Green Territoriality: Conservation as State Territorialization in a Resource Frontier

Abstract

I explore how and in what ways global conservation projects carried out in forest frontiers under rebel authority can serve to assert state control over resource-rich territories and populations. I advance the concept of “green territoriality” to describe how conservation practiced beyond the state can serve counterinsurgency aims based on a two-year field case study in a global biodiversity hotspot under armed conflict and inhabited by Karen in south-eastern Myanmar. I analyze military-led forced displacements by economic concessions and conservation during war alongside more recent conservation projects during the ceasefire. My findings reveal how military offensives, economic concessions, and conservation activities threaten to bring state agencies, administration, and management into rebel forests where Karen fled from war but have not yet returned. These findings highlight the importance of integrating conservation activities in conflict affected areas with humanitarian assistance, land restitution, and livelihood rehabilitation.