Environmental Citizenship, Gender, and the Emergence of a New Conservation Politics
By Harry Fischer, Ashwini Chhatre
Geoforum | December 2013
DOI
doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.07.006
Citation
Fischer, Harry., Chhatre, Ashwini. Environmental Citizenship, Gender, and the Emergence of a New Conservation Politics Geoforum doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.07.006.
Copyright
Geoforum, 2013
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Abstract
Vibrant protests against restrictions imposed by the Dhauladhar Wildlife Sanctuary (DWLS) in HimachalPradesh, India have galvanized area residents to protect local forests. In this paper, we examine how localopposition has become entangled with environmental values and practice, culminating in the decision ofa women’s group to embark on a local management system for forests inside the sanctuary. We use thiscase to highlight two key themes that will likely transform the practice of conservation in the comingyears. First, greater enfranchisement of marginal groups, especially women, within democratic politicswill activate new channels to agitate against restrictive conservation regimes and, in some instances,may engender space to envision more democratic forms of resource management. Second, the increasingvalence of environmental values within society is generating new forms of environmental awarenessamong resource users. Together, these two factors will give rise to a new conservation politics throughthe production and performance of environmental citizenship. In the case of DWLS, political actionagainst restrictive conservation has harnessed local agency toward a collective decision to protect andmanage forest resources.

Ashwini Chhatre is an Associate Professor of Public Policy and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Bharti Institute of Public Policy (BIPP) at the Indian School of Business (ISB). Professor Chhatre is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research interests broadly centre on the dynamic cross-scale interactions between governance, economic development, and environmental protection. He relocated to India from the US in 2014 to join the faculty at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. He spent 13 years in the US, including five in graduate school at Duke University, where he was awarded a PhD in Political Science. In 2006-07, Professor Chhatre became the first Giorgio Ruffolo Post-doctoral Fellow in Sustainability Science at Harvard University, before joining the Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

Between completing his BA in Economics from the University of Delhi in 1990 and starting his PhD at Duke University, he spent 11 years working in different parts of India, primarily as a community organiser and social activist on issues related to natural resources such as land, forests, and water. A background in Economics, graduate training in Political Science, and a long-standing engagement with scholarship in Geography, Anthropology, Landscape Ecology, and Environmental History ensure that his research is never confined to a single discipline.

Professor Chhatre’s main research interests lie in exploring the intersection of democracy, environment, and development, with a focus on decentralised forest governance, climate change vulnerability and adaptation, and multifunctional agriculture. Over the past 20 years, the scope of his research projects has ranged from household-level to global analysis, consistently bridging research, policy, and practice.

He was the founding Editor-in-Chief of World Development Perspectives (2016-19), served as Senior Editor of Conservation Letters (2009-2014), and has published one book and several articles in leading journals including Science, and PNAS.

Ashwini Chhatre
Ashwini Chhatre