| ID | 181037 |
| Title Proper | Defending lands and forests |
| Other Title Information | NGO histories, everyday struggles, and extraordinary violence in the Philippines |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Dressler, Wolfram |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | Across the Global South, authoritarian rule and extractivist agendas have intensified the harassment and murder of activists protecting remnant forest frontiers. In 2017, Global Witness documented the brutal murders of 207 defenders, the deadliest year on record. In the Philippines, violence against defenders has recently accelerated under the increasingly authoritarian regime of President Rodrigo Duterte. Excluding drug-related extrajudicial killings, an additional 30 murders were documented in the country in 2018, the highest number of such killings in any country that year. Largely because of expanding plantations and mines, the frontier province of Palawan has experienced a surge in land grabbing and illegal logging, driving defender harassment, intimidation, and death. While scholars have explored the trends and patterns behind violence against defenders in Southeast Asia, few have considered how the rural poor emerge as activists, the role of NGOs in this process, and how defenders negotiate their activism with everyday life and livelihood. This study fills this gap by ethnographically examining how NGOs on Palawan island mobilize rural communities to shape defender practices and by exploring why defenders do what they do amid mounting threats against them, their loved ones, and their comrades across the island. |
| `In' analytical Note | Critical Asian Studies Vol. 53, No.3; Sep 2021: p.380-411 |
| Journal Source | Critical Asian Studies 2021-09 53, 3 |
| Key Words | Authoritarianism ; Social Movements ; The Philippines ; Environmental Defenders ; Everyday Activism |