Voices from the Frontlines of Climate Justice with
Arpitha Kodiveri

Assistant Professor, Vassar College | Author, Governing Forests
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About this masterclass

Mental models for understanding global climate inequities

New ideas for balancing development and conservation

Frameworks for creating more inclusive systems 

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Vassar Academic Arpitha Kodiveri

In this episode, we explore the complex intersection of climate change, environmental conservation, and human rights with environmental lawyer and legal scholar Arpitha Kodiveri. While nations of the Global North focus on emissions trading and alternative energy sources, communities in the Global South—especially forest-dwelling communities in India—face life-and-death decisions about natural resource use.

Kodiveri, who has worked closely with these communities, shares stories of how they endure the dual threats of aggressive mining and conservation pressures. Yet, amid these challenges, hope emerges through their innovative approaches to forest law, co-governance, and a deep commitment to care and repair. Tune in for a deep dive into how these traditional owners are driving change and reshaping the future of forest governance. 
The nations of the Global North are responding to the climate change emergency with emissions trading schemes and alternative sources of energy.

Meanwhile, nations of the Global South, still emerging from historical exploitation under colonialism, face decisions about natural resource use that are, for traditional owners and inhabitants of resource-rich lands, often a matter of life or death. Environmental lawyer and legal scholar Arpitha Kodiveri has worked alongside many of India's forest-dwelling communities and describes how they bear the cost of both rapacious mining development and increasing pressure for forest land to be set aside for environmental conservation. Despite these challenges, Kodiveri shows how the traditional owners and inhabitants of forest areas are driving creative solutions in forest law.

Hope can be found here, in each community's unique vision of co-governance, expressed in the language of care and repair.
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