Conservation - Based Resource Conflicts and Theories of Territorial Rights: a practice - based approach

My dissertation aimed to highlight the specific wrongs of the conservation resource-based conflict and displacement caused by the imposition of fortress conservation on indigenous groups, and to describe the approaches that address these wrongs. My focus is on conservation conflicts between indigenous groups and their various states on the African continent, specifically the case of the Ogiek indigenous group and the Kenyan government. I described conservation resource-based conflicts and highlighted the three interconnected wrongs of conservation-induced displacement by studying attachment-based theories in the literature on territorial rights and a practice-based approach from the forest governance literature. My dissertation proceeds in the following ways: Chapter one suggests that the imposition and enforcement of fortress conservation contribute to conservation conflicts that ultimately lead to the displacement of indigenous groups. I show how, given the interconnectedness between human and non-human entities at the core of several indigenous approaches to biodiversity conservation, conservation-induced displacement generates three interconnected wrongs: territorial, epistemic and identity-based wrongs. Chapter two highlights the relevance of discussing conservation-based resource conflict through the lens of territorial rights and natural resource conflicts. Chapter three addresses conservation resource-based conflicts and the displacement that follows them by examining the relevance of attachment as a special claim to territory and resources, and improving it through a practice-based approach. Chapter four shows the importance of recognising the fact that conservation-induced displacement affects members of indigenous groups asymmetrically, with women, in some cases, suffering double wrongs