Forest as ‘nature’ or forest as territory? Knowledge, power, and climate change conservation in the Peruvian Amazon

Abstract

This paper examines the implications of climate crisis governance for rural communities in the Amazon of Peru. It draws the attention to the shared political economy behind the resistance of diverse rural populations particularly, Indigenous and Colono communities. Based on an analysis of two local conservation interventions in the region of San Martín—one involving indigenous communities and the other peasant settlers—this study argues that narrow authorized knowledge obscures the wider historical and agrarian macro context of uneven institutional and ecological arrangements that lead to the reproduction of injustices related to the land, the underlying causes of deforestation, and the authoritarian relationships of these local communities with the state.