Sustainable Development and Infrastructure: Effective Indigenous Resistance from a Power and Decolonizing Environmental Justice Lens

Abstract

Under the discourses of sustainable development and modernization of the Amazon, an iron triangle of governments, companies, and investors often impose large-scale infrastructure projects (LSIPs) on Indigenous peoples to facilitate commodity extraction and market transactions in a context of capitalist market expansion. Indigenous resistance to LSIPs can be understood as a power struggle against coloniality and towards decolonizing environmental justice (DEJ). This study merges DEJ and power frameworks, while involving Indigenous leaders as co-researchers to provide a critical, insider perspective on the (i) motivations, (ii) strategies, and (iii) agency of two effective Indigenous resistance processes: the luchas led by Yunguillo Indigenous Reserve against roads, and by the Mancomunidad de Comunidades de los ríos Beni, Tuichi y Quiquibey against hydroelectric dams. In both cases, motivations reflected DEJ goals: the defense of Indigenous autonomy and territorial sovereignty, as well as Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies, reflecting an alternative vision of sustainability and development. However, locals’ positions regarding the projects were convoluted, partly due to the patronizing and divisive strategies of the iron triangle. To challenge the coloniality of power, both groups applied a diverse, synergistic, and adaptative set of strategies. External and internal alliances (i.e., with other actors and within communities), as well as actions to empower themselves as groups (e.g., self-governance) and individuals (e.g., spirituality) constituted key organizational leveraging strategies to increase their power-with and power-within. The instrumental strategies of collective action, civil disobedience, and direct resistance, in a climate of highly unjust and poorly trusted official institutions, showed great effectiveness to exert pressure on the iron triangle (power-over) and halt the projects (power-to, or agency). Success, nevertheless, was partial and uncertain: one battle won in an unequal war and in a changing context. This study seeks to contribute to previous efforts to decolonize and repoliticize academia, environmentalism, and sustainability, advance debates on strategies that challenge official systems and entrenched power structures, and validate Indigenous perspectives and experiences, producing scientific evidence that contributes to their luchas.