This compilation of case studies discusses how ‘environmental citizenship’ is constructed in contemporary Latin America. The premise is not only that citizenship is key to reading the politics of nature, but also that the latter redefines the former in Latin America, as it does in the rest of the world. Introducing the collection, the editors call for nuanced understanding of the diverse ways in which ‘citizenship itself is constituted and contested’ (p. 2). Indeed, the chapters show that environmental citizenship is a malleable concept that actors of diverse political arenas are willing to adopt, translate and dispute. The book is a great source of original research and is highly recommended for use in courses on Latin American environmental studies.

Alex Latta and Hannah Wittman set the goal of examining ‘the way that socio-political subjects are mutually constituted with the ecological practices and institutions that they create, defend and reshape over time’ (pp. 1–2). They do a good job of providing consistency to a collection of 13 articles that range from native forest politics in Chile to food sovereignty struggles in Mexico. The book is organised into three sections: the first shows the contrasting ways in which environmental citizenship develops, the second deals with environmental justice, and the third discusses the construction of environmental governance.

Chapter 2, by Andrew Baldwin and Judy Meltzer, argues that the REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) programme in Amazonian Peru exemplifies how the geopolitical and the biopolitical deliver a new form of security in which environmental citizenship is shaped. The securitisation and commodification of rainforest carbon needs to recruit Amazonian communities as environmental citizens, or carbon custodians. Fábio de Castro's chapter then depicts how a local fishing management system has been transformed into a core element of a new territorial model for sustainable production within local communities in the region of Santarém in the lower Amazon of Brazil. In chapter 4, Analiese Richard tells the story of the ‘Sin Maíz No Hay País’ campaign, a rhetoric in which ‘the relationship between humans and nature is mediated through the notion of agro-biodiversity, embodied in the milpa system and coded as a public good’ (p. 73). Renzo Tadder then introduces us to the rain prophets of the sertão, discussing whether emergent forms of symbolic resistance become co-opted by hegemonic discourses of scientific knowledge.

The chapters in the second section contribute to the growing scholarship on environmental justice in Latin America. Juanita Sundberg analyses the politics of conservation in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, discussing ‘how imaginaries of places – as in the Amazon or Chilean Forest – are articulated with racial formations and social practices to exclude particular groups from embodying the category of citizen’ (p. 98). Conservationism was established from above, but met different social fabrics at the base, co-producing different forms of citizenship. María Teresa Grillo and Tucker Sharon bring the Peruvian Amazon to the fore again to discuss the paradox by which the ‘Amazon-as-space’ becomes part of the national territory while the ‘Amazonian-as-subject’ is left out of the national narrative. The ‘space without citizens’, or a selva with ‘second-class citizens’, as in an infamous presidential remark, continues to be a powerful imaginary among political elites. Do the indigenous people populating forests possess more citizenship when the Left is in office? In chapter 8, Jason Tockman discusses ‘post-neoliberal environments’ in Bolivia, where the 2009 Constitution empowers the self-governance of indigenous communities and a Law of the Rights of Mother Earth (2010) endows the cycles and processes of nature with rights. We are left with the assessment that it is too early to determine whether the new Bolivian regime makes a difference to indigenous citizenship, given that the macro-economy continues to depend on extractives. Adam Henne and Teena Gabrielson, in chapter 9, carry out an insightful discussion on inclusion/exclusion in the Chilean Native Forest Market Campaign. This paper refers to the way in which Alfredo Seguel, a leader of the Mapuche organisation Konapewman, summarises the contradiction at stake: how could environmentalists sign deals regarding the sustainable use of territories that by right belonged to the Mapuche?

The final section puts together research on environmental governance formation. Enrique Silva uses Foucault's concept of governmentality to discuss the case of the Acceso Sur, an illustration of the power of the state to manage people, place and the public debate around the environment and citizenship. In technocratic Chile, rather than deliberative participation, one might continue to see participation through force and coercion, he contends. María Gabriela Merlinsky and Alex Latta then explore how environmental conflicts contribute to the construction of environmental rights and the subjectivities of citizens who pursue those rights. The politics of ecological knowledge and juridification, and the role of the national ombudsperson, are shown as key in the cases of Matanza-Riachuelo and the pulp mills on the Uruguay River. In turn, Brián Ferrero's chapter exposes a narrative of environmentalism as an arena for political participation in the Yabotí Biosphere Reserve, in Misiones. Traditional and recent forms of collective deliberation, the aty-guazú and the mesa de diálogo, are transformed in the process. The final chapter, by Juliet Pinto, discusses the social construction of the ‘rights to nature’ and buen vivir in Ecuador, by means of dualisms: human/nature, reason/emotion and civilised/primitive, among others. As in the case of Bolivia, dependence on natural resources questions the extent to which reality conforms with new laws and ideals.

Throughout the journey, site is revealed to be key. The significance of place calls for more attention. On the one hand, the editors acknowledge that the book does not tackle ‘nature's specific valence in the relationships that constitute the socio-ecological substance of citizenship’ (p. 15). On the other, they sympathise with frameworks that proclaim that nature is already integral to the evolution of what we call society. Can we reconcile these two views? The invitation by Latta and Wittman to address this ‘loose end’ is very welcome.