Restor(y)ing the Past to Envision an ‘Other’ Future: A Decolonial Environmental Restorative Justice Perspective

In this chapter I argue that an environmental restorative justice approach can be enriched by getting in touch with Latin American decolonial thinking and praxis and incorporating it into its disciplinary practice. To do so, I frst discuss some main propositions of Latin American decolonial environmental justice theory, which ground my approach to restorative justice. Secondly, drawing on John Paul Lederach’s (2008) long-term peacebuilding perspective, I define how I understand a restorative environmental approach from a cultural revitalisation perspective.
Tirdly, to exemplify what such an approach looks like in practice, I discuss two case studies: one in Canaima National Park, Venezuela, and another in the Indigenous Territory of Lomerio, in Bolivia, in which I have been involved in environmental restorative justice process using participatory action research for cultural revitalisation with Indigenous peoples in contexts of prolonged environmental conficts. Fourth and finally, I discuss some key lessons from the two key studies with the hope that they can guide the eforts at conceptualising and doing environmental restorative justice in Latin America and beyond.