Political Ecology in Asia Dialogue Series: "Enabling a sustainable and just electricity transformation in Thailand"

Last month, we talked with Chuenchom Sangarasri Greacen (Chom Greacen), who is a co-founder of the energy think tank Palang Thai that has undertaken public-interest research for fair, sustainable, and democratic development of the energy sector in Thailand and the wider Mekong region. Before this, from 1999 to 2003, Chom was an electricity policy analyst at the Energy Policy and Planning Office within Thailand’s Ministry of Energy, where she concentrated on the country’s electricity-sector reform process. 

Over the last two decades, Chom has prepared many studies published as reports, academic articles and in the media. Her work has often informed and shaped public debates on electricity planning and policy, as well as particular power projects. In 2012, for example, she prepared a power development plan for Thailand that demonstrated how Thailand could phase out coal, incorporate more renewable energy and emphasize energy efficiency and demand side management, leading to significant debate on the Thai Government’s own Power Development Plan.

In this video, we discussed about enabling a just and sustainable electricity transformation in Thailand.

The video was premiered on CSDS Facebook Page. Below are the timestamps of the video, in case you want to jump to specific section/question.

• 02:47 To begin, please could you give us a brief overview of Thailand's electricity sector at present, in terms of types of generation and ownership. From the government's perspective, what is the current goal of electricity planning? How do you evaluate this goal?

• 10:42 Thailand currently has a very high reserve margin (around 45%?) - How did this become so, and what do you think should be done about it?

• 23:23 There is growing debate in Thailand about increasing the proportion of renewables? How do you evaluate the progress on this to date? Are renewables moving in the right direction in Thailand, in terms of type and expansion?

• 30:28 It seems that 'disruptive technologies', such as decentralized block chain systems, are attracting a lot of attention nowadays.  What are the current issues here, and what do you think about them? 

• 35:26 Often less discussed is the potential for energy efficiency and demand side management? Is there scope for more in Thailand, and do you think it is likely to be achieved?

• 40:31 Do you think that the EU's Carbon Border Tax is significant to Thailand? Is it already having an impact and if so, how?

• 45:20 In what ways do you think research can help support a just and sustainable electricity transformation in Thailand? What should be the research agenda and who should undertake it?

Political Ecology in Asia Dialogue Series: "Mekong River low flows, community livelihoods and the politics of water knowledge in Northeast Thailand"

Earlier this month, we talked with Assoc. Prof. Kanokwan Manorom who is is currently Lecturer in the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Ubon Ratchathani University, Thailand. She is also the Director of the Mekong Sub-Region Social Research Center in the University.

Ajarn Kanokwan is a sociologist by training whose research examines rural development in Thailand and the wider Mekong region. Her research has focused on to water and land governance, as well related topics such as migration, gender, indigenous knowledge and knowledge politics, and the role of social movements. In this political ecology in asia dialogue, we discussed about the recent changes in the Mekong River and its impact on riparian communities in Northeast Thailand.

The video was premiered on CSDS Facebook Page. Below are the timestamps of the video, in case you want to jump to specific section/question.

• 02:08 Over the last couple of years, there has been a lot of discussion about the changing conditions of the Mekong River, including low flows, algae growth and clear waters. What have been the peoples’ experiences of low flows and other changes in the Mekong River over the last couple of years in Northeast Thailand, including gendered impacts?

• 06:08 In Northeast Thailand nowadays, how important is fishing, and how important is riverbank gardening?

• 07:41 A lot of the focus over the past couple of years has been on inter-government data sharing, both within the MRC, and between China and the LMC. After the low flows in 2020, in October 2020 China announced it would share all year around data from two monitoring stations. How do you evaluate the recent increased focus on state-led water data sharing?

• 11:30 As a sociologist, how do you see the water data relating to local experience and situational knowledge of the river, does it match?

• 16:18 How do you think these types of existing knowledge can be combined or be in dialogue with each other?

• 17:53 How could those types of knowledge come together?

• 22:30 Do you have anything to share about types of knowledge, what kind of direction that are leading the Mekong River, and do you think the expectations of that kind of research can be met?

• 26:42 To achieve the kind of sustainability that we just discussed, should it be just locally, regionally, nationally or transnational platform that we should work towards?

• 31:13 What should be the role of academics, and what should be the priorities for a 'political ecology' research agenda on water in Northeast Thailand?

Political Ecology in Asia Dialogue Series: "Problems for the plantations: Challenges for large-scale land concessions in Laos and Cambodia"

Last month, we had a discussion with Professor Ian G. Baird, who is currently a Professor of Geography in the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focuses mainly on mainland Southeast Asia, especially Laos, Thailand and northeastern Cambodia. He has written on a range of themes related to rural political ecology in Southeast Asia, and that also relates to development studies, post-colonial studies, and on indigeneity in Southeast Asia. His work has addressed land and rivers in mainland Southeast Asia, including the impacts of large hydropower dams and economic land concessions.

This discussion focused on to Ian’s research on land concessions in Southern Laos and NE Cambodia, which relates to questions over control and access to land, government strategy and planning towards economic land concessions and commodity exports, forms of community resistance, and the role of global commodity markets.

The video was premiered on CSDS Facebook Page. Below are the timestamps of the video, in case you want to jump to specific section/question.

• 03:35 To what extent have plantations been established in Southern Laos and NE Cambodia, over what time frame, by which actors and for what purposes?

• 05:50 Why have political ecology researchers paid attention to plantations in Southern Laos and NE Cambodia? What are the main directions of their research and what are the most important findings overall?

• 08:05 Your work has mainly focused on Southeast Asia – in the body of research that has been done so far, are the issues outlined here shared with other regions or is there something about the plantation in Southeast Asia that is unique to the region?

• 09:30 You emphasize in your recent 2019 paper in Journal of Agrarian Change that you would like to draw attention to ‘after the land grab’, in particular for plantation developers. Could you explain why this is significant?

• 14:15 Follow up: how it relates to commodity prices and what you term ‘resource frontier mentality’?

• 20:58 How much influence that community activism or civil society activism had in influencing these companies?

• 25:00 Are there any challenges that are not fixable by these modern agribusinesses when they’re trying to invest in Southern Laos and Northeast Cambodia?

• 26:28 You conclude that in Southern Laos and NE Cambodia “… plantation development is often fraught with difficulties… ” and that “….. they appear to be frequently constituting “lose-lose-lose” scenarios for villagers, the government and investors.” You also note that some government officials in Laos and Cambodia are themselves becoming less supportive of land concessions. Do you anticipate the decline of the plantation as an approach to development in Southern Laos and Northeast Cambodia?

• 31:05 Could the analysis that you showed could give insight to ways to transform this thinking of development, if not from mainstream at least to give new ideas about how activist or even government officials might reapproach plantations and development?

• 34:20 Regarding a political ecology research agenda on plantations and land in Southeast Asia, what would be your suggestions for key priorities?

Further reading: Baird, I. G. (2020). "Problems for the plantations: Challenges for large-scale land concessions in Laos and Cambodia." Journal of Agrarian Change 20(3): 387-407.

Read more of Ian Baird's research here.

EVENT [RESOURCES]: The Belt and Road Initiative, hydropolitics, and hydropower [Online, 7 June 2021]

On june 7, Carl Middleton from CSDS was invited as one of the speakers for the webinar "Contrasting China's Relationship with South and Southeast Asia: the Belt and Road Initiative, Hydropolitics, and Hydropower."

Carl was speaking on ‘Reworking the Mekong River Regime: The Geopolitics and Hydropolitics of Competing Regionalisms’.

The full panelists of the event are:

• Prof Jiejin Zhu, School of International Relations and Public Affairs and center for UN and International Organizations studies at Fudan University

• Dr Ruth Gamble, La Trobe University, Melbourne

• Dr Carl Middleton, Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS) in the Faculty of Political Science of Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

• Rohan D’Souza, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University

Chair: Prof Lyla Mehta, Institute of Development Studies

For more information about the event, you can visit the organizer’s website here. You can also watch the full panel below:

EVENT [RESOURCES]: CU Radio: Unlock The Science Ep.10 Mekong River Part One: Its Might and Great Source of Life

On Saturday, 8 May 2021, Carl Middleton from CSDS was invited to the Chulalongkorn University Radio to talk on the series “Unlock The Science” for the tenth episode. Carl talked on the part one, “Its Might and Great Source of Life”, which discussed the vitality of Mekong to people in the region and the rise in commercial use of its resources.

Unlock The Science is a 30-minute weekly audio program that leads listeners to the most relevant fields of science, research and study in Thailand and other countries that affect our daily life and environment. The episode talked about the Mekong River, which runs over 4,900 kms through the heartland of ancient civilizations, nurturing unique and complex ecosystems, and feeding more than 60 million people in six Asian countries. Believed to be the habitat of Naga, the giant horn snake, the river is revered by people along its course, and is considered as the birth place of life. Mekong countries are the world’s key rice producers, and Mekong River possesses the highest fish biodiversity, second only to the Amazon River. The riches of Mekong River do not provide sustenance to people along the river only, but they are also attracting many big transnational corporations to invest in large-scale development projects in exploiting the river’s bountiful resources. Discussing the significance and geopolitics of Mekong River in this episode are Premrudee Daoroung, founder and coordinator of Project SEVANA South-East Asia, and Dr. Carl Middleton, director of Center for Social Development Studies, Chulalongkorn University.

You can listen to the radio on the link below:

EVENT [RESOURCES]: The Mekong, China, & SE Asian Transitions Series-Mekong Dams: Debates and the Politics of Evidence [Online, 29 April 2021]

On Thursday, 29 April 2021, Carl Middleton from CSDS was invited to be one of the speakers for Asian Studies Center at Michigan State University’s Spring 2021 Webinar Series: The Mekong, China, & SE Asian Transitions Series. Carl was one of the speakers for Panel 4: “Mekong Dams: Debates and the Politics of Evidence”.

The full panelists of the event are:

• Brian Eyler, Stimson Center, Washington D.C.

• Carl Middleton, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok

• Nguyễn Hương Thủy Phan, Graduate Institute - Geneva, Switzerland

• Pon Souvannaseng, Bentley University, Waltham, Massachusetts

• Apichai Sunchindah, Independent Development Specialist, Bangkok

Moderator: Wisa Wisesjindawat-Fink, Michigan State University

You can watch the full panel below:

EVENT [RESOURCES]: Opening Talk for the Photo Exhibition “The Mekong is Blue and Dried” [Bangkok, 16 March 2021]

Photograph taken from SEA-Junction Facebook Group on the link here.

On Monday, 16th March 2020, Carl Middleton from Center for Social Development Studies, was one of the speakers for the opening talk of SEA Junction’s “Mekong is Blue and Dried” photo exhibition, which will be held from 16 – 28 March 2021 at Corner Space, 1st Floor, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC). The exhibition is born out of concern for the environmental degradation of the Mekong River.

Other speakers on the talk include:

• Anthony Zola, Independent Researcher

• Premrudee Daoroung, Lao Dam Investment Monitor

• Laure Siegel, Freelance Journalist

The talk was moderated by Rosalia Sciortino from SEA Junction.

You can watch the video of the event below.

EVENT [RESOURCES]: ASEAN Water Platform 2021 [Online, 24 February 2021]

On Wednesday, 24th February 2021, Carl Middleton from Center for Social Development Studies presented on the "Role of Mekong River Commission (MRC) and research on transboundary water governance" for the ASEAN Water Platform.

You can watch the video of the event below.

EVENT [RESOURCES]: CRISEA Final Conference – Competing Regional Integrations in Southeast Asia: The Project and its Findings [Online, 22 February 2021]

On Monday, 22nd February 2021, Carl Middleton from Center for Social Development Studies, was one of the presenters for CRISEA Final Conference – Competing Regional Integrations in Southeast Asia: The Project and its Findings. Carl presented the research on “Southeast Asia and China: Transnational Water Issues on the Mekong”.

Competing Regional Integrations in Southeast Asia (CRISEA) is an interdisciplinary research project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme that studies multiple forces affecting regional integration in Southeast Asia and the challenges they present to the peoples of Southeast Asia and its regional institutional framework, ASEAN.

You can watch the video of the conference on the link here.

EVENT [RESOURCES]: ARI E-Workshop on Transboundary Environmental Governance in Southeast Asia [Online, 4 December 2020]

On 4 December 2020, Carl Middleton from CSDS was invinted to present on an inter-disciplinary workshop on "Transboundary Environmental Governance in Southeast Asia", organized by The Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. The workshop explored how, why, when and what forms of transboundary environmental governance are emerging in Southeast Asia.

Carl was one of the presenters on the fourth panel on Hybrid Governance of Transboundary Commons. Carl’s presentation was on “Beyond the Commons/Commodity Dichotomy in the Lancang-Mekong Basin: Implications for Transboundary Water Governance” and discussed the implications of hybrid governance perspective for recent hydropolitics in the river basin and existing and new transboundary water governance institutions, namely the Mekong River Commission and the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation framework.

For more information about the workshop, please click here.

You can watch the video of the event here and please enter the passcode ARIWORK!123 to access. Carl’s presentation will start at 5:47:35.

EVENT [RESOURCES]: Virtual Conference on Sustainable Development and the Future of the Mekong [Online, 27 October 2020]

Virtual Panel (c) Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace

On Thursday, 6th August 2020, Carl Middleton from Center for Social Development Studies, was invited by the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP) to speak on a virtual conference on "Sustainable Development and the Future of the Mekong".

Carl was one of the speakers on Panel IV, discussing “Human Security Issues in the Mekong Context: Agriculture, Energy, Water and Environment”. The panel discussed various topics on rising energy demand, food and water security as well as environment have become increasingly salient in recent years and interact directly both at present and in future with the sustainability of the Mekong.

Carl’s presentation was on ”Water data democratization in the Mekong-Lancang basin”, and the presentation is available to download here.

You can watch the video of the event below.

EVENT [REPORT]: Book Launch 'The Water-Food-Energy Nexus' [Bangkok, 21 May 2019]

On 21 May 2019, the Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS) hosted a book launch for "The Water-Food-Energy Nexus: Power, Politics, and Justice". The book launch event discussed the topics related to the book's themes, inviting two panelists who are the authors of the book.

Carl Middleton from Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS), Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University and Dipak Gyawali from Nepal Academy of Science and Technology introduced the book, positioning it vis a vis of the global hegemonic nexus narratives - if nexus thinking is to attain poverty reduction goals, it needs to pay more attention to whose food, water, and energy is secured, clarifying by which means the needs of the marginalised will be prioritised.

They draw on insights from “dynamic sustainability” to show how in nexus approaches often “static” thinking rather than “dynamic” thinking prevails. Overall, in the book, the authors follow a pathways approach, seeking to broaden out the inputs to planning processes and appraisal methods, and open up the outputs to decision making and policy to recognise the different pathways to sustainability around the nexus.

The discussion was joined by Kasira Cheeppensook from Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, as Chair, as well as Dr. Takeshi Ito from Graduate Program in Global Studies, Sophia University and Dr. Supawan Visetnoi from Chulalongkorn University School of Agricultural Resources (CUSAR) as discussants.

The shared presentations from this discussion can be accessed here. The discussion was broadcast on Facebook Live and can be viewed at the above link.

*Report written by Anisa Widyasari, Communications Coordinator at CSDS

EVENT [RESOURCES]: Low Flows, Drought, Data and Geopolitics on the Mekong-Lancang [Bangkok, 6 August 2020]

On Thursday, 6th August 2020, Carl Middleton from Center for Social Development Studies, was invited by the Institute of East Asian Studies, Thammasat University, to talk via online media (Facebook Live) to keep an eye on the movement of the situation of East Asia and Southeast Asia on the issue of “Low Flows, Drought, Data and Geopolitics on the Mekong-Lancang”.

The talk was moderated by Asst. Prof. Dr. Soimart Rungmanee from Puey Ungpakorn Institute of Development Studies, Thammasat University.

You can watch the video of the event below.

EVENT [RESOURCES]: New Research on COVID 19 and its Consequences: People, Planet and Inclusive Society [Online, 30 July 2020]

On 30 July 2020, Institute of Asian Studies and Center of Excellence in Resource Politics for Social Development, Chulalongkorn University organized an Online Panel Discussion on New Research on COVID 19 and its Consequences: People, Planet and Inclusive Society. It was part of the public Session organized for the International Conference on New research in international development, human rights, and international relations at a time of disruption.

Topics Covered:

• “COVID-19: Risks of Lives and Emerging of Social Movement of Migrant Workers in Chiang Rai Borderland” by Suebsakul Kidnukorn, Area-based Social Innovation Research Center (Ab-SIRC), Mae Fah Luang University

• “Tamsang-Tamsong: Social Distancing Promotion and Job Security for Motorcycle Taxi and Food Vendors during the Covid-19 Crisis” by Akkanut Wantanasombut, Mekong Studies Center, Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University

• “Rethinking the Future of Thai Fisheries: COVID-19 and Vulnerable Groups in Thai Fisheries Sector” by Nithis Thammaseangadipa, Asian Research Center for Migration, Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University

• “COVID- 19, Civil Society in Thailand’s Deep South and the Weak State” by Alisa Hasamoh, Faculty of Humanities and Social Development, Prince of Songkla University

The panel was moderated by Naruemon Thabchumpon from the Institute of Asian Studies and Center for Social Development Studies, Chulalongkorn University.

If you missed the discussion, or if you want to revisit, you can watch the discussion below.

New Research on COVID 19 and its Consequences: People, Planet and Inclusive Society Public Session organized for the International Conference on New research...

EVENT [RESOURCES]: Haze and Social (In)Justice in Southeast Asia: Past Experience and What Next? [Online, 29 July 2020]

On Wednesday, 29 July 2020, Center for Social Development Studies at the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University organized a panel discussion focusing on the issue of social justice and air pollution. It was a Public Session organized for the International Conference on New research in international development, human rights, and international relations at a time of disruption.

The discussion examined how various economic, social and political inequalities intersect in relation to air pollution in terms of its creation and exposure, and the consequences for individuals, families and society as-a-whole.

Presentation Files:

• “COVID-19 and Haze: Implications on Health, Fires, and Social Justice” by Dr. Helena Varkkey, Department of Strategic and International Studies, University of Malaya

• “From Maize to Haze” by Daniel Hayward, Regional Centre for Social Science and Sustainable Development, Chiang Mai University

• “Right to Clean Air in Thailand's Time of Pandemic” by Tara Buakamsri, Greenpeace Southeast Asia

• “PMHAZE a People's Movement to Stop Haze” by Benjamin Tay, PM Haze

The panel was chaired by Asst. Prof. Dr. Carl Middleton from the Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University.

If you missed the discussion, or if you want to revisit, you can watch the discussion below.

Haze and Social (In)Justice in Southeast Asia: Past Experience and What Next? Public Session organized for the "International Conference on New research in i...

EVENT [RESOURCES]: The Mekong runs dry? Governance in transition: A close look at current rules and geopolitics at play

On Wednesday, 29th July 2020, Carl Middleton from Center for Social Development Studies, was one of the presenters on the panel discussion held at the SEA Junction, titled “The Mekong runs dry? Governance in transition: A close look at current rules and geopolitics at play”.

Other panelists on the event include:

• Dr.Somkiat Prajamwong, Chairperson of the MRC Joint Committee for 2020 and Secretary General of the Office of National Water Resources

• Pianporn Deetes, Thailand Campaign Coordinator, International Rivers

• Premrudee Daoroung, Coordinator, Lao Dam Investment Monitor (LDIM)

• Orapin Lilitvisitwong, Editor, Thai PBS’s website, Decode

You can watch the video of the event below.

EVENT [RESOURCES]: Building Power from Within: Rural and Indigenous Community Organizing [Online, 31 March 2020]

On Tuesday, 31 March 2020, The 2020 Rotary Peace Fellows’ Working Group and the Center for Social Development Studies at the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University organized an interactive dialogue with community leaders from Lower-Mekong countries on participatory processes to decrease power disparities and foster meaningful social change.

Due to the current public health measures, the event was held as an online panel discussion hosted via Zoom. There were around 50 to 60 participants joining the online discussion.

If you missed the discussion, or if you want to revisit, you can watch the discussion below.

EVENT [RESOURCES]: Mekong Downstream Blues [Bangkok, 1 February 2020]

(c) BangkokEdge Festival 2020

On Wednesday, 19th February 2020, Carl Middleton from Center for Social Development Studies, was one of the presenters on the panel discussion held as part of the BANGKOK EDGE 2020: Change and Resistance: Future Directions of Southeast Asia. The discussion was titled “Mekong Downstream Blues”.

Other panelists on the event include:

• Pianporn Deetes, activist and campaigns director International Rivers

• Sean Chadwell, Executive Director Luang Prabang Film Festival

The discussion was moderated by Jonathan Head, Southeast Asia Correspondent for the BBC.

You can watch the video of the event below.

EVENT [RESOURCES]: Saving the Mekong [Bangkok, 19 February 2020]

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS’ CLUB OF THAILAND

On Wednesday, 19th February 2020, Carl Middleton from Center for Social Development Studies, was one of the presenters on the panel discussion held in Foreign Correspondent Club of Thailand (FCCT), titled “Saving the Mekong”.

Other panelists on the event include:

• Brian Eyler, author of Last Days of the Mekong and director of the Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia program, who traveled along the river from China’s Yunnan province to its delta in southern Vietnam to explore its modern evolution. (via Skype)

• Pianporn Deetes, Thailand Campaigner for International Rivers, which led the campaign against blasting rock shoals in the Mekong.

• Pou Sothirak, Executive director of Phnom Penh-based CICP, a think tank focusing on regional issues, and a former Cambodian ambassador to Japan.

You can watch the video of the event below.

EVENT REPORT: Political Ecology in Asia: Plural Knowledge and Contested Development in a More-Than-Human World [Bangkok, 10-11 October 2019]

Keynote Speech 10 October 2019: “Reflection on Vijñana of Religion: New Animism in the Age of the Anthropocene” by Thanes Wongyannava, Retired Professor, Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University.

On 10 and 11 October 2019, Center for Social Development Studies together with Chula Global Network (CGN); French Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC); French Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD); French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP); IRN-SustainAsia; Patrimoines Locaux, Environnement et Mondialisation (PALOC); POLLEN Political Ecology Network organized a Conference on Political Ecology in Asia: Plural Knowledge and Contested Development in a More-Than-Human World. The conference, with the support of Chula Global Network (CGN); The French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS); French Embassy in Bangkok; Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, was successfully held in the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University. The origin of this conference is a discussion hosted by the French Institute of Pondicherry in October 2018, following the creation by the French CNRS of the IRN-SustainAsia network a few months earlier in Paris bringing together French and Asian research centers.

The conference intended to further and critically engage with the existing strong body of knowledge studying political ecologies of Asia, in both academic and transdisciplinary forms, and in particular encouraging a reflection on how political ecology is understood and applied by researchers and activists throughout Asia whose work addresses the themes of the politics of plural knowledge, contested development, and human-more-than-human relationships. In doing so, the conference also actively sought alternatives beyond the anthropocene/ capitalocene.

Keynote Speech 11 October 2019: “The Political Ecology of Climate Change, Uncertainty and Transformation in Marginal Environments” by Lyla Mehta, Professor from Institute for Development Studies, University of Sussex.

There were two keynotes delivered, one on each day of the conference. On 10 October 2019, Thanes Wongyannava, Retired Professor from the Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University, delivered a keynote asking whether the diverse field of political ecology has the potential to – and could or should - accommodate vijñana ecology, which roughly translates to spirit ecology. On 11 October 2019, Lyla Mehta, Professor from Institute for Development Studies, University of Sussex, delivered a keynote exploring the diverse and contested framings of climate change and uncertainty in three sites in South Asia and looking at how uncertainty is understood and experienced from 'below' by the lived experiences of local people, how it is conceptualised and represented from 'above' by climate scientists and experts and how the 'middle' - civil society, NGOs, academics - can potentially function as brokers between the 'below' and 'above'

There were several panels on the need to unpack the consensus on environmentalism, including several papers on western perception of nature protection and their implementation in non-western societies. Many of the presentations also focus on rural landscapes, coastal areas, borders, and special zones affected by capitalist construction, introduction of new crops, land tenure, land security, and disaster managements, with the common thread of all these area-based analysis being the reproduction of inequalities and discrimination based on ethnicity, gender, age, and class.

There were also panels on urban landscapes, urban vulnerabilities and attempts to modernize or redesign the urban environment in the face of climate change, flooding, and various kinds of environmental degradation. There were also papers on infrastructure from a multi-dimensional and interwoven perspective, as well as their specific political implications, and papers on pollution which were questioning the drivers of the current governance on addressing these problems.

Session 1A Particulate Matters: The Emergence of A Political Ecology of Haze in Asia

The first session of the conference in the first venue, chaired by Karine Léger from AirParif discussed the emergence of a political ecology of haze in Asia. Rohit Negi from Urban Studies, Ambedkar University, India, traced the evolution of an ‘Indian’ air pollution technoscience in response to the state's position via its two trajectories on the presentation. Sarah Guttikunda from urbanemission.info discussed on how to break the political barrier to act on air pollution control with open information. Rini Yuni Astuti from, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore (NUS), focused her presentation on the air pollution crisis that periodically affects Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia and which is largely blamed in the public debate on palm oil plantations. Olivier Evrard from French Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) offered a critical analysis of recent events and debates over the measurement of particulate matter over time, as well as the range of blame narratives that inform the judgment of the haze as a crisis.

Session 1B Feminist political ecology in Asia

The first Session of the conference in the second venue discussed the feminist political ecology in Asia. Sara Vigil from Stockholm Environment (SEI) Institute showed in her presentation how she used ‘variegated geopolitical ecology’ framework to examine the material and discursive interactions between environmental change, land grabbing, and migration. Kanokwan Manorom from Mekong Sub-region Social Research Center argued that that a special economic zone project acting as an agent of “Frontier Capitalism” has come to affect women’s everyday lives, created day-to-day suffering, and excluded women from the benefits from development and access to land resources that sustain their livelihoods. Siti Maimunah from WEGO-ITN, University of Passau explained the persistence of a colonial perspective reflected by the Indonesian state in managing the land and forest ecosystem as commodities. Bernadette P. Resurrección, also from SEI, took a relational approach to explore tensions (and their potential for promising and alternative pathways) between the position of the gender planning expert and the tasks that demand simplifications and quick fixes, and between professional practice and the worlds that experts of various stripes wish to transform.

Session 2A Resource politics and the public sphere

Second session in the first venue, chaired by Naruemon Thabchumpon from the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, discussed the resource politics and the public sphere. Phillip Hirsch from the School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, set out a framework for taking a critical look at the context-determined demarcation between the public and private spheres in the realm of land, natural resources and environmental governance in the Mekong Region. Tay Zar Myo Win from Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS) analyzed the emergence of a ‘hybrid public sphere’ in Myanmar since 2010 that maintained some elements of the previous authoritarian control of production and circulation of critical discourse which combined with more liberal elements that reflect recently gained civil, political and media freedoms and a greater role for civil society, journalists, and interaction through social media. M. Rajshekhar, an independent journalist from Delhi, talked about the environmental reporting in India and the challenges faced by civil society while trying to uncover the process involving the alliance between government and businesses on environmental projects.

Session 2B Asia’s urban political ecologies

Second session in the second venue, chaired by Olivier Chrétien, Head of Environmental Impacts Prevention, Paris Municipality, discussed on Asia’s urban political ecologies. Christine Cabasset from French Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia explored the main environmental challenges faced by seaside tourist resorts areas in Southeast Asia, as well as analyzing the main factors at game in better governed and managed places, and the main trends on climate policies. Irvan Pulungan who is a Coastal Committee Member, from Governor's Delivery Unit, Jakarta Capital City Government explains how the Jakarta’s government is strengthening all aspects of city planning and policy making process to manage land groundwater extraction and climate change that have made the city sink in the past few decades. Niramon Serisakul from Urban Design and Development Centre criticized the water management of the Thai government and Bangkok, and how the institutional traps that have hampered the state’s governance are its fragmentation, inflexibility, incomplete decentralization, elite capture, and flawed crisis management plans. Rémi de Bercegol from French National Center for Scientific Research who joined the presentation remotely questioned the marginalization effects of the current reforms on the waste informal sector in Delhi by looking at the life at the margins of the waste workers and to analyze the potentialities of re-integrating marginalized industries to complement the overall system in an adapted way.

Session 3A Political ecologies of land in Southeast Asia: Beyond the technical-regulatory gaze

Third session in the first venue explored the political ecologies of land in Southeast Asia beyond the technical-regulatory gaze. Robert Cole from the Department of Geography, NUS, focused his presentation on Laos and highlighted the offloading of ecological and social risks from large agri-food corporations to contract farmers in marginal uplands of Southeast Asia. Miles Kenney-Lazar, also from the Department of Geography, NUS, showed in his presentation how extra-economic forces of expropriation are governed relationally in regards to contested plantation concessions in Laos. Soimart Rungmanee from Puey Ungphakorn School, Thammasat University, investigated the extent to which secure access to land shapes and is shaped by different women and men’s migration, including from a generational perspective in the Mekong Sub-region. Supatsak Pobsuk from Focus on the Global South presented the struggle for land of the Southern Peasants’ Federation of Thailand (SPFT) in Surat Thani province, and how by securing land as a fundamental right of peasants, SPFT is able to use it as fully as a means of production for subsistence livelihood, and to serve as a safety net and social capital of local communities.

Session 3B People and the biodiversity crisis: reshaping governance and justice in conservation

Third session in the second venue discussed on reshaping governance and justice in conversation in regards to people and the biodiversity crisis. Robert Farnan from Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development explored the intersection of indigenous resurgence, relational ontologies, ecological knowledge and conservation in the context of the Salween Peace Park (SPP), Myanmar. Sarah Benabou from French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP) focused on the Khasi Hills Redd+ project, located in Meghalaya, North-East India, which was presented as “one of the first Redd+ initiatives in Asia to be developed and managed by indigenous governments on communal lands” and how it can be used as a way to think more broadly about the cultural politics of resource control and its intersections with neoliberal environmentalism. Nitin Rai from Ashoka Trust in Ecology and the Environment explained the biopolitics of tiger conservation in India and how the commodification of the tiger, the biopolitics of tiger population estimation and the economic valuation of forests have enormous implications for the rights of people living inside tiger reserves.

Session 4A Industrialization and ecological justice

Moving on to the second day, the fourth session in the first venue, chaired by Shaun Lin from the Department of Geography, NUS, discussed the industrialization and ecological justice. Takeshi Ito from the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Graduate School of Global Studies, Sophia University showed how the offshoring of economic production and environmental management from Japan to Thailand has become part and parcel of addressing the crises of capitalism and the environment in both Japan and Thailand. Danny Marks from Department of Asian and International Studies, City University of Hong Kong addressed the high level of plastic debris in beach locations around Thailand and the lack of examination on the political-economic drivers and governance of plastic pollution in the country. Senthil Babu from IFP focused on Coramandel Coast, South India, and narrated the techniques deployed for the alienation of the ecological resources through formal and informal means adopted by the private investors and agencies of the state which rendered their acts legitimate, when even legal violations would be justified as exemptions for the sake of development. Myint Zaw from Paung Ku explored conflict sensitivity and social justice issues of current and proposed plan of economic zones in Myanmar under the Belt and Road Initiatives.

Session 4B Ontologies of infrastructure

The fourth session in the second venue was on ontologies of infrastructure. Jakkrit Sangkhamanee from the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, explored the process behind the construction of the Chao Phraya Dam, the first World Bank-funded water infrastructure project in Thailand, and the series of entanglements on the project through different dances of agency, namely initiation, assessment, mobilisation, negotiation, adjustment, confrontation, and settlement. Eli Elinoff from Victoria University of Wellington sketched out some steps towards a concept of ecological aggregation to highlight the ways concrete intensifies material transformation by her varied and dispersed environmental changes extending those changes into new the making of new anthropogenic ecologies. Casper Bruun Jensen, and Independent Researcher, discussed the rapid change on Cambodia’s urban environments, and analyzed the urban transformations as an effect of interwoven materialities and perspectives. Chaya Vaddhanaphuti from the Department of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, discussed to what extent do the ‘western mindset’ framing of climate change matter or make sense to local northern Thai people whose weather knowledge show humble respect toward nonhuman nature and supernatural beings that effectively put them as part of earthly-spiritual beings.

Session 5A Hydrosocial rivers and their politics

The fifth session in the first venue, chaired by Kenji Otsuka from the Interdisciplinary Studies Center, Institute of Developing Economies discussed the hydrosocial rivers and their politics. Carl Middleton from CSDS questioned an often-unchallenged assumption that we all talk about the same ‘thing’ when talking about water by taking the Salween River in Myanmar as a case study, and drew on a growing body of hydrosocial literature to analyze the multiple ontologies of water. Thanawat Bremard from G-EAU, Montpellier, shed light on the politics of decision-making regarding the development of the urban riverbanks, focusing on the contested Chao Praya river promenade project in Bangkok. Carl Grundy-Warr from the Department of Geography, NUS, investigated the political ecologies and geographies of biophysical processes and properties, particularly in relation to the hydrological flood-pulse, rocks, channels, deep pools and flowing material in the Lower Mekong Wetlands and Tonle sap. Siddharth Rao from Adavi Trust, and Timbaktu Collective, Andhra Pradesh, India, shared a practitioner’s views, perspectives and learnings from working alongside rural communities in Andhra Pradesh, India.

Session 5B Representations of nature and political engagements

The fifth session in the second venue, chaired by Frédéric Landy from IFP, discussed the representations of nature and political engagements. Frédéric Bourdier from University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne didn’t attend the panel but shared his presentation on the sociopolitical consequences (unwillingly) exhilarated by the aid agency apparatus which provoked a series of ruptures between society and nature, in comparison to the categories of thought envisioned by local people in regards with land-grabbing in Cambodia. Marie-Amélie Candau, Post-doc from University of Paris Nanterre/LAVUE, discussed the politics of flood management in the Koshi plain which runs between Nepal and North India, and how the technological concept of the river system, based on the idea of “modern water”, has transformed the relationship between the floods and people’s local usages. Christian Culas from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), tried to describe and understand what are today the conceptions and practices of nature in Sino-Vietnamese which showed the diverse ways of thinking and acting nature.

Session 6A Interspecies cohabitations in Asia: Non-human animals and political ecology

The last session in the first venue, chaired by Olivier Evrard from IRD, discussed the interspecies cohabitations in Asia. Annette Hornbacher from the Institute for Ethnology, Heidelberg University, discussed the paradox of destruction via protection by contrasting the ecological conservation program of the UNESCO with the totemistic local model of human-animal relationships, using the Indonesian island of Komodo as case study. Wasan Panyagaew from Sociology and Anthropology Faculty, Chiang Mai University, presented insights in a research survey conducted recently in tourism-based elephant camps located in 6 strategic touristic provinces of Chonburi, Phuket, Ayutthaya, Kanchanaburi, Surin and Chiang Mai and how these camps constitute important job prospects and source of income for mahouts who have a cultural background rooted in the village mahout tradition. Frédéric Landy from IFP tried to shed light on the complexity of the relationship between "nature" and "culture" in India, through social classes, caste and religious communities, but also through the different spaces. Stephane Rennesson from CNRS provided comparative insights of beetle wrestling, fish fighting and bird singing contests in Thailand and showed that it’s not only a question of how do non-human animals can have a say in terms of political ecology, that still include the study of the entanglement of economics, politics, biology, thus putting human groups interest as the center of the questioning.

Session 6B Post-development and systemic alternatives from Asia (round table)

Lastly, the last session in the second venue was a round-table on post-development and systemic alternatives from Asia. Chaired by Carl Middleton from CSDS and joined by Kyaw Thu from Paung Ku, K.J. Joy from Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management, Suphakit Nuntavorakarn from Healthy Public Policy Foundation and Wora Suk from Earth Rights International, the session explored the “better ways” drawing on their experience and ongoing work. The session highlighted the role of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in directly working with the social movement on the ground and the importance of collaboration with academic research to support the movement. The session also highlighted some of the key challenges, which include the development supported by big industry and investment which has considerable impact on the climate and the public health as well. Alternative ways that needed to be considered, including the need to value the traditional and local knowledge when it came to political ecology, and how it is important for CSOs to work together to amplify the impact of their campaigns and movement. On the long term, it is important to create political agency, generate different social movements and putting more effort on doing collaborative projects and research.

The presentations from this conference can be accessed here. All of the sessions were broadcast on Facebook Live and can also be viewed on the above link.

*Report written by Anisa Widyasari, Communications Coordinator at CSDS