Description
Climate change poses numerous threats to Indigenous peoples. Particularly salient is the issue of planned, permanent relocation away from at-risk coastlines, also called ‘managed retreat’ in the environmental studies literature (e.g. Bower and Weerasinghe 2021). Managed retreat is contentious in an Indigenous context: it has been accused of reinforcing settler-colonial hierarchies (Jessee 2022) and disrupting relationships to sacred territory (Walker 2021). At the same time, many Indigenous groups view planned relocation as a necessary evil in response to inexorable sea level rise and associated problems like increased tsunami risk (ibid.). The climatic dimension of managed retreat is morally significant: Native communities have contributed very little to the problem, yet are disproportionately exposed to climate impacts (Pérez and Tomaselli 2021: 353; cf. Caney 2010). Planned relocation, then, invites questions of ethics and justice: the subject of this paper.
I argue that a fair relocation scheme must have three elements. First, the destination site must represent a clear alternative to the status quo that satisfies egalitarian principles of justice. The site must ensure plentiful economic opportunities and a flourishing civic life. Second, the process of relocation must be consensual, with democratic participation. This would minimize epistemic injustice, whereby Native views are not seen as credible and therefore ignored (Byskov and Hyams 2022; cf. Fricker 2007). Third, Indigenous peoples should not be penalized for remaining within vulnerable areas. State agencies should not force them to leave, nor should agencies withdraw emergency assistance for climate-related disasters.
This paper contributes to the conference by considering a major global challenge in the coming decades - sea level rise and increased tsunami risk due to climate change - in the contentious context of Indigenous coastal relocation. It offers theoretical resources for International Studies scholars to engage with the normative stakes of the issue.
