From hatchet to seed: Grassroots-led intersectional feminist political ecology for transforming tree-based climate action

Hanson Nyantakyi-Frimpong

Department of Geography & the Environment, University of Denver

Abstract

Since its inception over four decades ago, a major shortcoming of political ecology has been its excessive focus on criticisms while offering few direct solutions. Political ecology research that aims at incisive criticism is often called a ‘hatchet,’ while work focusing directly on nurturing possibilities for social change is called ‘seed work.’ Thus far, how to do political ecology seed work has received relatively scant attention in the geographic literature. In this talk, I will highlight one potential way of doing seed work using a grassroots-led intersectional feminist political ecology approach. Drawing empirical material from a shade-grown cocoa and carbon offset project in West Africa, I will demonstrate the power and transformative nature of seed work. I will further reflect on the difficulty of doing political ecology seed work and argue that although it can be time-consuming and stressful, it is needed now more than ever to support ongoing struggles against social and environmental injustices. In addition to grassroots-led action research, this talk will highlight other approaches through which political ecologists have engaged in seed work and from which the field’s newcomers and current practitioners can learn from.