scholarly journals Renegotiating the Columbia River Treaty: Transboundary Governance and Indigenous Rights

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 4-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Cohen ◽  
Emma S. Norman

This article builds on regional environmental governance (REG) scholarship to explore alternatives to conventional transboundary agreements. Specifically, we use two narratives to tell the story of one river variously known as Wimahl, Nich’i-Wàna, or Swah’netk’qhu, and, more recently, the Columbia River. We suggest that the state-led narrative of the signing and implementation of the 1964 Columbia River Treaty has obscured Indigenous narratives of the river—a trend replicated in most scholarship on transboundary environmental agreements more broadly. In exploring these narratives, we: situate the silencing of Indigeneity in the 1964 Columbia River Treaty; highlight the reproduction and amplification of that silence in the relevant literature in the context of strengthened Indigenous rights; and explore what a multilateral—as opposed to binational—approach to environmental agreements might offer practitioners and scholars of REG.

Author(s):  
Farukh Mohammad Azad ◽  
Dr. Tim Frazier ◽  
Erik Wood

The literature indicates that conflict can result in food insecurity due to economic or political crisis. However, few studies have investigated the effects that nonviolent interstate conflict has on food security in the Middle East. Evidence from this study, based in Qatar, indicates that conflict can result in food insecurity due to economic or political crisis. This research critically examines the lingering political and economic blockade of the State of Qatar and the extent to which this blockade has impacted food security of residents. The study employed a sequential mixed methods approach to gain better insight into the nature of food security in Qatar. A focused qualitative review of the relevant literature was followed by a quantitative analysis which revealed that there was no significant effect of interstate conflict on food security, while the economic and political blockade correlated significantly with food security. Three groups were sampled, including government officials, regulatory agencies, and food suppliers.


Author(s):  
Iván Tarcicio Narváez Quiñónez

La colonización dirigida, espontánea y estratégica, además de la permanente ampliación de la frontera agrícola para la extracción de recursos naturales, han determinado el uso y zonificación del espacio amazónico en los últimos 50 años. Las drásticas huellas socio-económicos, culturales y ambientales generadas por estos procesos han impactado negativamente la vida de los pueblos ancestrales y la naturaleza. Una consecuencia drástica es el cambio de la comprensión de la territorialidad en el interior de los territorios indígenas, y de la percepción que de aquel cambio tienen el Estado y los actores asentados en el entorno territorial comunitario. El presente estudio aborda el caso del pueblo waorani e inquiere cómo la ampliación de la frontera extractiva intensificaría los impactos negativos del proceso de desterritorialización en el Parque Nacional Yasuní, poniendo en mayor riesgo la integridad física y cultural de los de los pueblos que viven en aislamiento voluntario: Tagaeri y Oñamenane u otros de los cuales no se tiene referencia.   Abstract Targeted, spontaneous and strategic colonization, in addition to the permanent expansion of the agricultural frontier for the extraction of natural resources, has determined the use and zoning of the Amazonian space in the las 50 years. The drastic socioeconomic, cultural and environmental impacts generated by these processes have impated negatively the life of the ancestral peoples and nature. A drastic consequence is the change of the understanding of the territoriality in the interior of the indigenous territories, and the perception that the state and the actors settled in the community territorial environment have of that change. This study addresses the case of the Waorani people and inquires how the expansion of the extractive frontier would intensify the negative impacts of the process of decentralization in the Yasuní National Park, putting at greater risk the physical and cultural integrity of the peoples living in voluntary isolation: Tagaeri and Onamenane or others of which there is no reference.


Author(s):  
Alex Latta

States’ increasing recognition of Indigenous rights in the realm of natural resources has led to a variety of co-management arrangements and other forms of melded authority, evolving over time into increasingly complex governance relationships. This article takes up such relationships within the analytical frame of multilevel governance, seeking lessons from the experiences of Indigenous involvement in water policy in Canada’s Northwest Territories (NWT). It examines the way that effective collaboration in resource governance can emerge within the space of tension between evolving Indigenous rights regimes and the continued sovereignty of the state. At the same time, the analysis raises questions about whether multilevel governance can contribute to meaningful decolonization of relationships between settler states and Indigenous Peoples.


Author(s):  
Daniel Butt

This chapter examines the limitations of both command-and-control and market-based legal mechanisms in the pursuit of environmental justice. If the environment is to be protected to at least a minimally acceptable degree, approaches that focus on the coercive force of the state must be complemented by the development of an “ecological ethos,” whereby groups and individuals are motivated to act with non-self-interested concern for the environment. The need for this ethos means that the state is dependent on the cooperation of a wide range of non-state actors. Recent work on environmental governance emphasizes the delegation of aspects of governing to such actors and supports efforts to increase popular participation in governmental processes. The chapter therefore advocates a governance approach that seeks to rectify some of the limitations of state-led environmental law, while encouraging popular participation in a way that can encourage the development of an ecological ethos among the citizenry.


Author(s):  
Maano Ramutsindela ◽  
Bram Büscher

State formation processes that are historically associated with the emergence of the modern state as well as the post-colony have been punctuated by the rise of environmentalism, especially the need for nation-states to respond to, as well as manage environmental challenges. Responses to these challenges by multiple actors such as the state, industry, environmental nongovernmental organizations, and financial institutions culminate in environmental governance and in the co-constitution of environment and state making. The state–environment relations have produced new forms of governmentality that refocus the activities of the state toward globally defined environmental agendas. In Africa attempts by multiple actors to manage the environment have transformed the state in five principal ways: (1) They enable global capitalism to enroll African environments in a niche area for capital accumulation but also tie up African governments to environmentally related business interests; (2) environmental governance in Africa and elsewhere leads to resistance and contestations over natural resources that in turn shape the relationship between the state and its citizens; (3) global environmental issues have led to environmental solidarity among African states, which they use to negotiate environmental agreements at the international stage; (4) environmental threats such as the poaching of wildlife in Africa integrate African states into global security frameworks that in effect threaten or corrode the integrity of the African state; and (5) environmental challenges and the opportunities that come with environmental solutions create conditions for competition among African states as well as the formation of new alliances among states. These outcomes highlight the significance of the state–environment nexus in the continuous (re-)making of the African state.


2005 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcia Langton ◽  
Zane Ma Rhea ◽  
Lisa Palmer

Across the globe, community-oriented protected areas are increasingly recognised as an effective way to support the preservation and maintenance of the traditional biodiversity related knowledge of indigenous peoples and local communities. We argue that guaranteed land security and the ability of indigenous and local peoples to exercise their own governance structures is central to the success of community-oriented protected area programs. In particular, we examine the conservation and community development outcomes of the Indigenous Protected Area program in Australia, which is based on the premise that indigenous landowners exercise effective control over environmental governance, including management plans, within their jurisdiction (whether customary or state-based or a combination of elements of both), and have effective control of access to their lands, waters and resources. Key Words: community-oriented protected areas, Indigenous rights, conservation, Australia


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-121
Author(s):  
Ronald B. Mitchell ◽  
Liliana B. Andonova ◽  
Mark Axelrod ◽  
Jörg Balsiger ◽  
Thomas Bernauer ◽  
...  

Initiated in 2002, the International Environmental Agreements Data Base (IEADB) catalogs the texts, memberships, and design features of over 3,000 multilateral and bilateral environmental agreements. Using IEADB data, we create a comprehensive review of the evolution of international environmental law, including how the number, subjects, and state memberships in IEAs have changed over time. By providing IEA texts, the IEADB helps scholars identify and systematically code IEA design features. We review scholarship derived from the IEADB on international environmental governance, including insights into IEA membership, formation, and design as well as the deeper structure of international environmental law. We note the IEADB’s value as a teaching tool to promote undergraduate and graduate teaching and research. The IEADB’s structure and content opens up both broad research realms and specific research questions, and facilitates the ability of scholars to use the IEADB to answer those questions of greatest interest to them.


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