ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to contextualise and contribute to the politicisation of climate change policy. To investigate the climate politics in Jambi province and the ability of societal actors impacted by environmental change and climate policies to adapt to climate shifts, this research follows a multi-sited qualitative approach. Impacts of mitigation policies on the ability of societal actors to adapt to climate change and climate variability are highlighted. Southeastern Jambi is currently experiencing violent land conflicts involving different state agencies, peasant activists, indigenous communities, and oil palm, conservation, and timber companies. A forest can serve either as a carbon pool and sink or as a space used by shifting cultivators. The ability to define nature is inseparably linked with power relations and so affects the way different actors interact with nature, and thus affects their ability to adapt to a changing climate.
