Governing Forests

The nations of the Global North are responding to the climate change emergency with emissions trading schemes and alternative sources of energy. Meanwhile, nations of the Global South, still emerging from historical exploitation under colonialism, face decisions about natural resource use that are, for traditional owners and inhabitants of resource-rich lands, often a matter of life or death. Environmental lawyer and legal scholar Arpitha Kodiveri has worked alongside many of India's forest-dwelling communities and describes how they bear the cost of both rapacious mining development and increasing pressure for forest land to be set aside for environmental conservation. Despite these challenges, Kodiveri shows how the traditional owners and inhabitants of forest areas are driving creative solutions in forest law. Hope can be found here, in each community's unique vision of co-governance, expressed in the language of care and repair.

Arpitha Kodiveri is an environmental law and justice scholar and assistant professor of political science at Vassar College. Her work focuses on the role of climate litigation in redressing claims of loss and damage due to climate change. She has previously worked as an environmental lawyer supporting Adivasi and forest-dwelling communities in India.