The Fungibility of Conservation: Knowledge Controversies in Bangladesh’s Forest Frontiers

Forest conservation is central to sustainability, but it also serves political, economic, and territorial objectives beyond environmental protection. These objectives often remain obscured because conservation is generally presented as a technical and evidence-based practice. Drawing on longitudinal ethnographic research conducted between 2009 and 2026 in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the Sundarbans, this article examines knowledge controversies around forest governance in Bangladesh. It shows how competing definitions of forests and differing interpretations of restoration and ecological recovery shape conservation practice. We develop the concept of the fungibility of conservation to explain how its moral authority legitimises diverse governance and economic projects, even as conservation remains widely understood as environmental protection. Comparing the two forest frontiers shows how this fungibility works through epistemic, territorial, social and economic relations, although not in the same way in each setting. We argue that inclusive and effective sustainability governance requires recognising locally grounded ecological knowledge alongside scientific expertise.