Governing vulnerability: The biopolitics of conservation and climate in upland Southeast Asia

Abstract

Forest dependent communities are increasingly at the centre of intensifying global aspirations to alleviate both climate change vulnerability and environmental degradation. In Southeast Asia in particular, varied forms of conservation practice fuse concern for biodiversity outcomes with the desire to support ‘resilience’ and build ‘capacity’ in the face of environmental change. Drawing on Foucault's notion of biopolitics, this article explores the consequences of efforts to govern both forest decline and human vulnerability. Through this framing, we consider indigenous experiences with the 1997/8 El Niño event in the southern Philippines where conservation efforts have produced unintended ou..