Protecting Forests From “Foreigners”? Environmental Activists and Ethno‐Environmentalism in Côte d'Ivoire

How do land claims articulated around belonging and the environment (re)shape claims to legitimacy? This article examines social mobilizations led by activists involved in environmental organizations, who define themselves as “autochthone”, and who take part in the contested co‐production of political forests in Côte d'Ivoire. It introduces the concept of ethno‐environmentalism, which reveals how the environment and autochthony are mobilized as political repertoires within a politics of recognition, enabling the renewal of long‐standing land struggles in the aftermath of the war, experienced by these activists as a form of political marginalization. The environmentalization processes of land struggles, centered on deforestation attributed to “foreigners”, allow them to both contest and ally with state institutions. This article opens a dialogue between the literature on political forests and that on land and belonging, offering new ways to analyze processes of environmentalization of political struggles articulated around belonging.