Performing Climate Adaptation: Power, Knowledge, and the Politics of Mangrove Conversation in Sri Lanka

This article examines the performative role of mangroves in facilitating complex relationships and knowledge exchanges, navigating power imbalances and tensions between diverse perspectives. Through two ethnographic vignettes, I explore how mangroves act as mediators between human and non-human entities, shaping local environments and revealing diverse value systems and approaches to lagoon and mangrove ecosystems. The first vignette, “Mangrove-Friendly Futures,” highlights how mangroves mediate between local ecological knowledge and global conservation agendas, fostering dialogue around sustainable futures, but also exposing underlying conflicts between local priorities and broader environmental goals. The second vignette, “Carbon Sequestration between Laboratory and Life,” investigates how mangroves mediate the tension between scientific frameworks and lived experiences, revealing frictions and contradictions in the quantification of ecological value. In each vignette, mangroves emerge as dynamic participants, not just facilitating the transfer of knowledge but activating spaces where different epistemologies and practices intersect. The article also underscores how knowledge systems are entangled with ecological realities and social dynamics, challenging static or simplistic views of knowledge. Far from being seamless vehicles for cooperation, mangroves expose the frictions between competing visions of sustainability, conservation, and resource management. Ultimately, mangroves are more than ecological assets; they are sites of encounter, negotiation, and contestation. By highlighting the tensions between scientific and local knowledge, they offer pathways to more critical, context-sensitive approaches to environmental conservation and climate adaptation, reflecting the complexities and contradictions inherent in the quest for sustainable futures