Disputed Territories - by Jan Schulz (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Disputed Territories explores how colonial legacies, extractivism, and Western conceptions of nature affect Indigenous land struggles, human rights violations, and environmental degradation in the Amazon regions of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. The book critically examines how Indigenous communities confront these dynamics through alternative legal and philosophical frameworks, most notably the Rights of Nature. The narrative combines contextual interviews with Indigenous leaders, community representatives, activists, lawyers, etc. with reflections and analysis on colonial history, economic developments, human rights violations, and political challenges. It outlines the consequences of extractivism in the region and the ideologies that sustain them, particularly the Western view of nature as separate from the human world and therefore to be exploited. In contrast, Indigenous perspectives, rooted in relational and reciprocal understandings of the environment, emerge not only as alternative worldviews but as concrete practices of sustainability and resistance. Furthermore, the book analyses the development and application of Rights of Nature legislation across the three countries and beyond, examining its roots, the civil society movement, legal implications, and real-world impacts. In combining field reporting with political, legal, and ecological analysis, the book reveals how these frameworks challenge anthropocentric models of environmental and human rights. Ultimately, Disputed Territories invites readers to rethink the human-nature relationship and consider more just, sustainable, and reciprocal ways of inhabiting the Earth.