This thesis seeks to understand the development and implementation of the community-based pasture management policy in Kyrgyzstan, which transferred the responsibility for pasture-use planning from state administrative organs to local community-based organizations. Using document analysis, this thesis contextualizes the emergence and evolution of the policy’s key premises, including the advantages of community-based management compared to state-centered management. Using interviews and observations, this thesis draws out individual experiences of herders, forestry service officials and the members of pasture committees with the implementation of the policy in the Kadamzhai district of Kyrgyzstan. Findings suggest that historical continuities in pasture governance play an important role in the functioning of such policies. On the national level, the reliance of the state on the Soviet administrative and territorial division has reinforced pasture-use fragmentation, where different institutional actors struggle for authority over pastures. These struggles can be observed on the local level, where the implementation of policy is often challenged by forestry officials believing in the advantages of the Soviet fortress conservation, rather than community-based management. Second, the local outcomes of policy depend on the compliant or resistant subject positions of individuals involved in pasture use. Policy implementation succeeded in the recruitment of compliant pasture committee chairmen, who claim to be interested in bringing good to the communities through steering the use of pastures. However, the procedures for the establishment of committees contributed to their top-down functioning, where herders often consider the committees as a state agency and find different strategies to avoid their imposed payments.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(農学) / 甲第23962号 / 農博第2511号 / 新制||農||1092(附属図書館) / 学位論文||R4||N5397(農学部図書室) / 京都大学大学院農学研究科地域環境科学専攻 / (主査)教授 星野 敏, 教授 藤原 正幸, 教授 秋津 元輝 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Agricultural Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

This dissertation examines the operation of neoliberal environmentality through the instrumentalization of the Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in Wyoming. It treats technological interventions within environmental construction as generating biotic-machinic entanglements termed technonature. I present the formation and operation of the Wyoming Conservation Exchange as a case study of technonatural territorialization connected to global trona and hydrocarbon commodity flows. The theoretical framework elaborates how "the environment" is constructed and governed through tactical instrumental deployments connected to technocratic management allowing economically powerful actors to inscribe their desires within Wyoming's landscape, politics and biota as a function of environmental security related to commodity development. The question motivating this work is "Whose environment is the Environmental Defense Fund defending?" The Greater Sage-grouse has become an object of U.S. Federal environmental governance since the late 1990's. It has experienced significant population declines due to anthropogenic disturbance and habitat loss through industrial action across its range. Wyoming's Sagebrush Steppe contains 37.5% of the remaining range wide population. The grouse was listed as a candidate species under the 1973 U.S. Endangered Species Act triggering responses from Federal, State, and international wildlife management agencies, as well as environmental non-governmental organizations. Wyoming could lose nearly a quarter of its surface should Federal regulations require the designation of critical sage-grouse habitat. Governor Dave Freudenthal signed Executive Order 2008-2 into law in response to the regulatory threat to Wyoming's hydrocarbon and mineral based economy. The grouse, in response was de-listed as a candidate species in 2015 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. EO 2008-2 established the Wyoming Core Area Strategy as a statewide conservation umbrella and laid the framework for a habitat mitigation economy allowing industrial activity to continue within sage-grouse habitat. This incentivized the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to test a market-based instrument – a habitat exchange – within Wyoming. The Greater Sage-grouse is a test species as it is highly sensitive to changes in its environment and this dissertation examines how the habitat mitigation economy advanced by EDF is drawing the grouse into global commodity networks as a territorialization process for global flows of hydrocarbons and minerals. At stake is the ability to write the history of the species, land, and the global environment as EDF develops conservation technologies prioritizing flows critical to the hydrocarbon environment through the technology of the Wyoming Conservation Exchange. / Doctor of Philosophy / The Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) entered Euro-American scientific study as early as the Lewis and Clark expedition as they explored the Intermountain region of Western North America. The first thorough scientific study of the sage-grouse in the 20th Century, The Sage Grouse in Wyoming, by Dr. Robert Lansing Patterson included the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on grouse populations. Since the 1952 publication of Patterson's study, Greater Sage-grouse numbers have been declining as the bird loses its home to encroachments such as urbanization, agriculture, grazing, mining, and fossil fuel extraction. The last stronghold of the grouse is the Sagebrush Steppe within Wyoming containing nearly 40% of the remaining population. Known for its flamboyant mating displays, the ground-dwelling avian species has become a political flashpoint in conservation, land management, and environmental circles as its numbers declined steadily since the 1990's due to an accelerating energy boom threatening its habitat. The bird became a threat to extractive industry in Wyoming at the turn of the Millennium as environmentally concerned groups petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (UFWS) to evaluate its populations under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Nearly a quarter of Wyoming's surface would be strictly policed as critical habitat were the grouse listed as endangered or threatened under the ESA. Wyoming and its partners created the Wyoming Core Area Protection Strategy (CAP) as a wildlife management framework through Executive Order 2008-2. The Wyoming CAP includes the foundation of a habitat mitigation economy allowing industry to trade surface disturbances within critical sage-grouse habitat for modified land purportedly to the benefit of the species. The Nature Conservancy invited the Environmental Defense Fund to form the Wyoming Conservation Exchange – a market-based conservation instrument tailored to trading in habitat mitigation credits. This dissertation studies the Wyoming Conservation Exchange as an instrument connected to larger networks of wildlife management agencies, non-governmental organizations, and mining and fossil fuel interests. It evaluates the effects of the Wyoming Conservation Exchange and the economy it seeks to establish as changing how the environment is managed across the Sagebrush Steppe. Environmental Defense Fund's conservation instrument is reviewed through the economy created for and through the Greater Sage-grouse as an object of environmental governance. Habitat offsetting can, has and will change the physical, and political environment of Wyoming allowing powerful actors to write the rules of how the environment should be managed. As such, this dissertation questions whose environment the Environmental Defense Fund is defending as it explores sage-grouse management within the state.

The environmental politics in Sweden are portrayed in the Swedish environmental discourse to be both ambiguous and a pioneer state internationally. Sweden has an established aim to solve the sixteen identified grand environmental issues in Sweden until the next generation (2025). For example, Tracy Skillington, mentioned in the field of research, argues of an absence of climate justice for future generations. This paper will therefore examine the way Sweden relates to future generations in the Swedish environmental politics through a lens of climate justice. I will approach this subject through a discourse analysis of three Swedish propositions which can be used to understand the background meaning of legislations, and therefore also can be regarded as authoritarian in the Swedish environmental discourse. The analysis will be based on the logic of signs in the discourse and structured according to the analysis tool, problem – reason – solution. The main problem in Swedish environmental discourse can relate to the ambiguous formulation of the generational aim. Sweden expresses, in their environmental discourse (proposition 1997/98:145), a confidence to solve the environmental issues until the next generation, meanwhile maintaining other political priorities such as economic growth. Sweden describes an overall change of society to sustainable development. In the Swedish environmental discourse terms such as justice and crisis are excluded, which forms and characterizes the Swedish discourse. The problems in Swedish environmental discourse are being visible though the environmental aims seem unreachable on the set timeline. There are three identified reasons in the Swedish environmental discourse, nature as an economic human resource, the environmental quality issues in Sweden depends on other states environmental actions due to the transnational problem and the initial environmental goals are portrayed as impossible to fulfill. Sweden legitimize their environmental discourse through the solutions found in the three propositions. The choice to use generation to describe the Swedish aim, could be understood to unify the Swedish environmental discourse. In the propositions, a change in the meaning of the generational aim will be shown, which makes a prominent difference for future generations. In proposition 2016/17:146, a transition to climate is made which means less focus on future generation in the Swedish discourse. The next generation has a prominent role in the environmental discourse of Sweden, but it turns out unclear what exact meaning the generation of today include in the term next generation. The promises made in the first proposition, are emptied of the initial meaning, why it is questionable if climate justice towards the next generation can be reached in the Swedish environmental discourse.

Biodiversity loss caused by human activities is considered to be one of the greatest challenges to the stability of our planet. Protected areas emerged as a solution to this challenge, but they are not always successful due to the exclusion and displacement of local communities that live in proximity to the protected area, especially in low income countries. The Maasai Mara conservancy model presents an opportunity to mitigate these problems by increasing wildlife habitat and simultaneously improving the livelihoods of surrounding Maasai communities. However, the model is threatened by the Covid-19 pandemic which has suspended the international tourism on which the conservancies rely. In order to understand how the model can potentially increase its resilience to future global shocks, I interviewed stakeholders about their experiences within the model, during the pandemic and relating to past global shocks. Using the concept of environmentality, I sought to evaluate the structure of the model, its historical roots and the governance tools which enable its function. Some already existing issues were emphasised by the impact of the pandemic, while new opportunities for evolution were also unearthed. The most prominent theme arising from these conversations was that of equity - between tourism partners and landowners, relating to the rights of women and to the place of Maasai youth in the future of the model. The colonial history of wildlife conservation also created discussions around the exclusion of local tourists and the underlying biases that may exist. Finally, I attempt to understand how the governance enacted within the conservancy model creates different kinds of environmental subjects. Although previous discussions on environmental governance have assumed that regulation is successful, I illustrate here that power is not unidirectional because resistance and negotiation by the governed population is common. By interrogating the different layers of environmentality and how they interplay, I trace the creation new environmental subjectivities in those who are involved in the conservation of wildlife in the Maasai Mara.

This paper aims to investigate some of the diverse perceptions of local populations in Sweden regarding wind energy, focusing on the Ockelbo area. Through a critical discourse analytical perspective, the analysis explores the community's attitudes toward their role in wind energy development and analyzes the presence of discursive elements. The study uses mostly interviews and shows that the local community generally supports wind energy. In contrast to many other areas, the Ockelbo area does not seem to have the individual gap of the Nimby attitude, whereby individuals have a positive attitude toward wind energy in general and a negative attitude toward wind energy in their nearby area. Instead, my informants are generally positive toward wind energy both in general and in Ockelbo. Furthermore, I have related my findings to the theory of environmentality, in which the responsibility for the environment is placed on the population rather than the state through knowledge production about the climate. I argue that elements of environmentality are present in the Ockelbo area through a climate IDF (discursive-ideological formation). This climate IDF frames fossil-free energy as a necessary measure against climate change, that the local population should feel responsible for accepting. This perceived responsibility can be attributed to government rationalities of the state. However, my material shows that the local community does not completely accept responsibility for allowing wind energy. Instead, most of my informants seem to discuss how different aspects of wind energy, such as economic compensation for it, conditions their acceptance for wind energy. Therefore, I do not think that the informants – and perhaps the Ockelbo community in general – are fully internalizing the state’s prioritization of wind energy in areas such as that of Ockelbo.

During the last two decades the shore protection law [strandskyddslagen] in Sweden has undergone changes to make it easier for municipalities to infringe on protected areas. This paper offers a contribution to the understanding of the interplay between common environmental theory perspectives and the environmentality discourse, something that has been missing from the academic field. Earlier research has been dedicated to show how certain types of environmentality tend subjects to internalize certain norms that legitimizes a neoliberal order. This order fosters a development norm that stands in conflict with an ecocentric perspective.  Using a modified version of Bacchi and Evelines WPR-method, we found that the discourse among Swedish municipalities, Stockholm being an exception, interpret the part of the shore protection law which purpose is to protect animals and vegetation as a hindrance to development. This highlights the problematic relationship between environmental protection and economic growth.  By applying an ideal-type analysis on overview plans and consultation responses of ten Swedish municipalities we were able to identify a shallow, neoliberal perspective on nature which enables a neoliberal environmentality. The interplay between shallow perspectives on nature and neoliberal environmentality creates a hegemonic structure in which critical voices tend to be marginalized, resulting in a post-politization of beach protection discourse.

Increasingly, natural resources have come to be considered in dual dimension as objects that both increase the risk of violence and pose an opportunity to build peace. This linking of natural resources to question of conflict, peace, and security denotes the ‘securitisation’ of natural resources, taken to mean the “discursive construction of an existing threat to a referent object legitimizing extraordinary means.” This begs the question, what might these ‘extraordinary means’ entail? This thesis investigates this question by analysing the United Nations Environmental Cooperation for Peacebuilding’s 2016 report, a body tasked with researching the resource/conflict nexus and producing policy to address it. Utilising a post-structural policy analysis method, I denaturalise the claims made by the policy, applying governmentality, environmentality, and critical security theories to explain the logics and rationales underpinning resource securitisation, and the effects those rationales have. The analysis suggests that the policies security framing serves to represent resource conflict as manageable only through liberal governmental reforms associated with mainstream development practice, the UNEPs monopoly of technical peacebuilding expertise, and surveillance measures placed on unsuitable countries. By emphasising these as the primary solutions, the policy removes natural resource management from public control, downplaying populations agency, and maintaining existing power relations and inequalities.

EIA's contribution to increased environmental awareness is a posited means by which EIA's contribution to a substantive level of environmental protection can be measured. However, little research has been done to evaluate and properly contextualise this increased environmental awareness in members of the public who participate in EIA and its associated processes of public participation. Utilising a Foucauldian understanding of power and governmentality, this research has shown how this process of becoming environmentally aware takes place within a broader application of governmental power and it is within this context which the success (or otherwise) of steering towards a greater environmental awareness must be evaluated. The biopolitical intentions EIA has for managing environmental life in general draws strict boundaries of expertise and authority in governing the environment, and as products of this formation of governmental power the public become subjects of expert direction. In opposition to this, the public produced a rural environment and local community as defined and governed by forms of experiential knowledge, which although pertaining to a truth-oriented mentality of rule, exerted a similar biopolitical control over the environment and immutable form of authority and expertise within it. It is contended that for EIA to penetrate bounded environments and disrupt their totalising environmentalities, the tool must extend the meaning of uncertainty to explicitly recognise the conflict that exists between actors and their respective environments. In this way, EIA can contribute to a form of self-reflexive and -critical environmental citizenship deemed necessary for a thorough investigation into the political dimensions of the environment and its associated substantive measures of enhancement and protection. Employing a realist governmentality approach to the case-study of the 2016 public inquiry in shale energy proposals in Lancashire, this research generated discourse analyses of key policy documents and public contributions to the inquiry in addition to a 'lived experience' of the inquiry as a participatory space through participant observation. The key findings were that at the policy level, the participating member of the public is produced as both a trustee and an expert, heightening the potential for conflict. Further to this, the experiences of the public inquiry added to this potential by seeking to impose on the participant an individualised, silent identity which was directly contradicted by the public during 'non-technical' sessions who sought to participate actively and collectively. Within their contributions the public produced further internal conflicts, with aspects of this discourse relying on existing institutionalised forms of knowledge and expertise to respond to environmental problems, while in others asserting that localised and personal experiences were necessary. EIA as a technique of government can have a leading role in defining the environment in both a physical, surrounding sense and as a mentality. To do so and challenge essentialised and concrete ideas regarding the environment avoiding the acts of exclusion that underpin them becoming normalised the thesis builds on the analysis to make a proposition for a more effective agonistic EIA process.

How do indigenous people perceive and practice eco-agriculture, especially when it was introduced as a development project? This thesis aims to delve into this question by focusing on a policy-induced agrarian transition for Pumi community in Sino-Myanmar borderlands. Using ethnographic methods, I intend to offer an intimate account of a provincial programme to facilitate eco-agriculture in this ethnic region. With the conceptual framework presented, the current research starts with the introduction of Pumi agricultural history and indigenous farming knowledge, with a focus on Pumi biocultural heritage. Then, I will examine how the process of ‘indigenisation of modernity’ (Sahlins 2000) has occurred against the backdrop of Pumi eco-agriculture programme. The insights will be distilled from three different aspects, which are agricultural land use, technical practices, and governance issues. For each aspect, I will scrutinise to what degree the government is following an industrial model to design the eco-agriculture agenda which corresponds to the ‘conventionalisation hypothesis’ of organic production (Buck 1997) and is thus in alignment with their long-term strategic goals to ‘modernise’ this borderland region through agricultural transformations, whereas the local Pumi farmers are actively coping with the government’s external interventions, meanwhile searching for the ‘alternative pathway’ towards agricultural modernisation. In the final chapter, I will interpret the motives of the both actors in the programme. For the government, the post-development theory will be employed to provide a critique of the ‘development discourse’ embedded in the agenda. For local farmers, the concept of ‘environmentality’ (Agrawal 2005) will be focused to interpret the Pumi farmers’ motives to indigenise, which ultimately questioning the transforming powers of modernity and globalisation on Pumi agrarian society. Basically, this thesis aims to trace the socio-political processes which drive the ‘agrarian transition’ in a Southeast Asian frontier, and further demonstrate how the resource abundance in the borderlands can underpin intense processes of commodification and dispossession (Nevins and Peluso 2008; Ishikawa 2010; see also Milne and Mahanty, 2015), the implications of which crystallised in an ethnographic context. To a larger extent, this research aims to shed lights on the interactions between social structure and individual agency ― although the Pumi farmers are struggling to survive with the adaptation to modern inputs, they are still marginalised by the structured inequality of the market economy, which limited the farmers’ opportunities to improve their own livelihoods. Furthermore, this research also has significant policy implications as it addresses the issues such as agricultural policy and ethnic relations in the borderland regions. By reflecting upon the overlapping implications of highland livelihoods, agencies, and the transforming powers of social change, the current study aims to build a locally rooted understanding of Pumi eco-agriculture programme, and provide lessons for sustainable planning and future policy-making for rural development in developing countries such as China.