Environmental Security and Substate Governance: Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

When states are unable to provide sufficient protection for nonstate groups within their territory, these groups must attempt to secure their own protection. While many elements may explain the success or failure at security provision by nonstate actors, existing research suggests that more cohesive groups, as well as groups that engage in advocacy networks with their peers, should be better able to provide their own security. Even with limited state capacity, protection by state actors also plays a major role in the security of nonstate actors. Using data on internal characteristics and legal status for indigenous territories in the Brazilian Amazon, as well as satellite data on deforestation from the PRODES monitoring program, this thesis explores the effects of federal legal protections, indigenous group cohesion, and participation in regional advocacy networks on security for indigenous territories, using the level of deforestation as a proxy for the security of a territory. The thesis includes a stacked difference-in-differences design with federal legal protection as the treatment variable, as well as correlational analysis of the cross-section data for indigenous group capability. Results indicate that state protection is the single most important driver of security for nonstate actors, with regional network participation playing a role, but internal group cohesion not predicting security effectiveness. 

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

1. Introduction                                                                                                                        1

2. Literature                                                                                                                            3

2.1 State Capacity, Fragility, and Failure                                                                           3

2.2 Group Cohesion and Trust                                                                                             7

3. A Theory of Substate and Hybrid Governance                                                             9

3.1 The Sources of Substate Effectiveness                                                                       11

3.2 Mechanism 1: Regional Advocacy Networks                                                            12

3.3 Mechanism 2: Group Cohesion                                                                                   13

3.4 Hypotheses                                                                                                                     14

3.5 The Case of the Brazilian Amazon                                                                             18

4. Research Design                                                                                                                22

4.1 Deforestation Rate                                                                                                         22

4.2 Federal Enforcement (H1)                                                                                            25

4.3 Regional Advocacy Network Participation (H2a)                                                    26

4.4 Internal Division (H2b)                                                                                                 27

5. Empirical Results                                                                                                             28

5.1 Enforcement Model                                                                                                       39

5.2 Mobilization Model                                                                                                       32

6. Conclusion                                                                                                                        40

Works Cited                                                                                                                           42

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	International Studies
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Political Science, International Relations
Mot-clé	Enforcement Substate Governance Conflict Indigenous Group Environmental Security State Capacity Deforestation Nonstate Actor
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Danielle Jung, Emory University
Committee Members	Thomas Rogers, Emory University Natalia Bueno, Emory University

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