Conservation and Society 21(3): 188-199, 2023 Research Article A Fine Balance? Value-relations, Post-capitalism and Forest Conservation—A Case from India Downloaded from http://journals.lww.com/coas by BhDMf5ePHKav1zEoum1tQfN4a+kJLhEZgbsIHo4XMi0hCywCX1AW Annie Jamesa,#, Neema Pathak Broomeb Doctoral Student, Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Unversitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain a b Member, Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group, Pune, India nYQp/IlQrHD3i3D0OdRyi7TvSFl4Cf3VC1y0abggQZXdtwnfKZBYtws= on 12/14/2023 # Corresponding author. E-mail: anniejamesjuju@gmail.com Abstract The serious need for anti-capitalist theory and action in a crisis-ridden world is widely acknowledged. Recent scholarship in conservation abides by this understanding, and finer deliberation on the links between radical theory and ongoing practices have grown but are still marginal. In this article, we study a case of community forest governance in Korchi, Maharashtra in India, where 87 village institutions and their federation have been striving to govern and manage surrounding forests in ecologically-sustainable and democratically-collective ways. Using Marx’s labour theory of value and metabolic rift concept, in combination with Ariel Salleh’s notion of metabolic value, we explore how Korchi’s attempt at eco-sufficiency is premised upon a fine balance between different values its villagers associate with their forests. This requires us to see Korchi’s villagers as meta-industrial labourers, a term Salleh uses for workers whose labouring practices—marked by care and reciprocity—typically lie on the margins of capitalism. Using the (analytical) lens of value relations, we show how such practices towards forests help sustain a healthy metabolic relation between humans and nature, not dominated by exchange value concerns. We thus offer conceptual nuance on how post-capitalist theory can better support the real-world practice of alternatives to mainstream conservation. Keywords: metabolic rift, metabolic value, conservation alternatives, community forest governance, Indian Adivasi worldviews, post-capitalism Abstract in Hindi: https://rb.gy/trgnt INTRODUCTION et al. 2015; Dawson 2016; Büscher and Fletcher 2020; Córdova 2021). While fortress conservation is premised on As ecological emergencies of the ‘Anthropocene’ epoch separating humans from nature, newer neoliberal approaches intensify, many demand a revaluation and re-articulation of to conservation advocate monetisation and financialisaton of our relationship to non-human nature1. The radical literature nature (Castree 2010). Empirically and ontologically, critical on conservation has made it clear that nature is not separate scholars reject these views that have guided mainstream from us and nor is it just a source of exchange-value (Longo thinking in conservation. More recently, this vibrant critique of mainstream conservation has transitioned into Access this article online literature promoting eco-socialism, radical transformations Quick Response Code: Website: and conviviality as theoretical tools to (re-)conceptualise www.conservationandsociety.org.in human-nature relations (Temper et al. 2018; Büscher and Fletcher 2020; Fraser 2021). While this is an encouraging DOI: scholarly turn, further deliberation is needed to understand 10.4103/cs.cs_112_22 how these non-capitalist conceptualisations of human-nature relationships resonate with existing practices that seem to Copyright: © James and Pathak Broome 2023. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and distribution of the article, provided the original work is cited. Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow, Mumbai | Managed and supported by the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bangalore. For reprints contact: WKHLRPMedknow_reprints@ wolterskluwer.com Value-relations and post-capitalist alternatives in forest conservation / 189 show radical potential for ensuring ecological security and of environmental governance. This makes Korchi a fertile justice2. ground to illuminate what metabolic value is and its potential In this article, we attempt to bridge empirical practice with role in repairing the metabolic rift. theory using Marx’s concept of metabolic rift and the labour The next section elaborates upon these theoretical concepts, theory of value. We ask what types of value relations underpin showing how they better explicate (and critically expose) radical community forest relations, and how do these emerge? mainstream conservation. That is followed by a description of Our query speaks to scholarship in political ecology and Korchi taluka and the methods we used to study the processes Downloaded from http://journals.lww.com/coas by BhDMf5ePHKav1zEoum1tQfN4a+kJLhEZgbsIHo4XMi0hCywCX1AW political-economy of nature that has laid new emphasis on unfolding there. In the remainder of the research article, we the usefulness of metabolic rift in both understanding current discuss the findings that emerged from studying Korchi’s ecological crises and in transcending them (see Longo et al. forest governance history and from examining the everyday 2015; Foster and Clark 2020). While Marx already showed that interactions villagers have with their forests. We describe how nYQp/IlQrHD3i3D0OdRyi7TvSFl4Cf3VC1y0abggQZXdtwnfKZBYtws= on 12/14/2023 the narrow focus on ‘value’ (i.e., exchange-value) in capitalism villagers straddle different values to sustain a healthy social creates degrading conditions for humans and nature, scholars metabolism and discuss what this could mean for radical have recently studied how diverse understandings of value in/ approaches to conservation. of nature can pave the way for post-capitalist transformations (Salleh 2010 introduces the metabolic value concept; Büscher METABOLIC RIFT, METABOLIC-VALUE AND and Fletcher 2020: 144–145 and 174–176 discuss the notion (RADICAL TAKES ON) CONSERVATION of value embedded in multiple natures; and more generally Kenney-Lazar and Kay 2017 call for an increased engagement The value-form and metabolic rift with the (Marxist) concept of value in nature-society research). Alongside these conceptual contributions, there is scholarship While the exchange of useful goods predates capitalist that relies on existing praxis when decoding the meaning of such production, for Marx (and Marxists) capitalist commodity post/anticapitalist transformations (Singh 2017; Mehta et al. exchange has an inherent tendency to create unsustainable 2021). For Mehta et al. (2021: 111), whose research is set in metabolic relations between humans and nature. This—as India and Bangladesh, transformation may be “conceptualised Saito (2017: 106) explains—is because “the labour carried from ‘below’ in marginal environments”, and they “suggest out by individuals is organised as a private act” wherein “there that ‘local’ (patches) and the idea of transformation as praxis is no conscious agreement on the general production among are critical conceptual templates to help map and explain how producers because they simply follow price changes in the systemic transformative changes can be assembled and effected market” (Saito 2017: 109; see also Burkett 2014; Huber 2017). on the ground through a range of interactions between social The quantitative exchange-value (money) abstracts from the actors, socio-economic and political processes and co-produced qualitative use-value of goods in a way that enables large-scale knowledges”. Our attempt to delineate post-capitalist exchange (Marx 1976: 129). For Marx (1976: 152–165), the conservation is inspired by such practice-based engagements, quantity of abstract labour i.e., socially necessary labour-time even as our analysis of value relations could be viewed as a objectified in a commodity determines its exchange-value predominantly theoretical exploration. (price), which is the form in which ‘value’ appears on the The Marxian distinction between use-value and market (Burkett 2014: 80–81). Capitalism thus “bring[s] exchange-value is still essential for understanding and new social characteristics into the transhistorical metabolic transcending capitalist logic (Marx 1976: 163–176, 199–220; interaction between humans and nature” (Saito 2017: 109). Foster and Clark 2020: 219–20). However, to better illuminate Capitalism initiated an unprecedented separation of how certain communities, such as the one in our case study, are labourers from their conditions of existence, making it, in reinvigorating their relationships with forests, we demonstrate effect, impossible for them to meet their basic needs without the usefulness of Salleh’s (2010) metabolic value concept. It first selling their labour power as a commodity (Burkett captures the reciprocal and regenerative capacities of human- 2014: 64–65). Below, we note how a similar separation nature interactions. It also symbolises the essence of ‘care for underpinned early fortress forms of conservation but for now, nature’ embodied in the worldviews of many indigenous and the point of import is this: Capitalism is organised around forest-dwelling communities that, we argue, falls outside of a generating an ever-increasing amount of exchange-value i.e., strict use/exchange value dichotomy. Metabolic value connotes the “valorisation of value” (Marx 1976: 252–254) without the integrity of ecological systems, including humans (Salleh considering the adverse conditions this creates for human labour 2009: 24, 306; 2010). Our empirical material comes from Korchi and nature (Foster 2013; Saito 2017: 99–113). The insatiable taluka3—a collection of villages within India’s Gadchiroli drive for ‘monetary’ value in capitalist production intensifies district. Here, since 2012, 87 local village assemblies (gram commodification of all needs (creating new needs and desires sabhas) are attempting to collectively govern and manage their as well), progressively alienating humans from their labours and forests in directly-democratic and ecologically-sustainable nature (Burkett 2014: 81; Foster and Clark 2020: 41–43; Dunlap ways. While we cannot claim that conservation practices in and Sullivan 2020). This leads to a metabolic rift—essentially Korchi are anticapitalist, they do display some features that a disruption in the regenerative processes of human and natural research suggests are vital to alternative (-to-capitalist) forms labours due to their unsustainable exploitation under capitalism 190 / James and Pathak Broome (Foster and Clark 2020). Marx defined it as an “irreparable rift in With the rise of neoliberalism, there has been a push to the interdependent process of social metabolism, a metabolism commoditise hitherto unpriced natures as a way to solve prescribed by the natural laws of life itself” (Marx in Foster environmental problems (Costanza et al. 2014; Foster 2022). 2013: 5). Obviously, humans transform nature—this is social The fundamental logic here is that we can allegedly “save” metabolism—but they must do so in conformity with natural nature by making its exchange-value ‘visible’ and tradable cycles if the universal metabolism of nature is to be maintained on the market (McAfee 1999). This involves a process (Foster 2013; Saito 2017: 247–248). of abstraction that pulls nature out of its specific context, Downloaded from http://journals.lww.com/coas by BhDMf5ePHKav1zEoum1tQfN4a+kJLhEZgbsIHo4XMi0hCywCX1AW Marx initially used the metabolic rift (following Liebig’s packages it into substitutable ecosystem services and carbon work on English agriculture) to explain how industrial commodities in a way that spurs injustices (Lohmann 2014). capitalism disrupted regenerative processes such as soil While well intended at times, critical scholars highlight that fertility. Recently, scholars have used it to explain modern such schemes lead to new rounds of accumulations, hyper- nYQp/IlQrHD3i3D0OdRyi7TvSFl4Cf3VC1y0abggQZXdtwnfKZBYtws= on 12/14/2023 environmental problems such as global warming (Clark and commodification, intensified alienation; not tackling the York 2005) and the crisis in fisheries (Longo et al. 2015). root causes of the metabolic rift (Dunlap and Sullivan 2020; If environmental degradation is understood in this way, Foster 2022). addressing it demands an approach different to the one A radical alternative to conservation must instead seek to mainstream conservation promotes. Critical scholars (Dawson heal the rift. In being guided by an attitude of reciprocity, 2016; Büscher and Fletcher 2020; Foster 2022) highlight guardianship and in recognising the interconnectedness of all how mainstream conservation serves to reinforce metabolic life, alternatives must reshape humanity’s relationship to nature rift given its intertwinement with capitalist logics—a point and counter alienation (Simpson 2017; Sullivan 2017; Azcona covered next. et al. 2020; Córdova 2021). They require a reintegration of the economy within nature as opposed to further monetising nature Capitalism, conservation, and radical alternatives (Longo et al. 2015: 179–182; Sullivan 2017). This in itself demands rethinking what a ‘good life’ means. In line with this, Modern conservation began by separating (some) humans Brand et al.’s (2021: 265) recent article proposes expanding the from nature and it was premised on the same dualism that notion of planetary boundaries to involve “societal boundaries underpins capitalism. Witnessing the gross destruction of or collectively defined thresholds that societies establish wildlife in many tropical colonies4—that were transformed as self-limitations”. Others demand that communities be into ‘game’ or commodities—under the European colonial provided legislative support and autonomy to govern regional enterprise, former imperialist hunter-naturalists decided to resources in what can become locally managed economies impose barricades (create fortresses) around these habitats as a (Gibson-Graham 2006: 127–163; Kothari 2014). Finally, way of averting extinction (Ross 2017: 243–245). The creation scholars such as Dawson (2016: 89–91) argue for a redressal of such protected areas (PAs) then (and today) economically of environmental injustices and for conservation reparations benefited certain groups over others. Kelly (2011) argues that (see also Tauli-Corpuz et al. 2020; Kashwan et al. 2021). PAs are a type of ongoing primitive accumulation where the commons are enclosed and producers—typically indigenes— Metabolic value and eco-sufficient production separated from lands sustaining them. Local knowledges and governance systems are furthermore disregarded in these A common conceptual thread running through this radical accumulative processes. literature is to replace capitalism’s emphasis on generating Strict separations, however, became increasingly untenable exchange value from nature with a multidimensional as colonies gained independence and so commenced the era understanding of the value produced by and with nature. What of (certain top-down forms of) community-based conservation might such a value be called? Are the classic political-economy that chimed well with the sustainable development agenda of categories of use and exchange value sufficient, especially if the 1980s: if conservation profits are distributed with locals, the aim is to theorise labours expended through nature at the conservation could become a tool for (capitalistic) development margins or outside of capitalism? While many Marxist scholars instead of being oppositional to it (Adams and Hutton 2007; increasingly agree that along with the workers, it is also small Dressler et al. 2010). Locals could now participate in peasants, indigenes, autonomous communes and mothers conservation—even earn wages from it—although value who are leading anticapitalist transformations in the now5, and control tended to be unevenly distributed favouring contestation still exists over how to account for and theorise governments and international agencies (Kashwan 2013). around the value(s) these labours produce (see e.g., Foster Furthermore, this logic of profiteering from wildlife contrasts and Clark 2020: 219–237). Considering both these debates in the more culturally and spiritually rooted understandings of relation to the insights gained from Korchi, we find Ariel Salleh nature that many indigenes and local communities have held (2009, 2010)’s conceptualisation of ‘metabolic value’ better (Sullivan 2009; Simpson 2017): understandings that stem suited to recognising and theorising such values and labours. from the knowledge that humans and nature are essentially Comprehending the need for an expansive theorisation interconnected, an ethos that eco-Marxists can reckon with of labour and value that can “integrate women’s, peasant, (Saito 2017; Foster and Clark 2020). indigenous, and ecological politics”, Salleh (2009: 1-14, Value-relations and post-capitalist alternatives in forest conservation / 191 297-304 and 2010: 206) proposes the category of metabolic covering parts of western and central India. Gadchiroli has value that she says is concerned with protecting the ecological an area of 14,412 sq. km and most of its land is under forests integrity of ecosystems, of which humans are a necessary part. (~76%)7, with a substantial Adivasi8 population (38.71%) Metabolic value captures the regenerative and reproductive compared to other parts of India (GoM 2022). Korchi’s capacities of humans and nature that flourish independently population is ~42,811; 73% of which are Adivasi and a and in relationships to each other. It “appears to be relational, majority of them belong to the Gond tribe (Government of immanent, and emergent in the material and energetic integrity India Census 2011). Most livelihood and nutrition needs Downloaded from http://journals.lww.com/coas by BhDMf5ePHKav1zEoum1tQfN4a+kJLhEZgbsIHo4XMi0hCywCX1AW of living processes—in nature and in human bodies as nature” are met from small-scale agriculture, raising cattle and from (210). It is a value “sustained and enhanced” by the meta- collecting and selling non-timber forest produce (NTFPs) industrial labor “supporting ecological integrity and the social e.g., Bamboo, Tendu (Diospyros melanoxylon) leaf, Mahua metabolism” (212) and is generated in production processes (Madhuca indica) flowers, Jamun (Syzygium cumini)9, honey, nYQp/IlQrHD3i3D0OdRyi7TvSFl4Cf3VC1y0abggQZXdtwnfKZBYtws= on 12/14/2023 that are in compliance with the metabolic capacities of wild fruits and tubers from the dry deciduous forests of Korchi ecosystems. Salleh (2010) also illustrates how metabolic value (Pathak Broome et al. 2022). is distinct from use-value, a point we want to extend further in our analysis. As an example, she points out how women’s Methods reproductive labour that creates new life (i.e., metabolic value) cannot be reduced to the use-value generating labour they We used qualitative methods and empirical data comes from otherwise do at home when providing for families. two sources: 1) a long-standing and wide-ranging engagement Salleh (2009: 300) draws upon an ‘embodied materialist’ co-author Neema Pathak Broome (NPB) has had with villages epistemology that is based on the everyday experiences in Gadchiroli and in Korchi; and 2) six in-depth interviews of “negotiating humanity-nature relations” where both conducted by co-author Annie James (AJ) in April and productivity and reproductivity are accounted for. The May 2022. We10 have lived and worked for several years goal of meta-industrials (in contrast to monetary profit) is in Maharashtra, where Gadchiroli lies. This gives us a fair eco-sufficiency, which is the meeting of needs agreed upon understanding of the region’s culture and language of which communally without the creation of ecological debt (unpaid Korchi’s villagers share certain aspects. gifts from nature) and/or embodied debt (unpaid reproductive NPB first began engaging with villagers and community work, Salleh 2009: 5–6). We can witness this in the ways organisations in the Gadchiroli region in the 1990s. This long- forest-dwelling communities continue to satisfy their food, term association stems from her being a core-member of a shelter and non-material needs by listening to and knowing 40-year-old Indian non-profit organisation called Kalpavriksh how surrounding natures function over time, over place. Environmental Action Group, that works on community- It requires an ethic of reciprocity and restraint that is often conservation and alternative livelihoods. Between 2017 and culturally incorporated and collectively practised in settings 2019, she specifically interacted with Korchi villagers as a where communities have “autonomy and resource sovereignty” participating member of the ‘Academic-Activist Co-generation (Salleh 2009: 8). This reminds us of Brand et al.’s (2021) notion of Knowledge on Environmental Justice (ACKnowl- of ‘self-limitation’ that comes from collectively negotiated EJ)’project—a global initiative documenting examples of ‘societal boundaries’. These are then some of the background environmental justice. The Korchi study was a collaborative conditions6 in which metabolic value and eco-sufficient effort involving Korchi’s community leaders, its villagers production emerges, as also evident in Korchi. The metabolic and two Indian non-profit organisations (one of which was value generating practices of meta-industrial labour are in this Kalpavriksh). NPB stayed in Korchi’s villages for ~60 days, way “rift-healing” (Salleh 2010: 205–206) with the potential spread over six visits between January 2017 and April 2019. to resist and transcend capitalist relations. When not in Korchi, interactions continued over the phone and In sum, we can understand use-values as being circumscribed by online. The experience was both anthropological i.e., studying human needs-fulfilment, exchange-value as being circumscribed and co-developing governance processes with Korchi’s by the need for exchange (capitalist or otherwise), and metabolic people and ethnographic i.e., an observation of villagers, value as being circumscribed by the need for flourishing their lives and livelihoods (Ingold 2017). She was part of and ecosystems. If capitalism creates crises because of the relentless participated (on request) in village-assemblies and community prioritisation of exchange-value, a more sustainable, post- meetings wherein different community governance processes capitalist system would strive for other value configurations—an were designed and discussed, including on forest rights and analytical point we explore in this study. governance. She also participated in the annual festivals between 2017 and 2019 that are celebratory gatherings of all STUDY CONTEXT AND METHODS 133 villages in Korchi and when yatras (pilgrimages through forests and villages) are carried out. Korchi taluka This is the broad empirical experience that our article draws upon. Additionally, to investigate the theoretical and empirical Korchi taluka is a sub-district of 133 villages located in the aspects of specific concern here, AJ conducted six in-depth Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, an administrative region interviews. The first interview (April 2022) was a reflexive style 192 / James and Pathak Broome interview of NPB that helped create a shared understanding were lost to bureaucratic (mis)translation. By the 1980s, many among the authors of the article’s key concepts as they relate villagers considered the state as the true owner of the forests, to Korchi. On the basis of that, five key-informants were with locals’ rights and use being curtailed. State control over purposively sampled who could offer an internal and external forests and associated livelihoods was in this way consolidated perspective on relevant processes in Korchi. Respondent 1 is (Pathak Broome 2018). a member of a local non-profit organisation (NGO) and has This consolidation, however, has not been uncontested. been directly involved in creating awareness around forest Since the 1970s, Gadchiroli has witnessed a range of social- Downloaded from http://journals.lww.com/coas by BhDMf5ePHKav1zEoum1tQfN4a+kJLhEZgbsIHo4XMi0hCywCX1AW rights in Korchi’s villages since 2014 (interviewed in April movements that emerged partly to oppose mega-development 2022). Respondent 2 and Respondent 3 are Korchi Adivasi projects e.g., dams, mines, and partly to resist the systemic villagers who, since the mid-1990s, have been engaged in oppression and dispossession of Adivasis. One such community-mobilisation and awareness-raising on topics movement was the Jungle Bachao, Manav Bachao Andolan nYQp/IlQrHD3i3D0OdRyi7TvSFl4Cf3VC1y0abggQZXdtwnfKZBYtws= on 12/14/2023 such as forest rights, self-governance, anti-mining resistance (Save Forests, Save Humanity Movement). It spread across etc. (interviewed in May 2022). Lastly, AJ interviewed two central India in the 1980s to oppose the proposed creation academic researchers who have had multi-year engagements of dams. The movement had a huge influence in Gadchiroli with Korchi villagers investigating processes around NTFP and resonated with existing struggles for resource rights collection, sale and associated forest management strategies and against commercial forestry (Pathak Broome 2018). It (Respondent 4 and 5, interviewed in May and April 2022 critically questioned an understanding of ‘development’ that respectively). destroys nature and displaces people; the dam project was later All interviews were conducted online using video calls shelved. Another influential movement has been the Naxalite with each lasting ~1.5 hours. The style was collaborative and (or Maoist) struggle against the Indian State, that at times conversational (Creswell 2013: 173) to enable an expansive results in violent conflict. ‘Naxalism’ emerged in the 1960s in understanding of how communities relate to their forests. All Eastern India as a peasant uprising against landlords and was interviews were transcribed and, where necessary, translated inspired by communist philosophy, especially of Mao (Shah from Hindi. Transcripts were reviewed, sections marked and 2011: 162–65). Its broad (stated) aim was challenging land then coded both inductively and deductively in an iterative usurpation, state-mandated national resource extraction from manner to arrive at the key themes of this article (22 codes). Adivasi regions and instead advocated for self-rule of these Quotes presented below were shortlisted from many that could areas. Gadchiroli is considered part of India’s red corridor—a substantiate the article’s main arguments. large area India classifies as “plagued by Naxalites”—and has consequently witnessed militarisation (GoM 2022). As a final BACKGROUND CONDITIONS: ANALYSING mention on movements, Gadchiroli has also been influenced KORCHI’S FOREST GOVERNANCE LANDSCAPE by Gandhian philosophy promoted by activists focusing on the ideas of swaraj (self-rule) and ahimsa (non-violence, Pathak State control of forests and social-movements Broome 2018). in Gadchiroli Although this is a surface coverage of complex movements and philosophies, we hope it provides readers a sense of how Like most Adivasis, Korchi’s villagers have historically been Adivasis in Gadchiroli and Korchi have been exposed to culturally, socially and economically dependent on forests. multiple ideologies. At times, this ideology clashes with the The takeover of Indian forests first by the British colonial state’s version of ‘modern development’ that tends to view government, starting with the Indian Forest Act (1865), and later nature as a resource to profit from (Bijoy 2008). However, by the independent Indian state ruptured such dependencies we hasten to add that the ideological core for many in Korchi (Kashwan 2013). Many Adivasis—including Gond tribes tends to be their Gond worldview, which is predicated upon spread across central India—resisted these disruptions (Bijoy a deep interdependence between humans and nature through 2008; Pathak Broome et al. 2022). India’s Forest Department which material and non-material (e.g., cultural, spiritual) needs was established in the colonial period where scientific forestry are met. This worldview influences everyday life-activity in management systems governed forest uses and meanings. Korchi and, together with some of the influences mentioned Forests were primarily viewed as a commercial source of above, could be linked to the generation of metabolic value in timber and were worked successively with that objective in forest-community relations. mind. This process can be understood as a form of ‘rift creation’ where older forests were replaced to serve demands of the Legislations supporting community forest-governance capitalist colonial enterprise (Gadgil and Guha 2013: 99–108). Customary practices were discouraged as was local use, which One outcome of grassroots resistances by Adivasis and other alienated locals from their forests. Recognising, however, the forest-dwelling communities—that coalesced into a national needs that Adivasis in Gadchiroli region had, the Government of movement in the early 2000s—was the ‘Scheduled Tribes India set up a committee in the 1950s to record their customary and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest forest rights. These were detailed in what are locally called as Rights) Act’ or the Forest Rights Act (FRA) passed by the Nistar Patraks (record of usufruct rights) but over time these Indian Parliament in 2006 (Kashwan 2013). The FRA is Value-relations and post-capitalist alternatives in forest conservation / 193 India’s attempt to repair historic injustices done to forest- received in our interactions with people from Korchi, especially dwelling communities since colonial times even as its 2006 community thought leaders, and from other interviewees who enactment was vigorously opposed by certain groups e.g., have worked there in different capacities (see Methods). pro-fortress conservationists and the environment ministry (i.e., Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change), Use-value the latter oversees India’s forest bureaucracy (Bijoy 2008). The Forest Rights Act recognises multiple rights e.g., access, use, People in Korchi continue to depend hugely on the forest Downloaded from http://journals.lww.com/coas by BhDMf5ePHKav1zEoum1tQfN4a+kJLhEZgbsIHo4XMi0hCywCX1AW management and governance of customary forests that can be for their basic needs and livelihoods. This is witnessed in held individually and collectively as a village. It includes rights the kinds of houses they construct, in the food they eat, in to collect and sell NTFPs for livelihood needs. Gadchiroli has pastures their cattle graze upon, in the tools (e.g., brooms, one of the highest rates of claims acceptances in India even as farming equipment) and the medicines they use. Respondent nYQp/IlQrHD3i3D0OdRyi7TvSFl4Cf3VC1y0abggQZXdtwnfKZBYtws= on 12/14/2023 implementation across the country is poor (CFR-LA 2016). As 3 (villager) says, of December 2018, 87 villages in Korchi had collective forest The jungle is such a place that we have to go there every governance and management rights to ~14,500 ha of forests, day—for leaves, for wood, for our brooms, for tubers and which is ~20% of Korchi’s geographical area (Pathak Broome roots, for uncultivated food, for seeds—for everything, et al. 2022). Another vital legislation that has bolstered self- for things we need to make for farming…so this is a very governance in Adivasi areas is the Panchayats (Extension to close relationship we have with the forest, even more so Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 (PESA). It was brought in to affirm than with our farmlands. the history of traditional self-governance systems amongst The forest has several items of local use-value and these Adivasis and enables village Panchayats to govern aspects items are mediated by cultural practices and understandings. such as customary resources, NTFPs, minor minerals and As an example, Respondent 1 (NGO member) highlights how local institutions. In 2014, the Government of Maharashtra “they use Bamboo in their functions from birth to death” with notified rules under PESA that specifically allows villages Bamboo being used to make a new-born’s cradle and to build in its region e.g., Korchi to own and sell NTFPs without the ceremonial ladders that they carry dead in for last rites. Forest Department’s interference (Sahu 2020). Moreover, crops may fail some years but forests, being The above legislations have had decisive impacts on village perennial, have the capacity to cater to the community’s and forest governance in Korchi, two of which are: (1) a subsistence needs. “If for example, there is no farm produce, strengthening of gram sabhas (village assemblies) that are now no water and in case crops are not produced one year, then legally each village’s main decision-making unit; (2) creation the forest can provide for all our needs,” says Respondent of a federation of 87 village gram sabhas called the Korchi 2 (villager). From such articulations, it was easy to see how Maha Gram-Sabha (MGS henceforth) in 2017; its objective villagers are directly dependent on their forests for everyday is to oversee the implementation of these two Acts to ensure uses. It is consequently a space where regular and immediate sustainable NTFP harvest and trade, forest rehabilitation, interactions between humans and nature occur, even more than strong village self-governance and equitable benefit-sharing in their farmlands. across and within villages. Joining the MGS federation requires villages to pass a formal resolution to the effect. Each village Exchange-value pays an annual membership fee and nominates two women and two men as representatives to the federation’s monthly The forests in Korchi became commodified once colonial meetings. This general body selects from among themselves an takeover began, with forests becoming commercially valued executive body that includes 50% women, representation from for timber. Outside of timber, Bamboo and Tendu leaf are all castes, classes, and those differently-abled. The executive commercially valuable forest products (Sahu 2020). However, body governs the day-to-day functioning for a period of three until recently (i.e., 2017 when the MGS federation organised years and is supported by an advisory body of community the first auction for selling Bamboo and Tendu leaves), most elders. Smaller-scale meetings of 7-10 villages also occur villagers were insignificant actors in processes that generated facilitating more intimate interactions, while village-level this exchange-value. The Forest Department (FD) organised assemblies including women and children are also regularly auctions wherein private contractors were given tenders to held (Pathak Broome et al. 2020). harvest NTFPs. Villagers were employed as wage-labourers to collect the produce receiving meagre and unreliable incomes, ANALYSING COMMUNITY FOREST VALUE- as Respondent 1 (NGO member) notes, RELATIONS Communities were engaged in the extraction of NTFPs as only daily wage labourers—they were not owners. FD was These historical, sociopolitical and legislative nuances are the owner, it used to auction the Bamboo and Tendu leaves central to the subsequent analysis of forest-community and the communities were only collectors. They were doing relationships. Korchi, we emphasise, is not a homogeneous it at a very low wage that was offered by the FD. group and perceptions on matters of concern here would vary The FD received an undisclosed royalty from the private across residents. Our insights come from the responses we contractors, only a part of which villagers received as ‘bonus’. 194 / James and Pathak Broome There was opacity and discrepancy in the amount of leaves note that this new economic appreciation is bounded by the that made it to the FD’s record books which further financially knowledge that exchange-value is now governed collectively disadvantaged villagers (Pathak Broome et al. 2022: 73). While and that their forests generate direct use-value and—what we villagers were aware that their forest’s produce was being classify below as—metabolic value. transformed into commodities, it was the FD that controlled production and interfaced with markets. A large portion of Metabolic value the exchange-value generated was thus extracted from those Downloaded from http://journals.lww.com/coas by BhDMf5ePHKav1zEoum1tQfN4a+kJLhEZgbsIHo4XMi0hCywCX1AW producing it—a feature of capitalist relations with the forest For Korchi villagers the forest needs their care and it, in return, department acting as a de facto capitalist. cares for them. Respondent 3 (villager) often used the Hindi Although cash has traditionally been less important, the word “dekh-rekh”, which literally translates into ‘looking wages villagers received were a vital source of money needed after’ or ‘care for’, when discussing villagers’ interaction with nYQp/IlQrHD3i3D0OdRyi7TvSFl4Cf3VC1y0abggQZXdtwnfKZBYtws= on 12/14/2023 to purchase goods especially agricultural inputs. The demand forests. Caring for the forest seems akin to caring for their for cash has now grown as greater integration with the market- families and being in the forest is like being in their “mother’s economy occurs: It is in this context the importance of laws home” where one can roam freely and reciprocally be cared such as the Forest Rights Acts and Panchayats Act that give for, “Like a married woman is closely associated with her gram sabhas the right to collect and sell NTFPs needs to be mother’s home, so for every Adivasi community the closest seen. These rights facilitated (and motivated) 87 villages to association is with the forest…it is for this reason we call it collectively create the MGS federation in order to economically mother’s home”. At another point Respondent 3 (villager) adds benefit from NTFPs and to prevent individual villages from “And just like we care and arrange for the health, education of being exploited by large traders (Pathak Broome et al. 2020; our family members, similarly we have been doing it for the Sahu 2020). This shift in ownership from the FD to village forests considering it as our own and protecting it”. gram sabhas under the MGS has increased cash-incomes Villagers acknowledge the forest’s own regenerative that interviewees cited as substantial. Respondent 3 (villager) capacities which they say is intimately linked to Adivasis’ emphasises this, “from four forest products (NTFPs) the worth traditional and place-based knowledges. Respondent 2 of the produce we get annually is approximately INR 50,000 (villager) comments, (~USD 605) per family. And this is only from these four We see that the trees that were planted here (by outsiders), products, rest for food and sustenance we always use things every year they have to be watered in the dry season. But from the forest”. Sahu (2020) corroborates this increase; he no trees survived. But such a big jungle—on its own the reports the prices obtained in Korchi for a standard bag of seeds fall, trees grow and no one needs to water it. Still it Tendu leaves under the two governance regimes from 2014- is surviving. So, we have some indigenous methods and 2016 when the FD conducted auctions to 2017-2019 when knowledge as well. We may not be so educated in the the MGS conducted auctions. The average price obtained in traditional sense but at the local level, we know well and the MGS auctions was higher by 111% (simple average over that is what is very important. a 3-year period under both governance regimes). At another point Respondent 2 wonders, “But we are Community collectivisation that existed prior to the Forest thinking if the Adivasis are indeed so poor and backward, Rights Act and the creation of the MGS has been bolstered by then how come all these educated people have finished all this economic gain, especially since individual households and the forest”. the village as a collective benefit. This collectivisation is also a In likeness to other indigenes (Aiyadurai 2016), Korchi’s consequence of the ways in which the MGS has functioned as Adivasis revere nature. The forest is a space where spirits a governance body in contrast to the FD. There are transparent and ancestors reside. In forest patches considered sacred rules and processes around harvesting, price negotiations any use except in emergencies is discouraged. Respondent with traders and equitable funds distribution (including with 5 (researcher) notes, “In every forest area you will see women). Monthly meetings, where all matters including evidence of multiple kinds of spirits occupying different parts financial are transparently discussed, ensure that rules are of the forest… These spirits come and you go to the spirits, followed and conflicts addressed. Payments go directly and on- you cannot take certain things from certain areas which are time to gram sabhas, who then transfer it to households while occupied by some spirits.” This notion of sacredness gives rise keeping a certain percentage as village development funds. to practices that, we argue, respect the universal metabolism Elaborate records for these transactions are kept, publicly of nature. The focus and outcome of such practices, as Salleh displayed in all villages and shared with the government (2010) emphasises, is ecological integrity and in this instance officials. Respondent 2 (villager) validates this, “And we keep they stem from an alternative cosmological belief system. a full account of how this common pool money is spent. On the Relatedly, when the harvesting season begins, no items are first of every month when we have the MGS meeting, we share picked before a prayer ceremony occurs thus limiting untimely openly what quantity of funds came that month, how it was harvesting. Respondent 2 (villager) shares how elders explain spent and on what.” While these mechanisms are not perfect, the significance of holding prayer rituals before harvesting, “If they have had positive impacts on how villagers view their we keep eating without following such prayer rituals, then all forests and the exchange-value derived from it. We importantly the baby fruits will also be finished. It will not fully mature. Value-relations and post-capitalist alternatives in forest conservation / 195 If that does not happen how will people know and be able to aware of the need of a regenerative forest. It is probably for use its seed”. Different sub-groups in Korchi have animal and this reason that economic gains have (so far) not translated plant totems that they are forbidden from consuming, allowing into exchange-value domination, typical to capitalist relations those species to regenerate. Such labouring acts of care and (Burkett 2014: 65). restraint are regenerative of forests and we contend generate Since changes in Korchi’s forest-governance regime (in metabolic value. Inverting the concept of embodied energy the early 2010s) no comprehensive ecological study has been in commodities (e.g., fuel used to transport products), Salleh conducted which makes it difficult to statistically comment Downloaded from http://journals.lww.com/coas by BhDMf5ePHKav1zEoum1tQfN4a+kJLhEZgbsIHo4XMi0hCywCX1AW (2010: 213-214) argues that when economists ascribe “positive on the impact on forest ecology. However, we can witness economic value” to embodied energy they confound what is conservation in the revival of older systems of taboo and setting actually an “ecological negative” and extractive of metabolic up of new forest-patrolling committees to oversee illegal value. As a contrast, meta-industrials—that we argue Korchi’s felling, poaching and protection against fires that villagers now nYQp/IlQrHD3i3D0OdRyi7TvSFl4Cf3VC1y0abggQZXdtwnfKZBYtws= on 12/14/2023 villagers resemble—are “humans who provision in reciprocity take an active role in. This change has been noted by NPB and with nature, catalyse its transfers, thereby enhancing the by Respondent 4 (researcher) who comments, relational power of metabolic value”. Earlier [villagers had a] ‘it’s not our forest’ attitude. And This is one of the reasons why villagers vehemently resist not by intention. By default they had to say that because mining proposals that are currently under consideration the FD always tried to confiscate their property, livestock, in Korchi’s forests. Respondent 5 (researcher) explains, or [was] harassing them or penalising them…but now the “Most of the time the argument [against mining] is—‘if the ownership is with them…there is [a] drastic change when it forest goes, where will our Gods go. We can build a house comes to forest fire governed under the FRA and forest fire somewhere else, but what about them who reside there. under the [earlier] FD regime…the rate of deforestation has They cannot go anywhere’”. Villagers thus seem to prioritise declined drastically in CFR recognised forests11. It needs ecological integrity over extractive development, motivated by more empirical datasets but whatever oral history [there is] alternative spiritual beliefs, their deep connection to land and and people are saying is that in comparison to the earlier concern for future generations—a feature common amongst forest deforestation rate— that has drastically come down indigenes (Aiyadurai 2016; Simpson 2017). It is further clear even if drastic forest cover increase is not there. in Respondent 3’s (villager) comment why ecological integrity We argue that in the context of India—where conservation is prioritised when s/he says “we are seeing the companies often purports to the exclusionary barricading of certain that are in the cities [and] what is prevalent there: polluted ‘protected’ areas and where unsustainable extraction of natural air, polluted water, nothing seems to be pure...[Here] the trees resources occurs outside of these barricades—Korchi’s forest move and provide us with pure air. So our bodies are also pure.” governance approach can be considered as one way to radically This pure relation—both material and non-material—referred conserve forests and nature. This approach is couched in a to by the villager transcends a use-value relation to forests, and clear articulation of development. Development that destroys we agree with Salleh’s contention that the relations and labours nature is considered dangerous, and local notions of progress of meta-industrials cannot be categorised as solely providing often contest the dominant ideas of material accumulation and use-value, even if that is one outcome of it. growth, as Respondent 3 (villager) poignantly states, Progress for the outside world is setting-up companies. A BALANCING ACT? From the company they are getting lots of money, their children are getting good education, are buying nice Metabolic value generation as conservation and mobiles, cars. They live in buildings with air-conditioners, rift healing drinking filtered water. For them it is progress but for us this is violent. Now from outside chemical fertilisers, If the metabolic rift is created by a prioritisation of modified seeds and electronic equipment are coming which exchange-value, then arguably one way to repair this rift would destroys our labour…We are not having any progress... be to reject such a prioritisation and establish a balance between And if we ever give our land to the company, then our death different values so that the universal metabolism of nature is is certain… because the water will also get polluted… and respected. An inevitable consequence of this would be (more we will be forced to drink polluted water, breathe polluted just forms of) conservation. This seems to occur in Korchi air. where villagers see the forest as a vital source of use-value In such articulations it becomes possible to see how Korchi and metabolic value that emerge relationally. The increased Adivasis’ worldview could nurture metabolic value and eco- freedom to use the forest since the granting of forest rights sufficiency and, in doing so, operationalise anti-capitalist has strengthened their ability to actively care for the forest, a transformations. sentiment they are not unfamiliar with given their longstanding dependencies on and sacred relations with nature. In contrast Trade-offs between values and threats to collectivisation to the abstracted social form of exchange-value i.e., money, villagers experience the generation of use-value and metabolic We do not claim that a harmonious and total rejection of value directly in everyday interactions. Communities are thus exchange-value in favour of other values prevails in Korchi. 196 / James and Pathak Broome There are difficult trade-offs given India’s larger (neoliberal) of human-nature relations; one consequence of which is the political-economy. We take examples of such trade-offs to neoliberal rush to convert nature into quantitative (exchange) emphasise that post-capitalist transitions are fraught with values. Next, we proposed that analyses of use-value and several constraints—a nuance sometimes absent in abstract exchange-value be supplemented with the category of theory. One example is the tension in managing forest-fire. metabolic value, which captures the regenerative capacities Fire benefits Tendu leaf production but can harm forest health of all natures. This is especially true for the kinds of non- more generally. Respondent 5 (researcher) explains, monetised, non-utilitarian relationships that many indigenes Downloaded from http://journals.lww.com/coas by BhDMf5ePHKav1zEoum1tQfN4a+kJLhEZgbsIHo4XMi0hCywCX1AW Fire in this region is a very contentious practice where the are ‘still’ engaged in when living-with/-in nature (Aiyadurai Forest Department says that fire is bad…whereas fire is 2016; Simpson 2017; Sullivan 2017). We find that a healthy required for Tendu production…There is a lot of debate social metabolism is sustained in relationships where about whether [villagers] should practice it or not. At least metabolic value and local use-value are not sidetracked nYQp/IlQrHD3i3D0OdRyi7TvSFl4Cf3VC1y0abggQZXdtwnfKZBYtws= on 12/14/2023 within Korchi they have all stopped fire to a great extent; by exchange-value pressures but are in a fine balance that of the 80 I know at least 20-30 villages have prevented, respects the universal metabolism of nature. We showed started to prevent fire and they are using alternate practices how Korchi’s villagers negotiate between these different to trigger the same kind of Tendu production. value-generating relations, recognising the contribution Another example is how increases in exchange-value are each makes to their wellbeing. Importantly, the meaning of affecting collective governance. The large forest area means well-being itself is locally specific, arrived at collectively that NTFP quality varies e.g., Tendu leaf sizes differ across and tends to be anti-material growth. Finally, we outlined villages. Initially the MGS negotiated one rate for leaves certain contextual conditions specific to Korchi that seem procured from all 87 villages. This was to have strength in to nurture this balance: 1) resource autonomy; 2) strong numbers and avoid internal competition amongst villages. communitarian sense that also secures individual needs; 3) However, over time certain villages have decided to sell their clear understanding of the ecological, cultural and livelihood better quality leaves separately at higher prices. Villagers now losses that can result from modern (capitalistic) development have stricter boundaries where use of ‘outsiders’ (members and the ‘power-to’ resist such development made possible from other villages) is monitored and subject to permission. through progressive legislations and the longstanding Additionally, pressure from political elites and extractive support of internal and external agents; 4) capacity to meet agencies, who could benefit financially from NTFP sales if most needs locally; and 5) engaging with markets as an the MGS federation breaks up, creates de-collectivisation. association of collective workers12. Scholarly work in other Respondent 3 (villager) rues, socioecological contexts can unveil more ways in which One after another the gram sabhas are separating from the a negotiation between multiple value-relations can help Maha Gram Sabha…Either we did not reach out effectively promote a healthy social metabolism. Our study showed how to these villages [that have split] or we could not give them metabolic value can be a useful conceptual tool towards that proper guidance... . But mainly it these politicians who endeavour and towards the larger goal of better articulating are playing political games. They try to break collectives radical practices. wherever they find them. In wanting to combat this threat Respondent 3 determinedly Author Contribution Statements adds, “But this is our collective, our federation. We do not fight for one person; we fight for 90 villages as one.” The struggle to Concept or design of the work: AJ and NPB; Data collection: stay collectivised and autonomous is thus an ongoing one for AJ and NPB; Data Analysis: AJ and NPB; Drafting of the Korchi. So far it seems to be sustained by Adivasi worldviews manuscript: AJ; Critical revision of the manuscript: AJ and that go hand-in-hand with the realisation that adopting external NPB; Final approval of the version to be published: AJ notions of progress can destroy local livelihoods, natures and ways of being. The future for Korchi and communities Acknowledgements like it is uncertain given increased marketisation—including of nature—but they still constitute interstices where post- Annie is grateful to all the interviewees, especially the two Korchi capitalist transformations can take root (Wright 2019). residents. She would also like to thank her Ph.D. thesis supervisors, Dr Sergio Villamayor-Tomas (ICTA-UAB) and Dr James Angus CONCLUSION Fraser (Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University) for providing useful inputs during the conceptualisation and writing In this article, we tried to demonstrate how a study of of this paper. Annie is also indebted to K.B. for many useful inputs. Neema is grateful to the Korchi villagers especially the Maha Gram- different value-relations and their specific configuration in Sabha members. She is also thankful to the team at the non-profit a concrete setting is one way in which the open-ended, but organisation—Amhi Amchya Arogyasathi—and her colleagues increasingly necessary, concept of (radical) alternatives to at Kalpavriksh. Both authors would like to thank the anonymous mainstream conservation can be delineated. We started by reviewers, the senior editor and the managing editor of this journal acknowledging that mainstream conservation reinforces the for the support offered at the various stages of revision this article metabolic rift, intensifying separation and commodification went through. Value-relations and post-capitalist alternatives in forest conservation / 197 Declaration of competing/conflicting interests analytical categories made of the same material substance, what Malm (2018: 59) calls “substance monist property dualism”. Such None. non-dualist thinking also informs the meaning of terms such as post/anti/non-capitalist and radical that we use interchangeably. 2 As an example, see Massarella et al.’s (2022) special issue in Financial Disclosures Conservation and Society. 3 Taluka is an administrative category in rural India comprising Annie James: None specific to this article. Annie is supported Downloaded from http://journals.lww.com/coas by BhDMf5ePHKav1zEoum1tQfN4a+kJLhEZgbsIHo4XMi0hCywCX1AW a collection of villages. A group of elected members called the for her doctoral studies by LaCaixa INPhINIT Doctoral Panchayat governs each village. Each village has a gram sabha, Fellowship (Code: LCF/BQ/DI20/11780011) during which all which is an assembly of all adult members of the village. They of the research and writing for this article was done. elect the Panchayat and convene multiple times a year to discuss Neema Pathak Broome: None specific to this article. Neema village matters. nYQp/IlQrHD3i3D0OdRyi7TvSFl4Cf3VC1y0abggQZXdtwnfKZBYtws= on 12/14/2023 is a Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group member but has 4 In India, the British passed some of the earliest known laws that received no funding for this article. facilitated game protection and state takeover of forests (Ross 2017: 246). 5 One latest contribution is Barkin and Napoletano (2023) who Research Ethics Approval conceptualise these groups as ‘communitarian revolutionary subjects’ demonstrating their vitality to anti-capitalist struggles. Annie James: Doctoral Project Ethics Approval from UAB 6 For an expanded list see (Salleh 2010: 214; see also Longo et al. Ethics Commission: Comisión de Ética en la Experimentación 2015: 188–203; Barkin and Napoletano 2023: 54–63). Animal y Humana (CEEAH). Project Approval No: CEEAH 7 As per recent government statistics, India has a forest cover of 5886. They are 5 interviewees whose quotes are used in the 21.71% (Forest Survey of India 2021: 28–29). article. Written Consent forms for three interviewees (who 8 Adivasi is a Hindi word meaning original inhabitant. It describes could read and write in English) were taken. The other two all indigenous groups in India, of which there are over 700. About 10.42 million people or 8.6% of India’s population is classified interviewees gave verbal consent, which is in the call recording. as tribal (official category ‘Scheduled Tribes’) as per the last Neema Pathak Broome: Most of Neema’s anthropological census (Govt of India Census 2011). Korchi villagers referred stays—insights from which inform the article—were conducted to themselves using this term, so we use it as well. as part of the ACknowl-EJ project between 2017 and 2019. 9 Tendu leaves are commercially important since they are used ACKnowl-EJ was a collaborative process that included full to make local cigarettes (bidis), its fruits are a vital nutritional participation and consent from a section of Korchi villagers, source. Flowers of Mahua have nutritional qualities and a local whose views inform this research. Neema’s long-term alcoholic drink is made from them, making it commercial engagement with the Gadchiroli community dates back to valuable. Jamun is a seasonal fruit consumed in India. 1996: these interactions have been made in her professional 10 AJ does not currently live there but her (ongoing) doctoral studies focus on Maharashtra. capacity of being a member of Kalpavriksh Environmental 11 CFR stands for community forest rights. 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New York, NY: Verso Books. nYQp/IlQrHD3i3D0OdRyi7TvSFl4Cf3VC1y0abggQZXdtwnfKZBYtws= on 12/14/2023 Received: 10-Oct-2022; Revised: 10-Jul-2023; Accepted: 10-Jul-2023; Published: 28-Sep-2023