REDD+ Governance, Indigenous Mapping and Spatial Governmentality in Indonesia — ASN Events

REDD+ Governance, Indigenous Mapping and Spatial Governmentality in Indonesia (16770)

Rini Yuni Astuti 1 2 , Andrew McGregor 1 2
  1. Victoria University of Wellington, Kelburn, Wellington, New Zealand
  2. Geography and Environment, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

On May 2013, the Constitutional Court of Indonesia accepted the Judicial Review of Forestry Law brought forward by among other Indigenous People’s Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN). The delivered verdict is effectively returning the jurisdiction and ownership of customary forest to masyarakat hukum adat (indigenous people). Following the verdict, millions of hectares are mapped by indigenous communities with the help of several NGOs such as AMAN and Participative Mapping Network (JKPP). The NGOs some of them funded with REDD+ readiness grants and depicting on the importance of secure tenure for successful REDD+ implementation campaign for the recognition of customary land. Using a case study of an indigenous mapping process undertook by a Dayak community in Central Kalimantan province, this paper seeks to unpack the nexus between REDD+ governance, indigenous mapping, and the governance of spaces as a technology to produce particular subjectivities. This paper employs spatial governmentality framework to examine the (re)production of new territory and identity (Foucault, 1995). The mapping process, presumably linked to a form of market environmentalism, have produced new geographic imaginary along with its spatial ordering technologies effectively articulates community’s collective indigenous identity. Thus, enables them to contest state or private authority. Whereas REDD+/carbon forestry projects have been prematurely seen as the new frontier of green grabbing (Fairhead et al, 2012; Corson et al, 2013), REDD+ has been widely perceived in Indonesia as a new chance to counterbalance the previous monopoly of authoritative resources by the state or capital.