use
• Crucial for climate change
too…
THE LANDSCAPE APPROACH…moving
away from island and “% coverage” mentality

22. Van Panchayats,
Uttarakhand, spread
over several hundred
sq.km…. acting as
as critical wildlife
corridors, spaces for
dispersal…
Courtesy: FES
…integrated in the
Nanda Devi Biosphere
Reserve landscape,
managed through
participatory and
knowledge-based
processes…

23. 2004: Programme of Work on PAs (PoWPA) under Biodiversity
Convention:
- Ensuring community participation
- Full recognition of rights and responsibilities of
communities
- Promotion of various PA governance types to support
people’s participation (collaborative or joint management
of PAs) and community conserved areas
- Prior informed consent before any relocation
INDIA IS SIGNATORY TO THIS!
International context:
Paradigm shifts

24. State of the art on range of
conservation issues, 2015.
Free PDF download!!!

25. FORMAL CONSERVATION IN INDIA:
COLONIAL HERITAGE CONTINUES
Illegal relocation from protected areas, e.g. w.o.
Forest Rights Act implementation
Denial of basic rights inside reserves
Marginalisation of local knowledge & institutions
Ambadiha
relocation site
(from Simlipal
TR)
Rustam Vania

26. www.kalpavriksh.org
Very little conservation science focus;
Urgently need recognition and support…

27. POTENTIAL of Forest Rights Act
• 40 million hectares forest land can be
recognized as Community Rights (>50%
of India’s forest land)
• 150 million people can benefit in 17
lakh villages (1/4th of India’s villages)
Yet
• Only 3-4% of potential has been
implemented: systemic blocks, hostility from
state & (some) ‘conservationists’, community
weaknesses

28. Community uses of Forest
Rights Act (where implemented)
• Challenging undemocratic forest
management / logging (but some
misuse for encroachment also in
Individual Rights)
• Potential for self-governance &
forest based economy (need
facilitation to build capacity)
• Using as a tool for resistance
against ‘developmental’
projects (e.g. POSCO, Vedanta,
mining in Gadchiroli)
POSCO
Vedanta-
Niyamgiri

29. • People’s movements against dams, mining,
pollution, over-fishing, SEZs…. but do we
see these as conservation movements?
Resistance to destructive
development…
Protest against dams on
Indravati, 1980s

30. Assertion of self-
determination, identity,
alternative worldviews &
knowledges
Dongria Kondh
indigenous people vs.
Vedanta corporation &
Indian state

31. Are there alternatives?

32. Alternatives to what?
Structural roots of unsustainability & inequity
Concentration of power
Capitalism / class
State-dominated regimes
Patriarchy
Caste / race / ethnicity
Anthropocentrism / speciesism
….

33. False, partial, or ‘post-truth’ solutions:
Technofixes, market mechanisms, green growth,
REDD/REDD+, CDM, geoengineering …
‘sustainable development’

34. Conservation ‘offsets’ in India: fraud on the
nation
• How can plantation replace natural forest?
• Double-whammy for communities: displaced by
‘development’ project, dispossessed by conservation
offset
• Willing capitulation by (some) ‘conservationists’; even
data fudging

35. India: alternative initiatives for well-being
Water
Crafts
Shelter
Food
Energy
Governance
Livelihoods
Conservation
Village
revitalisation
Urban sustainability
Learning
Health
Producer
companies
Inclusion
Sexuality
Gender

36. Self-governance & conservation:
Mendha-Lekha (Maharashtra)
All decisions by
consensus in gram
sabha (village
assembly)
“Our government in Mumbai and Delhi,
we are the government in our village”
2013: all private
farmland converted
to village commons

37. Maha Gram Sabha,
Gadchiroli (Mah)
• Stop mining!
• Federation of 90 villages
• Aims: sustainable
livelihoods, forest rights &
conservation, local
governance built on
traditions of decision-making,
women’s empowerment,
cultural identity

38. •Organic, biodiverse agriculture, land rights: anna swaraj
•Seeds, water, media as community commons
•Transformation in gender, caste, class relations
Dalit women farmers of Deccan
Development Society (Telangana)

39. Jharcraft
(Jharkhand)
Employment for >3 lakh families…
reviving crafts, reducing outmigration

40. Livelihoods, rights, conservation
planning: Bhimashankar WLS (Mah)

41. www.vikalpsangam.org
• 1000+ stories of meeting human needs
without trashing the earth

43. Commons
Solidarity
economy
Degrowth
Buen vivir / sumaq kawsay /
kametsu asaike
Ubuntu / ukama / unhu
Ecofeminism
Agroecology /
permaculture Biocivilisation
Ecosocialism
Zapatista
Kurdish Rojava
Kyosei
Country
Transition
Nayakrishi
Agaciro
GNH Agdal
Radical alternatives across the
world

44. Towards transformative alternatives

45. Eco-swaraj:
Radical ecological democracy
(Radical = going to the roots, challenging the conventional)
• achieving human well-being, through:
– empowering all citizens & communities to participate in
decision-making
– ensuring socio-economic equity & justice
– respecting the limits of the earth
Community (at various levels) as basic unit of organisation,
not state or private corporation

46. • Diversity and pluralism (of ideas, knowledge, ecologies, economies,
ideologies, polities, cultures…)
• Self-reliance for basic needs (swavalamban)
• Self-governance / autonomy (swashasan / swaraj)
• Cooperation, solidarity, commons (including knowledge!)
• Rights with responsibilities of meaningful participation
• Dignity & creativity of labour (shram)
• Qualitative pursuit of happiness
• Equity / justice / inclusion (sarvodaya)
• Simplicity / sufficiency / enoughness (aparigraha)
• Rights of nature / respect for all life forms
• Non-violence, peace, harmony (ahimsa)
• Interconnectedness / reciprocity
• Fun!
Values & principles of
transformative alternatives ….

47. Alienation, disempowerment and
impoverishment of communities by conventional
conservation & development models
vs.
Collaboration, empowerment, rights and
livelihood security in new conservation & well-
being paradigms, multiple knowledge systems
Key choices regarding
conservation and development …

48. Key choices….
Community fragmentation, commercialisation
and market influences, new aspirations and
changing cultures
vs
Revival of community spirit, mix of new &
traditional conservation paradigms, new
economic/livelihood options with sustained
use of natural resources

49. Key choices….
Economic growth & elite led
development that outstrips nature’s
capacity and increases inequality
vs.
Alternative pathways for basic needs,
livelihood security and well-being based
on political and economic democracy,
ecological resilience

50. Key choices….
“We” (conservationists) have nothing to
do with struggles of adivasis, dalits,
women ... and “those urban Naxals”
vs.
Struggles of the oppressed (including
people and wildlife) are connected ....
#MeTooUrbanNaxal

51. A radical democratic governance regime, fully
participatory, site-specific, integrating
conservation and livelihood rights, and
combining multiple knowledges
Paths of well-being which put conservation,
equity, and justice at their core
Speaking truth to power
IN CONCLUSION….we need:

52. Contact
chikikothari@gmail.com
For more information
www.kalpavriksh.org
www.vikalpsangam.org
www.iccaconsortium.org
www.radicalecologicaldemocracy.org