- University: University of Copenhagen
- Place of defence: Copenhagen
- Keywords: Tropical forest fires, Amazon, land rights, environmental governance, political ecology, photovoice, livelihood adaptation, socio-nature assemblages, traditional burning, territory, Pyrocene
Abstract
Tropical forest landscapes and their inhabitants are increasingly disturbed by extraneous and cascading wildfires, which will likely continue to intensify as climate change and global demand for agricultural products increase. This is particularly pronounced in the Amazon basin, where human-caused ignitions, also known as agricultural fires, are rising rapidly. Fire-degraded forests tend to diminish the availability of and access to forest products, leaving local Indigenous and peasant communities more vulnerable to further environmental change. In addition, empirical studies suggest that top-down government policies may hinder the long-term sustainability of rural livelihoods as they compromise the community's ability to autonomously adapt to or recover from future disturbances. Although there is burgeoning attention to amplifying the voices of marginalised human communities, the question of how to address the rising recommendations in the literature for including nature’s voice, or the agency and stakes of non-human entities, in research is still underdeveloped, posing a major methodological challenge. It is therefore paramount to dedicate detailed studies and policies to more-than-human governance for fire use and management. To contribute to closing this gap, the thesis draws together a new conceptual framework on socio-nature and land rights transformations where more-than-human agents are recognised beyond their asset-role, drawing on assemblage theory. Employing a participatory case study of the devastating 2024 wildfires in Bolivia’s Monte Verde Indigenous Territory, this research uses photovoice, participant observation, and interviews. From frameworks including more-than-human political ecology, decolonial climate justice and mechanisms of access, I address issues of land reform, pyropolitics, and incendiary extractivism that turn Indigenous territories into a Pyrocene frontier. The analysis demonstrates how fire’s transboundary and uncontrollable nature is weaponised as a key agent in land struggles to advance a state-led productive development agenda, strategically destabilising tenure and facilitating land rights changes to consolidate central power. Forest loss from burning has resulted in more vulnerable relations between Indigenous peoples and the natural commons of their territory that expose traditional livelihoods to external shocks and trends. Post-fire practices are being reformed to account for and adapt to future events, which, together with taxing prohibition and control policies and higher fire risks induced by climate change, put disproportional weight on traditional fire users. Diverse community responses are explored, such as self-organisation and adaptive risk management, which constitute avenues for resilience. Ultimately, the study reveals that fire’s role as a more-than-human agent is central to understanding how land rights are contested and reconfigured on this political frontier.
