Abstract

Commodity booms can lead to intense pressure to access land. We document a case where villagers, far from being passive victims of land grabs, acquire land themselves by navigating between customary institutions and state policies. The mechanisms by which villagers re-territorialize forest to their advantage include enclosure, encroachment, theft, and re-claiming. These mechanisms evolve over time, notably in response to a closing of the forest frontier, thus challenging locals seeking livelihoods and state officials managing forests. The paper questions assumptions about local villagers' positionality in the global land rush and calls for rethinking the nature of peasant politics worldwide.