Between Resistance and Consent: Project–Village Relationships When Introducing REDD+ in Zanzibar

Abstract

Reductions of Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) is one example of a globally important environmental intervention implemented throughout the global South. This article investigates the possibilities for rural villagers to influence these interventions, and thus negotiate access to forest resources at the local level. Based on data from ethnographic fieldwork in Zanzibar, the article explores a process where representatives from one village and forest authorities negotiate a Community Forest Management Agreement that will be part of a future REDD scheme in Zanzibar. The article reviews the multiple local responses to this pre-REDD process and discusses factors that contribute to shaping these responses. Local claims about ‘lost land’ and ‘disappearing benefits’ are at the core of what villagers want to see redressed by taking part in the REDD project. But despite the seemingly great local expectations towards the arrival of the project, as well as the project's self-presentation as participatory, villagers soon realize that their influence on the project is marginal. After attempting to voice their concerns through negotiation, villagers experience that the ahistorical and apolitical approach of the project forces them into more resistance-like behaviour – complicating the distinction between consent and non-consent to the project. Inspired by Foucault's conception of power and the tensions between different knowledge, logics and practices at project vs. village level, the article seeks to contribute to furthering our theoretical reflections and understanding of ‘project'–‘village’ dynamics in external environmental interventions with a global agenda, where REDD is just one example.