Environmental Conflicts Research Articles

A Review: Keystone Environmental Problems are the Labyrinth Root causes that Resonate together with Socioeconomic Factors on Igniting Global Conflicts and Warfare


 When mitigating a man-made environmental problem, if it results in the permanent disappearance of one or more other environmental problems, then that mitigated problem can be considered a keystone environmental problem. Based on the aforesaid definition, eight environmental problems have been identified, such as population explosion, air pollution, deforestation, water pollution, scarcity and salination, overexploitation of natural resources, urbanisation (including industrialization, urban sprawl and settlements), intensive farming, and the global energy crisis. It has also been found that there is a significant relationship between these keystone environmental problems and global conflicts. For instance, according to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), over the last six decades, globally, more than 40% of the internal conflicts have been caused by overexploitation of natural resources, which is a known keystone environmental issue. Thus, the importance of identifying the role of keystone environmental problems in igniting global environmental conflicts and warfare has been widely realised. This study was conducted using qualitative content analysis methodology reveals that labyrinth established by root keystone environmental problems resonates together with socio-economic factors conflagrate global environmental conflicts and warfare, such as Cauvery River conflict between Tamil Nadu and Kerala States in South India, conflict from trespassing fishermen poaching in waters of neighbouring country from both India and Sri Lanka, Environmental Conflict in Northeast India and Bangladesh due to flooding (natural disaster) caused by climate change led to migration, West bank water crisis between Israel and Palestine, Russia’s invasion into Ukraine in 2022, Alto Cenepa war, Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) crisis between Ethiopia and Egypt, environmental conflicts in Philippines, conflict for land resources in Ethiopia, environmental conflict in Mexico, environmental conflict in Peru, Northeast India, Pakistan, Israel (Gaza), conflict of Mauritania and Senegal, Israel-Palestine (West bank), Somalia- Ethiopia, El Salvador-Honduras, Conflict between Kenyan tribes, dispute between North and South Sudan, and transboundary air pollution (causing acid rain) issue between the USA and Canada.
 Keywords: environment, environmental problems, environmental conflicts, keystone environmental problems, primary environmental problems, wars

Indigenous resistance at the frontiers of accumulation: Challenging the coloniality of space in International Relations

Abstract Latin America has long been subjected to colonial development that has negated Indigenous territory. In the present conjuncture, the region is home to the largest volume of environmental conflicts in the world. These conflicts are intrinsically connected to the wider model of neo-extractivist development that has been embraced throughout the continent since the early 2000s. Indigenous communities have frequently been the victims of this model of extractive development, with their territories becoming the primary sites for the aggressive expansion of the resource frontier. This has generated new political conflicts, as Indigenous communities conversely assert claims to territory and resources. In this article, I link these conflicts to what I term the ‘coloniality of space’, whereby Indigenous territorial forms have been theoretically elided from traditional spatial imaginaries within International Relations and concretely negated through practices within the global political economy. Moving beyond the territorial trap of nation-state centrism, Indigenous forms of resistance raise important questions about the subject and actors of International Relations.

Conflicting Notions of Land in Indonesia

Coal mining in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, evokes not only struggles on the control of land but also conflicts between different notions of land. Based on ethnographic research in a mining area, I describe a relational attached notion of land which is subdued by a detached, monetary-based understanding in the course of increased mining. In negotiations on the compensation of land with representatives of the mining companies, members of the village elite, which are entangled in patronage networks with the companies, ignore the various notions of land by other villagers and sideline those who are critical. With my article, I contribute to the ontological dimension of environmental conflicts with insights from Southeast Asia thereby giving a diversified picture of the struggles on access and the lacking acknowledgement of different notions of land.

The legal status of Colombia’s Paramos: the socio-environmental conflicts

ABSTRACT This article surveys Colombia’s social and environmental conflicts. Colombia is the second most biodiverse country in the world and has more than half of the world’s paramos. The article analyses the dynamics of these conflicts, describing the legal and political framework. Despite the achievements of the social and environmental movements before the high courts and the national and international commitments regarding the conservation of moors, the legal protection of these paramos continues to be uncertain.

Global impacts of extractive and industrial development projects on Indigenous Peoples' lifeways, lands, and rights.

To what extent do extractive and industrial development pressures affect Indigenous Peoples' lifeways, lands, and rights globally? We analyze 3081 environmental conflicts over development projects to quantify Indigenous Peoples' exposure to 11 reported social-environmental impacts jeopardizing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous Peoples are affected in at least 34% of all documented environmental conflicts worldwide. More than three-fourths of these conflicts are caused by mining, fossil fuels, dam projects, and the agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and livestock (AFFL) sector. Landscape loss (56% of cases), livelihood loss (52%), and land dispossession (50%) are reported to occur globally most often and are significantly more frequent in the AFFL sector. The resulting burdens jeopardize Indigenous rights and impede the realization of global environmental justice.

The role of hydrosocial heritages produced by hydrosocial territories in understanding environmental conflicts: The case of Sélune dam removals (France)

Dam removal has become one of the most widespread tools for river restoration; however, these projects can be conflictual. Our aim in this paper is to question the disconnection between the ecological project and the territorial project and to evaluate its role in the emergence of conflicts. Conceptually, we draw on a hydrosocial territory perspective to link the sociopolitical and economic context to the production of a new materiality sustained by power relationships. We focus on the removal of two large dams on the Sélune River in Normandy, France, which has fueled a conflict that has lasted for a decade. By combining multiple data sources (semi-directive interviews, focus group, archives), we highlight five successive and overlapping phases since the dams’ construction at the beginning of the 20thcentury. Each of these periods are characterized by the (dis)empowerment of certain stakeholders, the evolution of the material environment, and the fluctuation of the hydrosocial territory scales. The case of the Sélune highlights the importance of including long-term historical perspectives in the concept of hydrosocial territory, i.e. thinking about hydrosocial heritages. Hydrosocial heritages constitute a new way to approach non-human actors by taking the historical and contemporary relationships between humans and non-humans into account. It also helps situate the dynamics of a conflict in a deeper historical process, revealing how past dynamics shape contemporary situations.

A global analysis of violence against women defenders in environmental conflicts

Women environmental defenders face retaliation for mobilizing against extractive and polluting projects, which perpetrate violence against Indigenous, minority, poor and rural communities. The issue matters because it highlights the gendered nature of extractive violence and the urgent need to address the systemic patterns of violence that affect women defenders, who are often overlooked and underreported. Here we analyse violence against women defenders in environmental conflicts around the world. We use data from the Environmental Justice Atlas and employ log-linear and binomial regressions to find statistically significant patterns in displacement, repression, criminalization, violent targeting and assassinations committed against women defenders in extractive conflicts. Statistical results indicate that violence against women defenders is concentrated among mining, agribusiness and industrial conflicts in the geographical South. Repression, criminalization and violent targeting are closely linked, while displacement and assassination appear as extreme outcomes when conflict violence worsens. Women defenders experience high rates of violence regardless of countries’ governance accountability and gender equality. This work contributes to the broader sustainability agenda by highlighting the need to address the impacts of extractive activities on women.

The EJAtlas and the Making of the World Movement for Environmental Justice. A “Sociology of Absences”?

The EJAtlas is an archive of environmental conflicts. It is a collective endeavor. Both academics and activists contribute to it. It will reach 4,000 entries by 2023 allowing much new research on comparative political ecology and making visible the global countermovement for environmental justice. Growth in social metabolism (flows of energy and materials) and the abundance of environmental conflicts are seen as two sides of the same coin. Revealing the enormous circularity gap or “entropy hole” at the center of the industrial economy, the EJAtlas explores the geographies of resistance and the social protagonists of “ecological distribution conflicts” across the world. Environmental defenders display diverse valuation languages. Although the local complaints depend on local social and political cultures, there are common patterns of felt grievances and environmental activism at the frontiers of commodity extraction and waste disposal.

Contramedidas en Cabo Pulmo: La ciencia y la judicialización de conflictos ambientales en México

AbstractThe judicialization of environmental conflicts in Mexico has generated a growing demand for legal evidence of environmental damages and risks to ecosystems and communities. When conflicts arise over large development projects, one opposition strategy consists of denouncing errors in a project's Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) or procedural errors in its evaluation by federal authorities. Volunteer scientists collaborate with local communities and nonprofit organizations to diagnose technical errors in the EIS and develop “countermeasures” of risks that can be used to contest projects in court. This article analyzes a paradigmatic case of independent EIS review that occurred to oppose a tourism megadevelopment project adjoining the Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park in Baja California Sur. Confronted with the contraction of the political sphere in Mexico, this administrative tactic of political struggle appears as a viable alternative to directly challenging powerful elites. The Cabo Pulmo case highlights evolving relationships between science, environmental governance, and emergent forms of political mobilization in Latin America.

Changing Winters and Adaptive Water Governance: A Case Study on the Kemi River Basin, Finland

This paper studies adaptive water governance in the context of hydropower and flood-risk management. The Kemi River basin acts as an empirical setting to study the environmental change and the capacity of the management system to respond to it. Hydropower and reservoir development has been a source of a decade-long environmental conflict in the river basin. This study aims to find out how governance structures are adapting to the environmental change brought on by climate change. The study is based on case study research, and it combines long-term monitoring data, semi-structured interviews conducted in December 2020 and January 2021, and Finnish administrative court rulings. The results reveal that the water governance in the Kemi River basin is based on a technology driven aquatic regime, which has been a source of persistent environmental conflict between technology and nature. The flood-risk management is based on adaptive planning cycles and is implemented in a participatory manner, although it is strengthening the conflict in the area, as some stakeholders suggests reservoirs as a solution, which neglects the potential of integrative river basin management.

The dark side of the energy transition: Extractivist violence, energy (in)justice and lithium mining in Portugal

Focusing on a case study in Northern Portugal, this research mobilizes an energy justice lens to unpack multiple forms of violence reproduced by lithium mining projects, advanced as urgent and necessary for the energy transition. Framed under ‘green transition’ discourses, a ‘corporate energy transition’ follows a mineral-intensive pathway which increases demand for critical raw materials and expands extractivism to new commodities and marginal territories. Lithium (Li) is central to this transition, with an estimated 1500 % rise in the global demand of this rare earth mineral by 2050. Yet, the socio-ecological impacts of Li-mining remain largely overlooked, despite driving significant environmental conflicts in Portugal and elsewhere. Based on empirical research, this article examines how Li-mining projects in Portugal reproduce distributive, recognition and procedural (in)justices which assist the ‘green grabbing’ and infrastructural colonization of peripheral territories, turned into new ‘green sacrifice zones’. By attending to the voices and experiences of those resisting Li-mining projects, the results present the energy transition as a ‘trojan horse’ for extractivism, with Li-mining driving multiple energy injustice(s), reproducing violence against local communities and disrupting wider multispecies relationalities in traditionally sustainable rural territories. The research contributes to: (1) unravel the empirical contradictions of a corporate energy transition, problematizing hegemonic socio-technical responses to address the climate crisis, which expand extractivism through depletion, segregation and exclusion; and (2) reveal links between energy (in)justices and the constitution of ‘green sacrifice zones’, highlighting how territorial struggles embed a clash between different relational ontologies in more-than-human territories.

Development of a genetic algorithm-based graph model for conflict resolution for optimizing resolutions in environmental conflicts

Abstract Graph model for conflict resolution (GMCR) is a robust tool for resolving disagreements among parties with contradictory interests in a potential conflict. In GMCR, decision-makers (DMs) and their preferences are determined. The DMs are defined as people, parties, or groups having the authority to make decisions and the power to get these decisions approved. This definition excludes some potential stakeholders with no ability to make and exert decisions, like the natural environment. Therefore, this study aims to find an impartial viewpoint representing the natural environment's interests. A new GMCR based on genetic algorithm (GA) optimization is proposed to modify and optimize the final resolution of the GMCR regarding natural environment benefits. Having been applied to a real-world case study, this methodology showed competence in satisfying the fundamental interests of the natural environment to an acceptable extent. This case study is about an endangered seasonal lake, where there is contention between the governmental and agricultural sectors. The results revealed that the disagreement between two conflicting groups could be resolved by modifying the current agreement to consider both groups' demands. Finally, GA, incorporated in GMCR, proved to be a robust optimization technique in complex environmental conflicts.

Building Resilient Communities: The Environmental Observatory for Mining Projects and Climate Change Indicators

Public environmental information can improve industry performance, reduce environmental conflicts, and foster informed citizenship. The latter is directly linked to resilience because it is a “process that enables people to learn together, support experimentation, and increase the potential for (social and technological) innovation”. Importantly, the transparency and disclosure of environmental information alone do not have the desired impact; the general public may have access to information but not understand the content. It is necessary to reframe the technical language of information to reach broader stakeholder understanding. The Environmental Observatory for Mining Projects is an applied research project that aims to provide a public information access system for diverse stakeholders. It integrates data from various public services and makes them available to a variety of stakeholders, including the general public, through a web server and application that facilitate accessibility and understanding by using the co-creation methodology for public services. As a result of the project, the authors identified 25 indicators, six of which relate to climate change, including greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, air pollution, hazardous waste, and tailing deposit locations. These indicators are relevant for decision making through the combined knowledge of public policies, information priorities on the impacts and vulnerabilities of climate change, and more practical issues related to data availability. The authors conclude that environmental information systems must provide people with essential data, but that such information must also be understandable, manageable, comparable, and interoperable so as to promote access to crucial information for resilient communities.

Technology of detachment: The promise of renewable energy and its contentious reality in the south of Colombia

Taking infrastructure as the means to control space, this paper analyses the large-scale hydroelectric dam project “El Quimbo” in Huila, South Colombia, and the environmental conflict it caused. The paper argues that instead of acting as a “technology of engagement” that extends vital infrastructure into marginalised territory, the dam functioned as a “technology of detachment” that destroyed the social and physical infrastructure in place, fragmented territory and marginalised affected populations further. While localised marginalisation can be considered an unintentional side-effect of a project, which otherwise serves the “greater good”, critical conceptualisations of the capitalist state see purpose behind these impacts. Governments use infrastructural objects as tools for social engineering, subjugating their population to control and discipline in line with their biopolitical project. The paper analyses how far this subjugation was visible in the El Quimbo dam case, and critically reflects on the promises of renewable energy. It brings novel insights to the infrastructure citizenship debate by highlighting that infrastructure can act as intermediary between state and citizens but, in the same way, can hamper citizenship formation.

Biomimicry and Soils as a Subject of Law in a Society of Environmental Conflicts: a Fundamental Pillar in the Construction of Ecological Civilization in the 21st Century

Food production is multidimensional due to its influence on the international economy and, therefore, its impact on the human economy and the “economy of nature” so that any civilization can endure and progress over time current. By the preceding, humanity and its civilization are at the crossroads of producing quality, accessible and safe food since this is restricted by the destruction of the natural base, expressed by the concentration of land as private property and by the decrease in soil fertility in its organic, mineral, and biological phase (micro and macro fauna), which impacts water and hydrobiological resources, air quality and the dynamics of diverse forests in forest species. The legal framework must be developed so that soils are considered a law subject so that this and future generations can live in harmony with nature.

Biomimicry and Soils as a Subject of Law in a Society of Environmental Conflicts: a Fundamental Pillar in the Construction of Ecological Civilization in the 21st Century

Food production is multidimensional due to its influence on the international economy and, therefore, its impact on the human economy and the “economy of nature” so that any civilization can endure and progress over time current. By the preceding, humanity and its civilization are at the crossroads of producing quality, accessible and safe food since this is restricted by the destruction of the natural base, expressed by the concentration of land as private property and by the decrease in soil fertility in its organic, mineral, and biological phase (micro and macro fauna), which impacts water and hydrobiological resources, air quality and the dynamics of diverse forests in forest species. The legal framework must be developed so that soils are considered a law subject so that this and future generations can live in harmony with nature.

Potential solutions to environmental conflict on exploitation of fish stocks in palk strait among fishermen of India and Sri Lanka

Illegal catching of fish stocks beyond the borders of India and Sri Lanka by violating the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) by the fishing communities of both countries has become a major international direct environmental conflict between both nations. Overexploitation of natural resources is a keystone environmental problem. It has been reported that Indian fishermen are stealing fish catch worth many millions of US dollars annually from Sri Lankan coastal waters. The bilateral agreements of 1974 and 1976 are frequently violated. The heavy use of trawlers that are not permitted to fish on coastal seas and the use of internationally banned bottom sea nets by Indian poachers are major threats to the coastal resources of north Sri Lanka. Trawlers catch fish flocks unselectively; the catch may include several non-targeted species and juvenile stages of fish, which is leading to species extinction. Arresting and imprisoning of fishermen by coastal guards of both countries (and collecting penalties) continue, and this is an unsustainable way of handling the issue. Sri Lanka has banned bottom trawling since the 6th of July 2017, which is a sustainable solution and beseeched possible greener solutions such as creating awareness, sensitizing fishermen, and promoting the use of GPS navigation, and also provoked conventional solutions such as monitoring or patrolling, which often lead to imprisonment and penalties for trespassing and seizing of fishing trawlers. Restorative solutions such as coral restoration, mangrove restoration, implantation of artificial reefs, and establishing mutually beneficial ‘no catch zone’ along the IMBL and marine reserves (or marine protected areas) by both nations may facilitate preventing the deterioration of fish stocks and ensuring their revival in the region. Above all, if this illegal catching continues, the availability of fish stocks in the Palk Strait region in the next ten years will be in question.

Socioenvironmental conflicts under COVID-19 pandemic and the need of historical-sociological perspectives in conservation science

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global epidemiological, economic and social crisis of unprecedented scope and scale, with significant corollaries for biodiversity conservation. In response to this challenge for humanity, the scientific interest in COVID-19 in a short period occupied the attention of several researchers in different disciplines. However, understand the causes and impact of the pandemic is a complex task. In part, because even though it is a global crisis, the impact of the pandemic is not the same for everyone. The historical asymmetric power relations in the World-System are crucial for understanding environmental impacts and thinking about solutions in the post-pandemic world. In this article, we review some synergistic effects of the pandemic on socioeconomic and environmental conflicts. For this, we conducted a critical review of several primary studies, from July 2020 to March 2021. We observed that socioeconomic inequalities and our strong footprint in terrestrial and marine environments are putting humanity in a position of increasing fragility. We also note that systematic exploitation processes, power conflicts and the complex situation of abandoned local populations interact and reinforce each other, playing a dominant role in driving the dynamics of the pandemic. Likewise, we emphasize the need for a historical-sociological perspective in conservation sciences, and the development of an interdisciplinary scientific perspective, aiming to attack the bases of production and reproduction of inequalities that compromise the success of the objectives of biodiversity conservation and human well-being.

Región Arequipa: conflictividad social y problemática medioambiental

The present study seeks to identify the social and environmental conflicts that are active and latent in the Arequipa Region in the present AF-2022.The prospective phase was used to build and describe images of the future, in order to reduce uncertainty. The purpose is to explore, create and test alternative scenarios to manage risk in the future.It can be perceived that there is a relationship between illegal activities in the Arequipa Region with environmental problems, in addition to the situation of conflict in the region; a history of corruption in previous conflicts can be evidenced, which has increased due to acts of corruption by public officials, likewise it can be seen that these issues are related to social conflicts in the region and with activities that affect the environment ambient.Corruption aggravates the situation of social conflicts and pushes the population to violence, the regions and localities with the highest rates of corruption should be monitored, as well as the presence of political actors with extreme pro-violent ideologies. The IIAA and the PNP must anticipate actions through adequate intelligence and the management of essential resources for their actions. Regarding the presence of criminal organizations and gangs, work must be done in coordination with the Public Ministry, in order to neutralize them.

인도 쓰레기매립지의 환경문제에 관한 법적 해결 방안에 대한 연구

This paper considers the environmental disputes caused by the landfills located in Delhi, India and reviews the Indian Waste-to-Energy policy to resolve the environmental conflicts. India has sound waste management rules and regulations but they are not implemented effectively. Even though the Indian government has applied current Indian environmental policies, such as municipal solid waste rule, it could not properly resolve these disputes based on a lack of administrative will-power. India being the world’s second most populous country generates an enormous amount of garbage. While the waste generated is not managed effectively, it might lead to deterioration of human health and the environment. The waste is usually dumped in Landfills. However, these landfills are poorly managed, and the waste keeps overflowing. Numerous Landfills have led to fire around the locality, and they are a source of nuisance to the neighbourhood. One of the possible solutions could be using waste to energy plants. Waste-to-energy plants use state of the art technology to incinerate the garbage to produce energy. Waste could be used to produce clean energy and could curb pollution. However, the application of thermal technology for waste-to-energy in India is not well controlled because the cost of using crude oil is much cheaper than the expense of applying waste-to-energy technology in India. One of the possible remedies could be under statutory nuisance which would compel the regulatory authorities to protect the human health and the environment.