Abstract
Between the late 1960s and the early 1970s, the British government forcibly removed about 15,000 Chagossians from the Chagos Archipelago. Current legislation based on the declaration of the Chagos-Marine Protected Area (MPA) plays a crucial role in preventing the Chagossians from returning to their homeland. In this particular case study, the article aims to analyze discourses related to the establishment of the Chagos-MPA using an environmental justice framework, to consider the implications for international social work practice. Materials from court rulings, official government reports, and academic/journalist publications on the MPA, as well as from seven semi-structured interviews with key informants from three Chagossian communities based in Mauritius, Seychelles, and the United Kingdom were analyzed using ATLAS-ti 8.4 software. The main findings of the deductive critical discourse analysis are discussed concerning substantive, distributive, and procedural environmental justice for the Chagossian community (This term is used for referring different Chagossian communities from Mauritius, Seychelles, and the United Kingdom as a single homogenous group). This article calls for international social work interventions through transnational alliances between international organizations in challenging the socio-political forces that are having deleterious impacts upon the marginalized and disenfranchised populations and their biophysical environment.
Highlights
The global socio-ecological crisis such as the depletion of natural resources, greenhouse gas emission, and climate emergency requires the commitment, contribution, and collaboration of all professionals from every corner of the planet
The findings are discussed under the three dimensions of environmental justice, it is important to note that these dimensions overlap largely
Using an environmental justice framework [29,31], this case study has analyzed and discussed discourses related to the Chagos-Marine Protected Area (MPA)
Summary
The global socio-ecological crisis such as the depletion of natural resources, greenhouse gas emission, and climate emergency requires the commitment, contribution, and collaboration of all professionals from every corner of the planet. Environmental sustainability has become a popular concept, as well as a rapidly growing area of social work education, research, and practice. The concept of sustainability requires: (a) balancing competing needs and interests and adapting to social and environmental changes, and (b) maintenance or increase of ‘welfare for all’ over time and generations [3]. It involves sustaining the conditions of justice [4]. Sustainability is closely linked to justice [6]
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