ABSTRACT
“Fortress conservation” has resulted in harm for Indigenous and other local communities in Nepal as elsewhere around the world. Over the last 50 years, national parks, conservation areas, and hunting reserves have been set up in Indigenous territories relying upon the army and a model of militarization for security. As a result, the Indigenous communities that once stewarded those forests and ecosystems have been displaced from their lands and resources. Moreover, the relentless drive for economic growth has also dispossessed them similarly. In return, they receive few or no benefits from the projects, even as political and business elites cash in while their concerns for impacts on their natural and cultural environment are not even addressed.
This chapter argues that their movements in the context of so-called development projects are not just challenging social and development injustice against them but also aimed at promoting environmental justice for the wider society and the country. This chapter, based on real-life practice of advocacy for justice, will thus present the stories of struggles of Indigenous communities across the country that demonstrate the “environmentalism of the poor” in the real sense.
