Oil Palm Expansion and Peasant Environmental Justice Struggles in Colombia

Abstract

There is a convergence of land access and environmental justice claims in many of the struggles against extractive activities in Latin America. Drawing on the notion of territory, this chapter explores the nexus between land access, environmental justice and extractivism. The analysis builds on empirical qualitative research on three case studies of peasant struggles for land in the context of the expansion of oil palm agro-industrial cultivation in Colombia since the year 2000. The chapter shows how extractive activities deprive rural populations of their territories through both land access dispossession and socio-environmental transformations. The effects of this territorial deprivation concern four key dimensions of environmental justice: distribution, recognition, participation and capabilities.