Eco-nationalism (also known asecological nationalism orgreen nationalism) is a synthesis ofnationalism andgreen politics. Eco-nationalists may be from many points across theleft–right political spectrum, but all are bound to the idea that thenation-state and its citizens have a special duty to protect the environment of their country.
According to Jane Dawson, eco-nationalism is the rise ofsocial movements that closely connect problems ofenvironment protection with nationalist concerns. Dawson also surmised that eco-nationalism is "the synthesis of environmentalism, national identity, and the struggle for justice".[Note 1][1] Professors of history K. Sivaramakrishnan andGunnel Cederlöf have defined eco-nationalism as, whether nativist or cosmopolitan in nature, "when the state appropriates the environment and environmental policies as forms of national pride, thereby consolidating and legitimating the nation."[2]
One of the first instances of eco-nationalism was in the 1980s in the thenSoviet Union, where citizens perceivedenvironmental degradation as both a systemic fault of socialism and a direct result of Moscow's desire to weaken a particular nation by destroying its natural base, andexploiting its resources. Estonian, Lithuanian and Ukrainian independence movements drew great strength fromenvironmental activism, especially from anantinuclear stance. In 1985–1991, eco-nationalism was one of the symptoms and at the same time a new impulse of the disintegration of theSoviet Union.[1]
Eco-nationalism as defined by anthropologists often manifests in the adoption of nature as an entity outside of culture that must be protected in its pristine and untouched state whenever possible.[3] Insubaltern studies andcultural anthropology, eco-nationalism refers to the iconification of native species and landscapes in a way that appeals to a nationalist sentiment.
When discussing eco-nationalism, many writers have noted it is important to understand the difference betweenethnic nationalism andcivic nationalism. Ethnic nationalism believes that the nation-state should be constructed primarily around a single ethnicity, whereas civic nationalism believes that the nation-state should be constructed around a diversity of people who all share common values, beliefs, and culture. The former tends to be insular, isolationist, nativist, and typically right-wing, while the latter is open, egalitarian, multicultural, and typically more left-wing. Whether ethno nationalist or civic nationalist, when a nationalist group adds an environmentalist dimension to their ideology, they believe the nation-state and its citizens have a duty to protect the environment of the country.[4][5][6]
Bioregionalism is the belief that political, cultural, and economic systems are more environmentally sustainable and just if they are organized around naturally defined areas calledbioregions. This idea that a state should conform to the natural geography of the land is compatible with the older nationalist concept of anatural border, which also believes that natural geography should determine the borders of a state. Due to the compatibility of these two ideas, Bioregionalism is often a tenet of eco-nationalist thought.[7]
Eco-nationalism can manifest inecotourism, which can enrich local economies but has garnered criticism from a variety of perspectives.[8][3][9] Artistic works that extol the virtues of a nation's natural phenomena, such as the poetry ofWilliam Wordsworth[10] or the paintings of theGroup of Seven,[11] are another expression of eco-nationalism.
The struggle of theOgoni people inOgoniland in coastal south Nigeria against the national government has been characterised as an eco-nationalist movement by Jane Dawson.[1] Following the discovery of oil in the region during the 1960s, the federal government altered how states in Nigeria were budgeted. Before the discovery of oil, a state's budget was based on how much it contributed to the national economy, but after the discovery of oil, the policy became that wealth must be shared out amongst all states. The result of this was that little of the newfound wealth being generated in Ogoniland was reinvested locally, and was instead redistributed to the more politically powerful states in the north of the country.[1] The small percentage of wealth reinvested into Ogoniland was invested into building oil infrastructure, infrastructure which had dire environmental consequences on the region. As a result,Ogoni nationalism took on a distinctive environmentalist dimension in response to these issues.[1]
The struggle of the practitioners of theSarna sthal religion in India, particularly in theJharkhand state, to receive official recognition from the state has been described by some as an "eco-nationalist" one, as the Sarna identity has been suggested to born out of a sense of nation infused with ecological thinking.[12]
Some scholars have suggested that Civic Eco-nationalism is a distinct feature of Taiwanese politics. Similar to countries in theEastern Bloc in the 1980s, Environmentalism protests in Taiwan in the 1990s were a means by which the citizens could indirectly criticise the party-state. Just like the Baltic nations in the Soviet Union, Environmentalism as a mass movement began in Taiwan as a backlash against the introduction of Nuclear power. Protests against the construction of theLungmen Nuclear Power Plant led byLin Yi-hsiung in 1994 have been cited as a foundation point for Eco-nationalism in Taiwan as well as part of the momentum that led to Taiwan's transition to democracy in the late 1990s and 2000s. Part ofChen Shui-bian's platform in the historic2000 Taiwanese presidential election, in which the rulingKuomintang lost for the first time ever, was to halt the construction of the Lungmen plant. The issue of nuclear power, and specifically Lungmen, have never been resolved in Taiwan and following theFukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011, the issue of nuclear power once again became a key issue in Taiwanese politics.[13]
Another area in which Taiwanese environmentalism and eco-nationalism can be seen demonstrated is in the politics ofTaiwan's indigenous population. A persistent critique in Taiwan is that land traditionally held by indigenous Taiwanese has been transformed by the state into mines and national parks, while the indigenous have been prevented by the state from using the same land for homes or for hunting. In 2018, a member of theNew Power Party stated that 80% of Taiwan's 217 mining areas were located in aboriginal territories. This situation has led to the ongoingIndigenous Ketagalan Boulevard protest, which began in 2017. Another example of the environmental burden placed on indigenous Taiwanese has been the issue of nuclear waste dumping practised in secret by the state on the largely indigenousOrchid Island. The discovery of this nuclear dumping led to mass protests in 2002. The sentiment that the price of Taiwan's industrial development has unfairly fallen on indigenous communities has led to the growth of Eco-nationalism in Taiwan, with Eco-Nationalists arguing that the struggle of the indigenous must be tied to environmentalism and that there must beenvironmental justice for the indigenous.[13]
Another cited example of a merger of Taiwanese nationalism and environmentalism is in the increasing environmental aspect of the "huan-dao"; the huan-dao is an emerging Taiwanese tradition in which a Taiwanese citizen cycles the entire length of the country alongTaiwan Cycling Route No.1. Considered both a coming-of-age ritual as well as an act of Taiwanese patriotism, a developing aspect of the huan-dao is for travellers to collect and dispose of waste along the route as a patriotic act.[13]
As noted above, some of the first instances of eco-nationalism were observed inEstonia,Latvia,Lithuania andUkraine in the 1980s. It was during this time period that nationalists in those countries discovered that the Soviet Union did not seek to block anti-government activity if it was under the banner of environmentalism.[7] Thus nationalists in those countries threw themselves into environmental causes, particular after theChernobyl disaster. In Estonia, eco-nationalists campaigned on the issues of oil-shale pollution, nuclear risk and mineral (phosphate) mining. In Latvia, fears about the potential damages to the natural environment by large hydro-dams on theDaugava River, as well as concerns that the symbols of the Latvian nation theOak andLinden tree species were being destroyed.[7] The eco-nationalism of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine are described as being eco-civic-nationalist rather than eco-ethno-nationalist.[6]
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The centre-left, civic nationalistScottish National Party has been described in some sources as eco-nationalist; Espousing Scottish nationalism, the SNP has accused theWestminster government of being a "negligent landlord" that tosses its waste and pollution in Scotland.[6] The SNP is noted for a longstanding willingness to work alongside environmental activists.[6] In 2019 the SNP-led Scottish government was one of the first countries in the world to officiallydeclare a climate emergency and followed this up with the radical Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019.[14] The act was subsequently praised by the UN as "an inspiring example of the level of ambition we need globally to achieve theParis Agreement".[14] Following the2021 Scottish Parliament election, the SNP andScottish Greens entered into a ruling coalition together.[15] Like the SNP, the Scottish Greens favour independence from the United Kingdom.[16]
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Republican Left of Catalonia, a center-leftCatalan nationalist party, has been described as eco-nationalist. In 2017 they passed a climate emergency declaration through the Catalan parliament that would have taken radical actions such as banningfracking, planning a closure of all nuclear facilities by 2027 and a reduction in CO2 emissions of 27% at a minimum by 2030. However, the Spanish supreme court vetoed the act after deeming it to be unconstitutional because it exceed the scope of powers granted to regional parliaments in Spain.[14] In addition to their work in the Catalan parliament, the ERC (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya) have been praised by theClimate Action Network for their work in theEuropean Parliament, where between 2014 and 2019 ERC were deemed to have a pro-climate voting record even better than Spain's main green party,Greens Equo, and were ranked amongst the best performers on green issues of any party sitting in the entire European Parliament.[14][17]
The left-wingGalician Nationalist Bloc has also been called eco-nationalist. The party has called for laws that would provide protection to the landscape and ecosystems while addressing issues of mobility, waste, energy, mining and water management. In 2019 the party asked for the creation of a crisis cabinet at the regional level in Spain to act on the climate emergency, as well as to tackle the threat of invasive species as a threat to water management and biodiversity.[14]
In 2014, the nationalist leader of theFrench National Front,Marine Le Pen, launched a 'patriotic ecology' project.[18] Termed New Ecology, the movement branded itself on a nativist form of environmentalism - encouraging locally sourced products being an example. In keeping with Le Pen's nationalist agenda, Le Pen described open borders as "anti-ecological".[19] Conversely, Le Pen also promised to "decree an immediatemoratorium on wind energy"[18] In an article in the Huffington Post, the Danish entrepreneur Jens Martin Skibsted, reported that he once saw Marine Le Pen's father and former leader of the National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen, "cut a water melon in two to demonstrate that green environmentalists were in fact hidden red communists."[20]
The Hungarian political partyOur Homeland Movement has been described as chauvinistically eco-nationalist in orientation; for example, the party has called on Hungarians to show patriotism by supporting the removal of pollution from theTisza River while simultaneously placing the blame on the pollution onRomania andUkraine.[6] Elements of the far-rightSixty-Four Counties Youth Movement proscribe themselves to the "Eco-Nationalist" label, with one member stating "no real nationalist is a climate denialist".[21]
The new age religious movementAnastasianism, which stresses the people's spiritual connection to nature, has been described in academia as being "eco-nationalist" in political outlook.[22]
German intellectuals from the 19th century, like Wilhelm Riehl, and Theodor Fontane, espoused ideals such asGerman nationalism and rootedness, in terms of the land as a food source and being German ground.[23] German soil and German blood are nearly synonymous, or at least very closely related, in these contexts. This agro-romanticism was also popularized amongst Nazis because German cities were “Jew-ridden,” according to Adolf Bartels, aNational Democratic Party member and journalist.[24]
German magazinesUmwelt and Aktiv have been identified as a potential “camouflage publication” for the National Democratic Party.[25] The NPD is a far-right political organization, whose personal publications do not in themselves promote anti-Semitic ideas, but are frequently used for anti-semitic purposes.[23]Umwelt and Aktiv contains information about gardening and genetically-modified food, as well as right-wing propaganda and slurs. These magazines are not the only modern trace of the far-right green movement. In northern Germany, individuals with right-wing and ecologically-driven beliefs created new settlements inspired by agro-romanticism. These individuals grow their own food and knit with wool from their own livestock. Their food is sold through Biopark, an organic cultivation organization. Consumers have been warned of the risk of supporting the National Democratic Party, and Biopark has been questioned on the ethics of allowing members to sell through them. The organization’s vetting process is done only through cultivation practices.[25] A farmer and former candidate for a party position questioned why left-wing individuals have dominated the ecological scene. TheGerman Greens are Europe’s most successful environmental party ever since their rise in the 1980s.[25]
Patriotic pride in the country's landscape and environment is particularly visible in countries such asAustralia[8] andNew Zealand,[3][26] which are known for their unique animal life. Eco-nationalism is also marked by national pride in natural wonders such as theGreat Barrier Reef orMitre Peak, extensive conservation efforts towards iconic species such as thekākāpō andlargetooth sawfish, and the creation ofNational Parks in order to protect these species and areas.[8][3] While beneficial for conservation efforts, eco-nationalism has been criticized as an extension of colonialist dichotomies and ontologies[3] and rarely addresses Indigenous ecological knowledge.[8]
TheOil Free Wellington group and its sister projects in other areas of New Zealand, a movement that campaigned against deep-sea drilling for oil off the coast of New Zealand because of the damage it was doing to the nation, has been described as another example of New Zealander Eco-Nationalism.[27]
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