Colonial land grabs and extractive models erode biodiversity: Indigenous Nagaland communities resist through agroecology and sacred governance
Original framing: “From Nagaland to the World: How indigenous knowledge is shaping climate action, ecological justice” — bing news
Naga communities practice *zabo* (integrated farming) and *morung* (youth dormitories) to sustain jhum (slash-and-burn) agroecology, which maintains 70% forest cover in Nagaland. Their sacred groves (*gi*) act as biodiversity banks, yet are targeted by 'conservation' projects that criminalize traditional burning. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) recognizes these systems as vital, but states ignore them in favor of carbon accounting. Indigenous epistemologies frame land as kin, not resource, challenging Western dualisms.
The Naga case exposes how 'indigenous knowledge' is framed as a commodity by liberal environmentalism, obscuring the colonial and capitalist structures that produced the crisis it claims to solve.
British land surveys and post-colonial forest laws created the conditions for biodiversity loss, while carbon markets and REDD+ programs now repackage displacement as 'climate action.' Indigenous resistance—rooted in sacred reciprocity and agroecology—challenges this paradigm, yet is sidelined by patriarchal tribal councils and co-opted by NGOs. A systemic solution requires legal pluralism (restoring indigenous governance), decommodifying nature (ending carbon markets), and transnational solidarity (linking struggles). The future hinges on whether the world will listen to the land itself, or continue to exploit it under the guise of saving it. The trickster’s laughter reminds us that the absurdity of green capitalism is not a joke—it’s a warning.