Using Drones for Community Resistance in the Forest Commons of Guatemala

* Article: As the drone flies: Configuring a vertical politics of contestation within forest conservation. By NaomiMillner. Political Geography, Volume 80, June 2020, 102163

URL = https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0962629818305304?

Abstract

Excerpt:

"By examining the introduction of drones in the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR) in the Petén region of Guatemala, I reveal how satellite technologies and drones are also being used as part of community-led resistance to dispossession. Here, drones are used as part of everyday conservation practices, as part of a socio-legal process that I describe as the configuration of a vertical politics of contestation. Following the history of technological innovation in the MBR leads me to show how, despite their associations with military containment, such technologies can be used to rework spatial orders imposed by states, international actors, the army and the national elite."