Unlikely Allies and Land-Rights Opposition: Atlas Think Tank Strategies Towards Indigenous Peoples

Description

Indigenous Peoples in numerous regions and locales have been on the frontlines of resistance to fossil fuel and extractive resource development and the ongoing expansion of carbon frontiers continues to produce clashes with Indigenous rights and self-determination. Extractive corporations and allied actors have developed tactics and campaigns aimed at overcoming and undermining this resistance, including by opposing the enhancement of Indigenous land-rights. The paper analyzes the role of think tanks affiliated with the Atlas Research Network (Atlas Network) in advancing such efforts. We examine key campaigns of Atlas members across Latin America, Oceania and North America aimed at both cultivating support for extractive resource development (and thereby extending property rights) within Indigenous communities and opposing or delaying Indigenous land-rights and justice policy. These campaigns are rooted in and consistent with extensive network ties and relations between Atlas and extractive corporations, which we document. We also examine strategy sharing and learning across Atlas organizations and within the network. Such strategy mobility mirrors the mobility of capital and includes opposition to portable policy frameworks, such as the ILO Convention 169 or the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Period	29 Jun 2023
Event title	International Conference on Public Policy - ICPP6 - TORONTO 2023
Event type	Conference
Location	CanadaShow on map