Lisan Matters: Carbon forestry, embodied care and Indigenous governance norms in Timor-Leste

• First study on central role of Indigenous practices of kinship, ritual and everyday resource negotiations in carbon forestry. • Invisible political-economy work is embedded in embodied socio-ecological knowledges. • Reformulates ways of imagining carbon commodification and associated environmental governance. • Calls on proponents of carbon projects to address the political and cultural implications of Indigenous governance processes. • Identifies opportunities and risks for customary governance arrangements in relation to carbon forestry. In this paper we trace the cultural movement of an expanding carbon forestry program in Timor-Leste and investigate the priority given by participants to sustaining relatedness through Indigenous Timorese practices of kinship, ritual and everyday resource negotiations. We argue that this critical and usually invisible political-economy work is embedded in the participants’ own deeply embodied socio-ecological knowledges and ethics of care. We investigate how these principles and practices are both enabling and reformulating ways of imagining carbon commodification and associated environmental governance. We argue that the agential power of people’s socio-ecological norms and practices is a critical driver of the wider benefits that these programs are generating, including the strengthening of local Indigenous house-based authority. At the same time, we note a contrasting level of disregard shown by proponents of international carbon projects for the political and cultural implications of these foundational Indigenous governance processes. We note a range of circumstances in which the potential for this carbon-forestry program to support and be supported by customary governance institutions may be at risk.