ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I explore the promises and pitfalls of the external forest policies of the EU as a hegemonic institution for achieving transformative change, with a particular focus on the institutionalisation of Indigenous rights through the EU-Honduras FLEGT VPA. Conceiving transformation” as a fundamental and counterhegemonic shift in societal thinking, knowing and doing, I ask to what extent the VPA ruptured or reinstated the political, economic and epistemic hegemonies underlying settler colonial rule over Indigenous lands. I find that the VPA held an important promise of societal transformation by facilitating the discussion of longstanding demands for legal reform in favour of land titling of Indigenous territories, the recognition of Indigenous governance and the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent. However, I argue that these attempts failed when Indigenous proposals unsettling settler colonial rule over Indigenous territories were either ignored or stripped of their transformative potential or coopted. I conclude with reflections on the limitations of state-centred participation processes and associated state-led reforms as well as on the potential role of the EU and the donor community more broadly in enabling transformations in countries subjected to those reforms.
