Judging Conservation: An Environmental Justice Approach to the Impact of the Chagos Marine Protected Area

Abstract

The 2025 Agreement between the UK and Mauritius on the sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago represents both an exciting step towards completing decolonisation in the Indian Ocean and a harsh reminder that the islands’ displaced population is still being prevented from exercising their right to self-determination. Attempting to understand the circumvention of the Chagossians’ right to self-determination reveals a history of intersecting security, indigenous and environmental interests. However, the addition of environmental interests came relatively recently with the establishment of the Chagos Marine Protected Area (MPA) in 2010. This controversial decision has been lauded as both a conservation victory and the addition of yet another barrier to Chagossian resettlement. This thesis addresses this tension by asking how the environmental governance of the Chagos MPA between 2010 and 2018 impacted the Chagossians’ pursuit of indigenous self-determination. Using a multi-dimensional environmental justice framework, this thesis argues that the legal arbitration of the Chagos MPA systematically reified the environmental injustices experienced by the Chagossians as a result of the MPA’s establishment. A qualitative analysis of the 2015 Permanent Court of Arbitration award and the 2018 UK Supreme Court judgment in R (Bancoult No 3) demonstrates how the environmental governance of the MPA inflicted recognition, procedural and distributive injustices on the Chagossians. This thesis concludes that these legal challenges solidified the marginalisation of the Chagossians by misrecognising their indigeneity, reinforcing their exclusion from environmental decision-making, and accepting the unequal distribution of the costs of conservation.