This paper contributes to global debates on environmental governance by drawing on recent ontological scholarship to ask: What would it mean to ontologically engage the concept of environmental governance? By examining the ontological underpinnings of three environmental governance domains (land, water, biodiversity), we find that dominant contemporary environmental governance concepts and policy instruments are grounded in a modernist ontology which actively shapes the world, making certain aspects and relationships visible while invisibilizing others. We then survey ethnographic and other literature to highlight how such categories and their relations have been conceived otherwise and the implications of breaking out of a modernist ontology for environmental governance. Lastly, we argue that answering our opening question requires confronting the coloniality woven into the environmental governance project and consider how to instead embrace ontological pluralism in practice. In particular, we examine what taking seriously the right to self-determination enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) could mean for acknowledging Indigenous ontologies as systems of governance in their own right; what challenges and opportunities exist for recognizing and translating ontologies across socio-legal regimes; and how embracing the dynamism and hybridity of ontologies might complicate or advance struggles for material and cognitive justice.

Advancing social equity has been implicitly and explicitly central to water resources policy for decades. Yet, equity remains largely outside of standard water resources planning and management practices. Inclusion of equity within water resources infrastructure is inhibited by barriers including an incomplete conceptual understanding of equity, a perceived lack of quantitative and qualitative equity metrics, unclear connections between equity and standard project planning frameworks, and the absence of concrete examples. To facilitate greater practical inclusion of social equity in water resources practices, we describe equity relative to dimensions of distribution, procedure, and recognition and identify metrics associated with each. We then map these dimensions of equity onto different stages of a water resources project life cycle. We discuss how inequities are often perpetuated by current approaches and highlight case studies that promote one or more of the facets of equity. Rather than providing a prescriptive solution to “achieve” equity within water resources practices, we emphasize the need for contextualized approaches that include pragmatic steps toward more equitable practices and outcomes.

No diálogo com as pesquisas e dados desenvolvidos por técnicos e especialistas da área de recursos hídricos no monitoramento do regime das águas no Ceará, Brasil, os autores apresentam-nos o recorte da ecologia política para os estudos das “paisagens hídricas”.

Abstract: This interview approaches the work and career of the anthropologist Virginia Nazarea, and her work with the interconnectivity of memory, identity and food. The anthropological research exposes the relation between people's perception of their environment and biodiversity, and how personal identities come from such context.Keywords: memory. agriculture. biodiversity. conservation of knowledge. Resumo: Esta entrevista aborda o trabalho e carreira da antropóloga Virginia Nazarea, e seu trabalho com a interconectividade de memória, identidade e alimentos. A pesquisa antropológica expõe a relação entre a percepção das pessoas quanto ao seu ambiente e a biodiversidade, e como identidades pessoais surgem desse contexto.Palavras chave: memória. agricultura. biodiversidade. conservação de conhecimento.