Socio-environmental Conflicts Research Articles

Conflitos socioambientais no Nordeste brasileiro: tema de interesse para o Serviço Social

Resumo O objetivo do texto é apresentar parte dos dados encontrados na pesquisa que versou sobre a caracterização do quadro atual dos conflitos socioambientais no Nordeste brasileiro como parte das expressões da questão ambiental e seu enfrentamento na contemporaneidade. Esses conflitos são apontados como novos desafios à área de conhecimento do Serviço Social. Tratou-se de pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, de tipo exploratória. Mostramos o crescimento significativo dos conflitos na região estudada; a terra como um dos principais recursos ambientais em disputa; e quem são os principais sujeitos políticos envolvidos nesses conflitos, tanto representantes do capital quanto do trabalho. Concluímos que o modelo de desenvolvimento econômico vigente é constitutivo e constituinte do quadro preocupante identificado, pois se sustenta na reprimarização da economia nacional, na recolocação do País no circuito de produção das commodities, aprofundando o lugar associado, dependente e desigual que historicamente lhe foi designado no bojo do mercado mundial capitalista.

Comparando dos formas de hacer comunicación: comunicación institucional frente a comunicación comunitaria, a través del diseño en la subcuenca del Río Pance en Cali, Colombia

La subcuenca del río Pance es un ecosistema estratégico de Cali (Colombia) por sus buenas condiciones ambientales; además se proyecta como el mayor centro de recreación popular de la ciudad. Sin embargo, estos mismos factores hacen que experimente un conflicto socioambiental, pues sus 2600 habitantes se dedican principalmente al turismo y, cada fin de semana, a la zona llegan hasta 70.000 personas que impactan negativamente la subcuenca. Ante esta situación, la academia, la comunidad de Pance y algunas instituciones, trabajaron en el “Proyecto Pance” en tres componentes: ambiental, social y comunicacional. La comunicación se realizó de manera alternativa a través de la práctica social del diseño, para permitir a los actores de Pance ser parte activa de la comunicación del proyecto. El presente texto analiza la práctica de comunicación generada, en perspectiva con el ejercicio de comunicación institucional que tradicionalmente se realiza en Pance.

Approach to an integral valuation of mangrove’s ecosystem services in a marine protected area. Colombian Pacific region

ABSTRACTColombian Pacific region is a global biodiversity hotspot. Mangroves are among the most dynamic and productive ecosystem on earth and serve many important functions providing a range of fundamental goods and services which contribute to the livelihoods, well – being, and local community’s security. Integral mangroves valuation seeks to understand the socio-ecological interaction and the relationship between functional ecosystems (ecosystem services – ES), market interaction and the ability to support human well – being. Despite the importance, mangroves are continuing to be threatened and degraded because of socio-environmental conflicts such as land use change and port infrastructure which will impact on ecosystem services quality and offer. This article identifies an approach to the potential ecological, sociocultural and economic impact of a Deepwater port on the Tribugá Gulf mangroves ecosystem services offer and its effects on the well – being of Nuquí communities.

Emancipatory promotion of health: contributions from Brazil in the context of the Global South.

The article, a critical essay, presents the notion of an emancipatory promotion of health (EPH), which seeks to relate the field of public health in theoretical and practical terms with the reinvention of utopias and relevant social struggles of our time principally in the Global South, a metaphor designating the peripheral or semiperipheral regions of the modern world-system. This is a relevant topic in the face of the planetary socio-ecological crisis and the debate on economic development, democracy and sustainability at a moment especially critical for the Brazilian reality and other countries. In particular, the contributions of peoples and social movements from rural, forests and water-dominated regions in Brazil to the emancipatory practices of health are discussed. The article is mainly based on two theoretical and methodological references, the Political Ecology and post-colonial approaches. The first focuses its analysis on the intensification of the social metabolism and environmental conflicts in the global capitalist economy, based on an unfair and unsustainable international trade that generates numerous socio-environmental conflicts, mainly in the Global South, that is, the peripheral countries that export agricultural and mineral commodities to richer ones. The second reference broadens and integrates the critique of capitalism with colonialism and patriarchy, understood as the three axes of oppression resulting from the Eurocentric modernity project. The challenge here is to deconstruct and reconstruct through an intercultural dialogue new conceptions of society, economy, nature, development, work and health. Such references help us to understand the importance of indigenous, peasant and Afro-descendant struggles for an emancipatory health promotion.

La minería y el desarrollo insostenible. El estudio de caso en San Juan, Argentina

<p>“La minería es el motor principal del desarrollo”, reza uno de los principales argumentos a favor de esta actividad. Este trabajo es producto de una investigación de tipo interpretativo y comprensivo, que aspira a verificar el slogan mencionado, tomando como caso la minería extractiva en San Juan, provincia ubicada en el centro-oeste de Argentina. Entre los principales resultados obtenidos está que la alta inversión extranjera en minería no es sinónimo de desarrollo, sino por el contrario, genera un crecimiento concentrado, excluyente e insostenible, vulnerando el aparato comercial externo, desplazando las producciones tradicionales y generando un proceso de conflictos socioambientales y de daños ecológicos irreversibles.</p>

Socio-environmental conflicts as social cohesion thermometers: a case study

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the relationship between social cohesion and Latin American socio-environmental conflicts. A case study was carried out about the largest socio-environmental conflict in El Bolsón, Patagonia Argentina, where part of the population has been rejecting a real estate development project on Perito Moreno Mountain, a protected area which is the headwater basin. By means of a theory triangulation, the representations and practices of the parties involved were investigated, through document analysis (press media, technical reports from the companies, and government organizations involved), in-depth interviews with key informants, and participant observation. In conclusion, this socio-environmental conflict acted as a thermometer to measure social cohesion: on the one hand, exposing its weaknesses at the level of the community as a whole, and on the other hand, uncovering its strengths in the group that rejects this project.

El monocultivo de la caña de azúcar en el valle geográfi co del río Cauca (Valle del Cauca, Colombia): un enclave que desnaturaliza la vida ecosistémica

En el artículo se hace un recorrido histórico acerca del proceso de dominación y domesticación de la naturaleza, que sirvió a los propósitos de la agroindustria cañicultora instalada en el Valle del Cauca y que extendió sus dominios al valle geográfi co del río Cauca (Colombia). La lectura crítica la asume el autor desde la ecología política, y desde ese campo se le propone llamar al agroecosistema de la caña de azúcar como Enclave Artifi cial Desnaturalizante (EAD). Con estas categorías se expone un ejercicio refl exivo y crítico, con el que se confrontan el discurso con el que se valida a diario la plantación de caña de azúcar y la propia lógica que está detrás del monocultivo de dicha gramínea. Se trata de un artículo de reflexión, anclado en las disquisiciones propias de la ecología política, en la búsqueda de encontrar consensos y provocar discusiones no solo alrededor de la nueva categoría nominativa para el cultivo de la caña de azúcar, sino sobre la sostenibilidad, alejada, por supuesto, de toda lógica de plantación, por los efectos conflictos socioambientales que de tiempo atrás viene provocando dicho cultivo y sus prácticas industrializadas.

ORGANIZATIONAL IRRESPONSIBILITIES OR ABSENCE OF TERRITORIAL GOVERNANCE? REFLECTIONS ON ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT IN THE MINAS-RIO PROJECT

Abstract The aim of this paper is to analyse social and organizational dimensions of the environmental licensing and implementation process of the mining project Minas-Rio, discussing methodological and managerial frailties highlighted by the accumulation of reports regarding irregularities, socioenvironmental conflicts, and flaws in the venture’s masterplan. This situation reveals authoritarian systems of business management and territorial governance, which fail to sustain local development, subjecting families to the disruption of their traditional livelihood. In 10 years (2007-2017) following the case, qualitative methods - participative techniques - were used to collect data, allowing the comprehension of the environmental licensing processes, negotiations and conflicting clashes between actors. It was observed that tools for public corporate planning did not prove to be able to guarantee the management of the impacts on water resources: watercourses had springs and stretches trapped and communities declared themselves affected by the water drying and pollution, being assisted only with precarious supply solutions.

Resistencia, petróleo y conflicto armado en la Amazonia Andina: Análisis desde la Geografía Crítica y la Sociología Política del conflicto socio-ambiental del Bloque San Juan.

This article analyses the socio-environmental conflict of the Bloque San Juan (Putumayo, Colombia) between the local community -represented by the Asociacion Ambiental El Salado de los Loros- and the oil company Gran Tierra Energy Inc. With the objective of understanding the territorial and sociopolitical perspectives of the conflict in a relational way, an interdisciplinary dialogue between the territorial turn, the pragmatic sociology and the political opportunity structure it’s proposed. As a conclusion the notions of restrictions and political opportunities, repertoires of action, territorial-frames, experience contexts and processes of appropriation of space (territorialization), are presented as constitutive elements of the conflict, insofar, each one is fundamental within its evolution.

From Territorial Peace to Territorial Pacification: Anti-Riot Police Powers and Socio-Environmental Dissent in the Implementation of Colombia’s Peace Agreement

During the negotiation and implementation of the Havana Peace Agreements in Colombia, a twofold mechanism used to deal with the increasing number of socio-environmental conflicts has remained const...

“FAVELA” TERRITORY (IES) AND SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL CONFLICTS: IN THE ARVOREDO COMMUNITY, FLORIANÓPOLIS-SC

Summary The favelas studies became a constant in university researches given the relevance of studying this urban phenomenon. This article has as purpose to identify the forms of territorialisation present in the Arvoredo Community (Favela do Siri) and how they relate to the social and environmental conflicts experienced by its residents. The occupation located in an Environmental Protection Area (dunes) it’s located in the city of Florianópolis and the case study will be analyzed based on empirical and theoretical evidences. The presented results bring the various faces of the territory as the exercise of power and are identified and portrayed under the bases of the socioenvironmental conflicts.

Conflitos socioambientais e perspectivas de governança em Unidades de Conservação: o caso da Floresta Estadual do Amapá, Amazônia, Brasil

O artigo analisa a emergência de conflitos socioambientais na gestão de Unidades de Conservação (UC) e as perspectivas de superação a partir da construção de uma estrutura de governança. De forma específica, analisa os conflitos socioambientais que emergem pela ocupação humana e/ou atividades produtivas dentro dos limites territoriais e entorno da Floresta Estadual do Amapá (FLOTA/AP), uma Unidade de Conservação de Uso Sustentável com aproximadamente 2,3 milhões de hectares que abrange parte de 10 municípios do Estado do Amapá. O trabalho aponta os mecanismos de governança ora existentes ou possíveis para melhorar a efetividade da preservação e conservação dos recursos naturais da Unidade de Conservação. Metodologicamente, o estudo é baseado em análise documental e instrumentos jurídicos; entretanto, realiza algumas reflexões baseadas na observação participante em função da convivência de um dos autores ao longo da implementação da Unidade. O artigo reconstrói e analisa o processo de criação, gestão e implementação da UC, além de identificar os atores sociais envolvidos com a Unidade, mapear e caracterizar os conflitos socioambientais e trazer ao debate a dinâmica dos processos de governança existentes na UC. O trabalho mostra a importância dos instrumentos de gestão de UC, todavia destaca a importância da construção de novos espaços democráticos e do estabelecimento de parcerias entre os atores sociais envolvidos com a FLOTA.

Un nuevo acuerdo regional para América Latina y el Caribe sobre el principio 10 de Río - Acuerdo de Escazú

This article deals with the process of subscription and subsequent ratification of the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean or the Escazu Agreement. It is an international instrument to prevent socio-environmental conflicts because it allows increasing the measures aimed at accessing information and generating mechanisms that guarantee a new way of improving decision-making in the States.

Mining in Latin America and the Caribbean, a socioenvironmental approach

La mineria sigue siendo necesaria para el desarrollo de la sociedad e influyente en la economia de los paises de America Latina y el Caribe, pero las politicas publicas no son coherentes para mejorar su manejo socioambiental. Por ello, esta revision tiene por objetivo analizar la incidencia de la mineria en la economia de los paises de America Latina y el Caribe, con especial enfoque en los aspectos socioambientales, incluidos en los planes de desarrollo nacional. El metodo de trabajo consistio en una revision y analisis de la informacion sobre el tema, contenida en los principales observatorios de la region. Los resultados, se sintetizan en tablas y mapas que expresan: la relacion entre la importancia en la economia y potencial minero; el numero y distribucion de conflictos socioambientales derivados de actividades mineras y, algunos efectos economicos, que dichos conflictos tienen sobre los proyectos mineros

Does municipal solid waste generation in China support the Environmental Kuznets Curve? New evidence from spatial linkage analysis

Ever increasing municipal solid waste (MSW) is becoming a serious city pollution trouble, extensive studies explored this question from micro demographic factors before. But testing the impact of spatial dependence on MSW from macroeconomic factors with city-level panel data has not received adequate attention it deserves in prior literature, and routinely ignoring spatial dependence is prone to estimation biases. This research utilizes panel data of 285 Chinese cities for the period of 2006–2015 to explore the spatial dependence of the MSW. Employing two elaborate spatial panel models, the empirical result indicates that while road length, tertiary proportion, urbanization rate have significantly accelerated MSW generation, sanitation investment and education level are slightly negatively correlated with MSW generation, and GDP per capita has a mutual improvement relationship with MSW generation instead of inverted U-shape as predicted by Environmental Kuznets curve, which provides a new insight into city planning and environment protection when facing the fierce socio-environmental conflicts. Besides, there obviously exists spatial dependence and convergence phenomenon of MSW generation among China’s cities.

“La Epopeya Antinuclear”. El Caso de Gastre (Provincia de Chubut) Como Sumidero Radiactivo Frustrado en Argentina (1980-1990)

La variedad de enfoques que aborda la historia ambiental es uno de los rasgos que la transforman en un campo multidisciplinar que procura integrar la naturaleza dentro de la historia humana. Esta característica habilita la relectura de los desequilibrios ambientales en clave histórica, atendiendo a las relaciones sociedad-medio. En lo que concierne específicamente a América Latina, el abordaje de lo ambiental como objeto de estudio histórico todavía se encuentra en desarrollo. Las transformaciones producidas a través del tiempo por la interacción del hombre con la naturaleza, en parte, determina los crecientes conflictos socioambientales en el área, vinculados a la explotación de los recursos naturales de la región. El presente artículo propone explicar las principales características del primer conflicto socioambiental de Argentina centralizado en el caso -inicial y testigo- del proyecto de la Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica para instalar un sumidero nuclear en la localidad patagónica de Gastre (Chubut).

Socio-environmental Conflict, Political Settlements, and Mining Governance: A Cross-Border Comparison, El Salvador and Honduras

During the mid-2000s, Honduras and El Salvador implemented mining moratoria. By 2017 El Salvador had legislated a globally unprecedented ban on all forms of metal mining, while in Honduras mining was expanding aggressively. These neighboring countries present the explanatory challenge of understanding the distinct trajectories of mining policy and politics. These divergent pathways can be explained by the interactions between the political economy of subsoil resources, national political settlements, and the ways in which diverse actors have taken advantage (or not) of openings in these settlements.A mediados de la década del 2000, Honduras y El Salvador implementaron moratorias mineras. Para el 2017, El Salvador había legislado una prohibición sin precedentes a nivel mundial de todas las formas de minería de metales, mientras que en Honduras la minería se estaba expandiendo agresivamente. Estos países vecinos presentan el desafío explicativo de comprender las distintas trayectorias de la política minera y la política. Estas vías divergentes pueden explicarse por las interacciones entre la economía política de los recursos del subsuelo, los acuerdos políticos nacionales y las formas en que diversos actores han aprovechado (o no) las aperturas en estos acuerdos.

Action plan that may contribute to the solution of the environmental conflict generated by access to the water of the chíquiza river in the municipality of chíquiza – boyacá

This paper was carried out in the villages of Chiquiza Centro and Juan Díaz in the municipality of Chiquiza in Boyacá, Colombia; the social problems that exist in the southern sector of Chiquiza, especially as a result of the access to water from the Chiquiza river, has caused the inhabitants of this part of the municipality to be involved, for many years, in conflicts that have even reached human losses. The lack of a sense of cooperation in them has also caused a delay in the social and economic development of the area, as well as, family differences block the growth thus causing fear and anxiety due to the violence of the villagers that often nullifies the authority of the local government. By studying the characterization of the different actors such as the municipal administration, Colombia's Natural National Parks, Corpoboyacá, Ministry of Environment, neighboring Municipalities, community of Chiquiza, Environmental NGOs and financial entities in the socio-environmental conflict and, by using the stakeholder circle methodology, they were classified according to their interest and influence, being the most influential in the participation in seeking a solution to the conflict; the municipal administration, the community of Chiquiza and Natural Parks were in order of greater to lesser. By knowing this information, the logical framework methodology was applied; this determined various viable strategies that were presented to the actors, thus allowing to identify and consider one of them, as part of the solution to this problem called the substitution of risk systems, for the benefits, installation times, implementation costs and, social and environmental impacts expected.

Experiences of voluntary early participation in Environmental Impact Assessments in Chilean mining

Citizen participation should ideally occur as early as possible in a project, especially throughout the course of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study. In Chile, participation occurs after the EIA study has been completed and presented to authorities for evaluation. However, voluntary early participation has become an extended practice in large mining projects for financial and conflict-reduction reasons. The purpose of this study was to explore a variety of these early participation processes happening in large mining projects from 2001 to 2010 and analyze how well these practices measured up to standards and objectives defined in the EIA and participation literature. Beyond the legal implications of such practice, we sought to understand the role of this voluntary procedure within the EIA process and citizen engagement in projects. We found a wide range of objectives, approaches and results, primarily driven to facilitate approval and implementation of the ten projects analyzed. The underlying objective of voluntary participation processes analyzed (whether it seeks to inform, to note or to engage), determined the information presented, participants included, area of influence considered, time devoted to the process and influence of the information collected on EIA and project mitigation measures. Few of the principles for best practice in the literature were present in the ten projects examined. Moreover, given the voluntary and unregulated nature of these processes, purposes and outcomes were often mixed-up with the Indigenous Consultation required under ILO provision 169, or Corporate Social Responsibility programs. This finally revealed that contrary to expectations, an unregulated and early voluntary participation is not having a clear impact in the definition of projects mitigation measures, participants are at risk of being unsatisfied with the resulting agreements and moreover, it does not assure projects implementation or the avoidance of socio-environmental conflict.

A political geography of ‘waste wars’ in Campania (Italy): Competing territorialisations and socio-environmental conflicts

In this article, I propose a novel analytical framework to inquire into the spatial and socioecological antagonisms of socio-environmental conflicts based on the integration of Urban Political Ecology (UPE) with two approaches to territorialisation. While UPE’s authors customarily deploy territorialisation, the field lacks engagement with recent theorizations of territorial dynamics of environmental projects and grassroots mobilizations. To address this gap, I turn to conceptualizations of territories as strategic phenomena and political projects of control, on the one hand, and as relational entities and lived realities, on the other. On this basis, I develop the framework of competing territorialisations and apply it to the ‘waste wars’ of Campania. By focusing on the spatial practices and the imaginaries of the government agency, the organized crime and the grassroots movements, I provide a political geography of Campania that unveils the spatial and socioecological relations through which waste metabolisms have been organized and contested. This perspective shows how extraction of rents and profits from waste hinged on the production of spaces of management and disposal that stem from previous territorialisations, depend on unequal power relations and shape future socioecological configurations. Campania’s movements resisted waste occupation and self-organized their own territorial project, realising that territorialisation is key to influence broader socioecological dynamics. My contention is that an UPE of competing territorialisations allows reading historically and dialectically the ways in which metabolic flows are spatialized in specific contexts, how and why they give rise to conflicts and what are the drivers of place remaking from below.