Greening the margins: Climate action, militarised conservation and the reproduction of marginalisation
This seminar explores what happens when global greening agendas encounter places across Africa and Asia shaped by conflict and struggles over land and ren become entangled with territorial control, exclusion and militarisation
Illustration © Justine Chambers
Wednesday 9 September 2026, 13.00-15.00
DIIS – Danish Institute for International Studies
Stockholmsgade 45, 2100 Copenhagen Ø
As states, conservation organisations and investors respond to climate change, areas that have long been considered peripheral are acquiring new value. Forests, drylands and borderlands across Africa and Asia are increasingly targeted for green investments labelled as conservation, carbon credit schemes, climate adaptation and renewable energy. Despite being promoted as responses to urgent environmental challenges, such interventions can still reproduce historical patterns of marginalisation, territorial control and conflict.
This seminar asks what happens when global greening agendas encounter places with long histories of contested state authority, armed conflict and struggles over land and resources. How do contemporary climate and conservation interventions build on older practices of territorialisation and exclusion? When does protecting forests, biodiversity or carbon stocks become entangled with military and counterinsurgency practices? And can conservation and climate action be pursued without reproducing the marginalisation and militarisation they often seek to overcome?
The seminar explores these questions across different histories and political contexts, bringing together research from Southeast Asia (Myanmar), South Asia (India) and Central and East Africa (Congo and Uganda) conducted by internationally recognised scholars on militarised conservation: Anwesha Dutta (Ghent University), Esther Marijnen (Wageningen University) and Kevin Woods (Chulalongkorn University). The seminar is organised jointly by the DIIS research projects FRONTLANDS and MyCClimate.
Programme
13.00-13.05 Welcome and introduction,Helene Maria Kyed
13.05-13.20 Greening the margins: Perspectives from FRONTLANDS and MyCClimate,Marie Gravesen and Justine Chambers
13.20-13.35 Greening the war: State conservation in revolutionary forests in Southeast Myanmar,Kevin Woods
13.35-13.50 The global biodiversity agenda, conservation (non) compliance and (post) conflict territories: The case of Northeast India and beyond, Anwesha Dutta
13.50-14.05 Green pacification: Colonial anxieties and enmeshed security and conservation operations in the Virunga (DRC) and Kidepo (Uganda) landscapes,Esther Marijnen
14.05-14.55 Panel discussion and Q&A
14.55-15.00 Closing remarks, Steffen Jensen
Practical information
The event takes place in DIIS Auditorium, Stockholmsgade 45, 2100 Copenhagen. Everyone interested is welcome, and participation is free of charge. However, registration is required and must be completed
- Natural resources and environment
- The Middle East & North Africa
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Asia
9 September 2026 13:00–15:00
DIIS Auditorium
Register here
DIIS Experts
Photo/illustration by Lynggaardhansenfoto.dk
Helene Maria Kyed
Migration, Climate and Conflict
Senior Researcher
+45 4096 3309
hmk@diis.dk
Photo/illustration by Jette Mariboe, DIIS
Justine Chambers
Migration, Climate and Conflict
Senior Researcher
juch@diis.dk
Marie Ladekjær Gravesen
Migration, Climate and Conflict
Senior Researcher
+45 9132 5552
malg@diis.dk
