ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 focuses on the transnational dimensions of agrarian conflicts and peasant resistance. It investigates the different territorialization strategies of peasants, indigenous groups, conservation NGOs and apparatuses of the state. It shows successful examples of peasant resistance that challenge the commodification of forest carbon, and disentangles conflicts between development- and conservation-oriented apparatuses of the state. REDD+ and the rising influence of private actors described in Chapter 4 have not only changed Indonesia’s conservation landscape, but they have also changed the meanings and the spatial extend of apparently local conflicts on access and control over forests. Forest carbon offsetting transfers responsibility for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from global centers to the periphery and in most cases to regions that have contributed much less to global warming than the urban centers in the Global North. Peasants raised concerns that green enclosures challenge their livelihood strategies, asking whether their lives are not more important than reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In this regard, the struggles in Jambi are also struggles for climate justice. The idea that REDD+ could support a sustainable transition in rural areas did not gain much traction in the landscapes around the Berbak Carbon Initiative and the Harapan Rainforest.
