Special Issue: Indigenous Peoples & Environmental Justice

Despite Indigenous Peoples being one of the most visible political actors in the environmental justice movement (Rodríguez & Inturias 2018) and safeguarding 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity in less than 25% of the world’s land (Sovrevilla, 2008) , their involvement, voices, and knowledge systems have been missing from the environmental justice discourse globally. Global environmental justice strategies, discourses and awareness programs are often veiled in scientific jargon, even when these approaches are heavily influenced by Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge systems, environmental kinships, and rehabilitation and mitigation approaches (Whyte 2020; Parsons et al. 2021). This further alienates Indigenous Peoples who are most negatively affected by the environmental degradation, land grabbing and forced displacement and exploitation due to neoliberalism, extractive energy resources, climate change, etc. Moreover, in the global south, the capitalist-led push— often disguised as climate change solutions— towards renewable energy solutions (e.g., hydro, solar, wind, etc.)  exacerbates the existing gap between developing and developed countries, further harming the Indigenous Peoples from the global south who rather than connecting to climate justice movements or narratives, defend territories and all the forms of life that co-exist in them (Mendoza-Jimenez, et. al., 2022)

Historically, environmental bodies have lobbied for environmental protection, while actively ignoring or contributing towards the oppression and marginalization of Indigenous Peoples fighting against racism, gender injustice and poverty. Today, similar practices continue all over the world as environmental structures push for conservation at the expense of Indigenous knowledge, spirituality and cultures (Hernandez 2022). The conservation practices often ignore the engagement with land and water sources that were once stewarded by Indigenous Peoples, and are now mostly either private or state owned. These contemporary and historical environmental protection approaches create dangerous dichotomies endangering the balance of human-nature interactions, by disregarding the rights of Indigenous Peoples over their environment and natural resources. 

In order to push against these existing divides between Indigenous Peoples and environmental justice policies, approaches, and solutions, we are seeking articles that center Indigenous Peoples’ voices, perspectives, and knowledge systems. We are interested in community-based research, perspectives, storytelling, etc., that characterize and analyze the factors that shape, produce, and reproduce forms of environmental justice and injustice from an Indigenous-lens. This special issue aims to be entirely Indigenous-led and prioritizes lived experiences, therefore, we ask for the first author(s) to be Indigenous Peoples. All authors who submit to this special issue will be asked to also serve as peer reviewers for other articles submitted to this special issue.  

Suggested topic areas include, among others: 

• Indigenous-led environmental protection approaches 
• Storytellings and narrating social and environmental injustice
• Reimagining a community led just transition 
• Indigeneity perspectives from the global south context (e.g., Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America, etc.)
• Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge systems 
• Decolonial Approaches
• Community-based projects
• Community Based ecological restoration / reviving the nature based solutions
• Reconnecting indigenous practices, spirituality and cultures with nature
• Reclamation biocultural processes
• Defense of land and territories

Submissions being solicited

The editors encourage submissions of original research articles, practice briefs, case studies, and community perspectives, storytelling, and more. Manuscripts written by academics, community representatives, joint community-academic collaborators and those that center action research, community science, and other participatory research approaches are prioritized. This is an Indigenous-led and centered special issue, so while we welcome collaborative pieces all first author(s) must be Indigenous. Each submission must be accompanied by a positionality statement for all authors. 

Upload your paper using the manuscript category:
Special Issue: Indigenous Peoples & Environmental Justice

Full-papers Submission Deadline: All manuscripts should be submitted by October 13, 2023.

All manuscripts should be submitted online using Manuscript Central and will be subjected to blinded peer review.

The editors encourage submissions of multidisciplinary research articles up to 4,000 words in length (excluding notes and bibliography).

Visit the Journal's website to learn more, read past issues, and view author submission guidelines.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

References

1.    Sobrevilla. 2008. The role of Indigenous Peoples in Biodiversity Conservation. The Natural but Often Forgotten Partners. Washington, DC.
2.    Rodríguez, I., & Inturias, M. L. (2018). Conflict transformation in indigenous peoples’ territories: doing environmental justice with a ‘decolonial turn’. Development Studies Research, 5(1), 90-105.
3.    Hernandez, J. (2022). Fresh banana leaves?: healing indigenous landscapes through indigenous science. North Atlantic Books. 
4.    Parsons, M., Taylor, L., & Crease, R. (2021). Indigenous environmental justice within marine ecosystems: A systematic review of the literature on indigenous peoples’ involvement in marine governance and management. Sustainability, 13(8), 4217.
5.    Martinez-Cruz, T.E. 2022. El Problema del ‘Expertise’ y la necesidad de crear diálogos interculturales en desarrollo Internacional. Published at LASA Blog series available at https://forum.lasaweb.org/files/vol53-issue2/Dossier3.pdf
6.    Mendoza-Jimenez, F., Cortés-Guzmán, M.V., Esquivel-Pat, W., Flores-Cruz, R.M., López-Juárez, W.M., Martinez-Cruz, T.E., Martínez-Pichardo, I.D., Medina-Huerta, E., Tzuc-Dzib, M.B. and Valdovinos-Pérez. Alternativas vivas a la crisis climática: Defensoras de la Tierra en la COP26; Un manifiesto por la vida. published at LASA Blog series available at https://forum.lasaweb.org/files/vol53-issue2/Manifesto.pdf
7.    Milbank, C, Burlingame B., Hunter D., Brunel, A., De Larrinoa-Fernandez Y., Martinez-Cruz, T.E. et al. (2021). Rethinking hierarchies of evidence for sustainable food systems. Nature Food.
8.    Whyte, K. (2020). Too late for indigenous climate justice: Ecological and relational tipping points. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 11(1), e603.
9.    Parsons,M., Fisher, K. (2020). Indigenous peoples and transformations in freshwater governance and management. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 44:124-139.
10.    Ferguson, J., Weaselboy, Marissa. (2020). Indigenous sustainable relations: considering land in language and language in land. Current Opinion in  Environmental Sustainability, 43:1-7.
11.    McGregor, D.,Whitaker, S., Sritharan,M. (2020). Indigenous environmental justice and sustainability. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 43:35-40.
12.    Schlosberg,D., Carruthers, D. (2010). Indigenous struggles, Environmental Justice and Community Capabilities. Global Environmental Politics, 10:4