Colonial Residue: Dismantling the Colonial Legacy in Postcolonial Environments

Adopting the breadth of the term ‘environment’ outlined in the 2018-2020 ERRANS environ/s Fellowship, and being attentive to its focus on how environments can urge the questioning of clear-cut distinctions and ‘produce complex political ecologies attuned to far-reaching entanglements’, Collins’ project reaches into the historical environments of Guyana and Suriname to feel out and trace the legacy of the colonial encounter. She outlines how this legacy is reflected in the modern-day reliance on extractive activity, challenging environmental conservation efforts taking place there.

Through a focus on the societal structure founded on a layered and exploitative history, Collin uses the environment as a string of temporal continuity unreeling from an initial Indigenous and European encounter in the Guianas to establish entrenched societal structures and economic activity that challenge the feasibility of global climate change policies today. She will produce a monograph and supporting articles that connect these historical events with the challenges of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) forest conservation initiative being implemented in Guyana and Suriname.