Resource Extraction Conflicts Research Articles

Natural Resource Conflicts as a Struggle for Space: The Case of Mining in Tanzania

<p><em>Natural resource extraction in Africa has been characterised by conflicts between large scale and small scale miners on the one hand and large scale miners and the communities on the other. In some countries such as Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Liberia, natural resources have bred political instability and civil wars. A great deal of academic discourse on resource conflicts in Africa focuses on greed, corruption, political struggles for state capture and control over resources, economic liberalisation policies for attracting foreign investors and creating conducive climate for them to invest their capital in natural resource extraction, and foreign forces. While recognising the significance of the above approaches in explaining resource conflicts in Africa, this paper aims at explaining resource conflicts as a struggle for space between the communities, artisanal and small scale miners and large scale foreign mining corporations. The paper, therefore, argues that natural resource extraction conflicts in Africa can well be understood if we approach them as a struggle for space. Data for this paper are drawn from secondary sources including academic literature, government reports, media reports and internet sources.</em></p>

Natural Resource Conflicts as a Struggle for Space: The Case of Mining in Tanzania

Natural resource extraction in Africa has been characterised by conflicts between large scale and small scale miners on the one hand and large scale miners and the communities on the other. In some countries such as Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Liberia, natural resources have bred political instability and civil wars. A great deal of academic discourse on resource conflicts in Africa focuses on greed, corruption, political struggles for state capture and control over resources, economic liberalisation policies for attracting foreign investors and creating conducive climate for them to invest their capital in natural resource extraction, and foreign forces. While recognising the significance of the above approaches in explaining resource conflicts in Africa, this paper aims at explaining resource conflicts as a struggle for space between the communities, artisanal and small scale miners and large scale foreign mining corporations. Using secondary sources, we argue that some natural resource extraction conflicts in Africa can well be understood if we approach them as a struggle for space. This however, does not mean that current approaches are rendered useless. It rather compliments current approaches.

Utility of Fodder Banks for Reducing Women Drudgery and Anthropogenic Pressure from Forests of Western Himalaya

Forests in India and other developing countries of South East Asia meet most of the energy demands. Collection of fodder is the first step that mainly contributes to the agricultural economy in states across Indian Himalayan Region. Local women are mainly involved in collection of fodder by lopping the trees, shrubs and grasses available in forests and agroforests. Present study was carried out to understand the fodder consumption pattern, fodder biomass removal in villages located at various elevations. Pattern of fodder removal was studied to identify preferred species, distance and time involved. Heavy backloads of fodder were affecting women health, causing accidents, resource extraction conflicts, malnutrition of children and decreased education opportunities. Paper discusses the efficacy of fodder banks and improved feeding systems to be introduced. One successful fodder bank model developed by using fast growing, high biomass yielding and nutritious fodder species by active participation of women folk has been discussed. The study aims to help forest department of Uttarakhand in general and other Himalayan states at large for developing fodder supply zones by developing fodder banks and introducing fast growing and high biomass yielding plants also in cropland bunds.

Dimensions of environmental justice in anti-gold mining movements in Latin America

The present article examines two Latin American gold mining conflicts, one in the city of Esquel (Patagonia in Argentina) and the other in Pascua–Lama (Chilean border with Argentina). We identify the emergence of three dimensions of environmental justice (distribution, recognition, participation) in the anti-mining movements of these two cases. The study finds that some dimensions of justice appear first (participation and recognition), while distribution emerges later, as movements jump scales engaging with national and international networks that provide a systemic perspective of the conflicts. The findings are consistent with other studies that refer to environmental justice as multi-scalar and context related. We also point to the relevance of studying decision-making procedures and jumping scales to understand how environmental justice claims are framed in resource extraction conflicts.

Metabolic Profile of the Colombian Economy from 1970 to 2007

This article characterizes the societal metabolism of the Colombian economy, identifying the main factors of natural resources use, overuse, or exhaustion. The environmental sustainability of a country depends to a large extent on the size of the economy compared to the available resource base. Material flow indicators provide an assessment of size or scale of economies. Direct material flow indicators are used to analyze the ecological dimension of economic activity in the period 1970–2007. Some resource extraction conflicts are briefly described in the light of material flow analysis. Foreign and domestic demand promotes increasing extraction and export of domestic natural resources. This is sometimes related to an irreversible deterioration of the local environment. The concept of “ecologically unequal exchange” with the rest of the world is analyzed in this context. Colombia has a large and growing negative physical trade balance, whereas per capita use of materials is still about half of the industrial countries’ average.

Energy budget of fodder harvesting pattern along the altitudinal gradient in Garhwal Himalaya, India

Abstract Fodder plays a major role in crop–livestock–manure–soil nutrient cycle of farms in middle mountains of the Himalaya. In Garhwal part of Indian Himalayan Region fodder is mainly collected by lopping the vegetative biomass of trees, shrubs, herbs and grasses. The present study was carried out to understand the fodder utilization pattern, energy budget and problems related to fodder biomass removal in existing traditional hill agro-ecosystems prevalent at different altitudes of Garhwal Himalaya. The total fodder collection at different altitudes varied for green and dry fodder. The total green fodder collection ranged from 64.4 ± 3.60 to 84.0 ± 6.23 kg household−1 day−1 whereas, total dry fodder collection ranged from 62.4 ± 1.66 to 80.4 ± 5.11 kg household−1 day−1. Fodder collection was varied in summer (March–October) and winter months (November–February) of the year. The labor energy expended for fodder collection varied from 832.78 ± 61.05 to 1192.44 ± 45.66 MJ household−1 year−1. In last few years fodder removal has enhanced resource extraction conflicts, malnutrition of women and their off-springs, improper education of females, increased health and life hazards, accidents because of collapse, etc. For better utilization of dry fodder in hilly areas, the farmers and livestock owners should be motivated and educated toward modern feeding options. Novel feeding system of complete feed and silage preparation for lean periods is well suited to hilly states like Uttarakhand that needs to be promoted. The study also aims to help in developing suitable policy to lessen the impact of degradation of forests for fodder by developing fodder bank models in each village cluster of Uttarakhand.

Socially Sustainable Economic De‐growth

ABSTRACTEconomic growth is not compatible with environmental sustainability. The effort to push up the rate of growth by increasing obligations to repay financial debts is in direct conflict with the availability of exhaustible resources and with the capacity of waste sinks. The economic crisis of 2008–09 has resulted in a welcome change to the totally unsustainable trend of increasing carbon dioxide emissions. The Kyoto Protocal of 1997 was generous to the rich countries, giving them property rights on the carbon sinks and the atmosphere in exchange for the promise of a reduction of 5 per cent of their emissions relative to1990. This modest Kyoto objective will be fulfilled more easily because of the economic crisis. This shows that economic de‐growth, leading to a steady state, is a plausible objective for the rich industrial economies. This would be supported by the environmental justice movements of the South, which are active in resource extraction conflicts.

Logging conflicts in Southern Cameroon: A feminist ecological economics perspective

Growing attention has been paid to gender in ecological economics, political ecology and development studies but a focus on gender in resource extraction conflicts is still rare. This article explores women-led resistance movements to commercial logging in South-eastern Cameroon, focusing on the moabi tree ( Baillonella toxisperma). The latter provides oil, medicine and other non-timber products and use-values to local forest societies and particularly to women. Resistances arise because most socio-environmental costs of the international logging trade are imposed on the rural populations and especially on women of the extractive regions. The aim of this paper is to analyze the root causes of the gender structure of such mobilisations as well as the impacts on gender relations induced by such resource extraction conflicts. After proposing a typology of different environmental currents and their gender counterparts, this paper focuses on the gender construction of local Bantu societies, taking as a point of departure Paola Tabet's thesis that masculine control over production tools is the objective factor revealing the sexual division of work. In our case study, we found that the men's control over technology not only highlights the sexual work division but also the gendered division of access rights to natural resources. Thereby, we argue that the sexual division of access rights and work — revealed through differentiated control over technology — are two key institutions explaining the gendered structure of local mobilizations. We, then, discuss the empowerment allowed by the new forms of women's organizations, with a particular focus on the appropriation of new production tools by women. This highlights a non-Western form of environmental feminism.

Linking political ecology with ecological economics in tree plantation conflicts in Cameroon and Ecuador

Industrial tree plantations are rapidly expanding worldwide and notably causing a growing number of conflicts between companies and local populations. Such conflicts — the focus of the article — have been neglected by ecological economists although there is a proliferation of related reports by environmental non-governmental organizations. This paper uses empirical evidence to show how elements of political ecology and ecological economics can be combined for understanding the languages of valuation deployed in tree plantation conflicts in Southern countries. Combining qualitative fieldwork on a Cameroonian rubber plantation and an Ecuadorian eucalypt plantation with a methodological framework taken from the study of social metabolism, we find that both conflicts (although with different emphasis) arise because of land and biomass appropriation, ground clearing, pollution from agrochemicals, and water shortage and are expressed as conflicts on valuation. The metabolism of such tree plantations, through the exchanges of materials with the local environment, explains the bio-physical basis of such conflicts. In the Cameroon case, resistance is mainly sporadic and individual, while in Ecuador, a grassroots organization has been able to respond to rural demands in a structured way. Both patterns of resistance are found in other present-day resource extraction conflicts.