Greenwashed relations of genocide

This chapter seeks to contribute to an emerging “ecological turn” in genocide studies that places the material “extra-human environment” at the core of the biological and cultural integrity of social groups such as indigenous peoples and territorially dependent placed-based groups. In the age of the Anthropocene, such social groups are often the victims of an array of ecological and culturally genocidal coercive practices. For many indigenous and place-based peoples, their historical narrative and their practises, rituals and traditions are inextricably connected to their land base. In this chapter we explore the ecologically induced genocide suffered by such groups where environmental destruction results in conditions of life that fundamentally threaten a social group’s cultural and/or physical existence. We elucidate a political economy of eco-genocide with a special focus on ‘conservation’ and ‘environmental protection’ projects linked to global environmental governance efforts to mitigate climate change, via a convoluted intergovernmental architecture of carbon markets, nature conservation initiatives and ultimately the extension of the commodity form into hither to untapped reaches of nature. Fundamentally, these ostensible efforts at conservation, are we argue, attempts at restructuring socio-ecologies to make them more amenable to structural accumulation strategies. To do this we synthesize a new theoretical apparatus which adopts a rich heterodox multidisciplinary approach, drawing on fields as diverse as political economy, environmental sociology and political ecology.