More than human rights to commons: a poetic resistance in Chitral, Pakistan

Abstract This study investigates the governance of commons (muzhayo) in Chitral, Pakistan, by critiquing anthropocentric frameworks and distinctly differentiating “more-than-human rights” from universalist “rights of nature” approaches. The concept of muzhayo is introduced as a shared space for humans and more-than-human (MTH) entities, encompassing livestock, wildlife, plants, birds, and spiritual beings. This research employs poetry as a primary methodological tool, gathering 27 poems from Khowar-speaking poets, supplemented by ethnographic interviews and observations conducted over four years in the mountainous region of Upper Chitral. The research emphasises Indigenous cosmologies and multispecies interdependence, illustrating how livestock exhibit agency through movement across high pastures and how fairies (shawanan) act as traditional custodians of resource management. Conventional commons theory often overlooks these entanglements; this paper directly engages with recent animal turn and ontological turn scholarship and addresses nationalisation and extractive policies that perpetuate colonial logics of objectification. The findings reveal the agency distributed among human and non-human participants, challenging Western nature-culture dichotomies. Livestock, wildlife, birds, plants, and fairies (nangini) are integral to complex ecological networks that sustain pastoralist livelihoods and collective survival. The study outlines practical legal implications for conferring MTH rights: specific rights to movement, access, and protection, with representation by pastoralists or spiritual custodians, and governance rooted in Indigenous practice. The work thus integrates perspectives from environmental law, political ecology, and Indigenous studies, proposing policy frameworks for environmental governance in similar pastoralist contexts. Recognising MTH rights and Indigenous ontologies is presented as a viable alternative to conventional nature rights and commons management, advancing scholarship in decolonial ecology and more-than-human geography.