Contesting Moral Capital in the Economy of Expectations of an Extractive Frontier

In Southeast Asia, actors in civil society have negotiated new social and economic realities at the conjuncture of intensifying governance and commodity production in frontier areas. As these spaces intersect, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and their allies have reflected on the legitimacy of their interventions in terms of how local farmers view contrasting benefits relative to the changing expectations and promises emerging at the nexus of governance and commodity production. This article explores how a long-standing NGO network on Palawan Island, the Philippines, has drawn on its moral capital and legitimacy in forging a grassroots consortium that has implemented the carbon governance mechanism, REDD+, in a changing rural economy of expectations—one that is contested and differentiated based on its offerings and aspirations. I argue that as the NGO consortium CODE REDD tried to reframe REDD+ as a means of supporting indigenous livelihoods and climate change mitigation, it has placed its integrity and leverage at risk, as other indigenous farmers have rejected the claims and promises of the NGO REDD+ platform. I focus on a case where the NGO consortium's efforts to reframe REDD+ in terms of indigenous, propoor discourse progresses well in some quarters, aligning with anti–oil palm social movements, but fails to meet the growing aspirations of former indigenous allies who question the consortium in favor of investing in oil palm on ancestral lands. I conclude by suggesting that as NGOs adjust their political objectives by adopting market-based governance, they could lose leverage in negotiating the impact of lucrative commodity booms.