Between the god-trick and pluriversal potential: Four figures of drone in tropical forest conservation

Unpiloted aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, are increasingly used to monitor conservation environments. In forests, drones map changes in canopy cover, count wildlife, capture footage for wider publics and track illegal activities. As social scientists have already made clear, such practices raise important political issues. As a technology of aerial surveillance, drones can be used to collect visual data that, intentionally or not, may support the policing of populations in protected areas or the production of atmospheres of fear. Nevertheless, the contribution of this article is to explore the potential for drones to be constituted as a ‘pluriversal’ technology. This is to say, we consider drones as a modality for constituting forest worlds that include cultural and territorial rights, and promote multispecies care. Drawing on ethnographic work in the Maya Forest, Andean Forest and Amazon Forest, we explore these possibilities by tracing four distinct but overlapping ‘figures’ of drones within tropical forest conservation. While military histories and extractivist logics shape drone use in these contexts, we nevertheless point to the ways that the aerial view is also being reclaimed and articulated as part of Indigenous and community-led monitoring systems. In conclusion, we make clear that this potential is always precarious and situated, as drones used as pluriversal technologies may, at any point, be appropriated for surveillance and control.