Although studies on environmental conflicts have engaged with the subject of violence, a multidimensional approach has been lacking. Using data from 95 environmental conflicts in Central America, we ...show how different forms of violence appear and overlap. We focus on direct, structural, cultural, slow, and ecological forms of violence. Results suggest that the common understanding of violence in environmental conflicts as a direct event in time and space is only the tip of the iceberg and that violence can reach not only environmental defenders, but also communities, nature, and the sustainability of their relations.
Victims of pesticides are often disregarded when demanding reparations and political action because of the 'undone science.' Studies have examined how people organise to rectify the 'undone science', ...but less is known about how the 'undone science' permeates local organisations to direct their strategies in acknowledging some, but not others, as victims of pesticide contamination. Using the case of plantation workers' struggle to demand redress for ailments caused by the pesticide Dibromochloropropane (DBCP) in Nicaragua, I analyse how what counts as 'evidence' shapes the struggle and how, in the process, women's lived experience of harm is not prioritised.
While it is known that women have a strong presence in struggles for Environmental Justice, there is a lack of knowledge about their role in them, particularly in struggles opposing mining projects. ...We aim to fill this gap by undertaking the first global systematization of the available data on women's anti-mining activism, using a multi-case perspective. We analyze 151 mining conflicts identified through the Environmental Justice Atlas, examining the impacts mining activities have had on women, how women responded to these, how they organized to oppose mining projects, and what challenges they faced in their activism. While our analysis reinforces many aspects discussed by Feminist Political Ecology scholars on the challenges women face in their activism, it also raises new questions about the specific impacts mining has on women, the repertoire of actions they have at their disposal as part of their activism, and how they organize to oppose mining projects, patriarchal dynamics within movements, and to question prevailing narratives of progress.
La creciente demanda de agua potable para abastecer la industria hotelera en la costa pacífica costarricense ha llevado al sector turismo a buscar fuentes cada vez más alejadas, ocasionando tensión e ...incertidumbre en las comunidades locales por una futura escasez. Bajo un marco teórico de Ecología Política y Justicia Ambiental, este artículo caracteriza tres conflictos suscitados por el turismo residencial e inmobiliario en la provincia de Guanacaste, Costa Rica: Lorena (1998), Sardinal (2006) y Potrero (2014). En los tres casos, las comunidades utilizan la judicialización del conflicto como estrategia para asegurar su derecho al agua potable y a un ambiente sano. Se concluye que si bien hay un aparente éxito, los escenarios de conflictividad continúan latentes y se recomienda una revisión profunda del modelo turístico que se está implementando. Las revisiones propuestas incluyen: la participación de las comunidades locales en la toma de decisiones relacionadas al agua, información libre y previa con los actores locales y una clasificación sobre los usos del agua con criterios y prioridades.
This study illustrates how, despite the diversity of women environmental defenders and their movements around the world, there are near-universal patterns of violence threatening their survival. ...Violence against women environmental defenders, often perpetrated by government-backed corporations, remains overlooked. Research on this issue importantly contributes to discussions about environmental justice because women defenders make up a large proportion of those at the frontlines of ecological distribution conflicts. Through comparative political ecology, this research analyzes cases from the Environmental Justice Atlas, an online open-access inventory of environmental distribution conflicts, in which one or more women were assassinated while fighting a diverse array of extractive and polluting projects. Although the stories showcase a breadth of places, conflicts, social-class backgrounds, and other circumstances between women defenders, most cases featured multinational large-scale extractive companies supported by governments violently targeting women defenders with impunity. Keywords: Violence, murder, women environmental defenders, EJAtlas, comparative political ecology
En este artículo se analiza el conflicto suscitado por la apropiación de agua del acuífero
Sardinal en Guanacaste, Costa Rica, cuyos puntos más críticos ocurrieron entre 2008 y
2010. El conflicto ...incluyó movilizaciones, controversias científicas y juicios en los que participaron
moradores de la comunidad, representantes del Estado, organizaciones no gubernamentales,
eclesiásticas y la empresa privada. Si bien en el ámbito judicial el conflicto se
resolvió a favor de la comunidad, queda pendiente aún superar sus causas estructurales:
inconsistente accionar de las instituciones estatales, falta de planificación territorial, y
exclusión espacial y económica de las comunidades locales para favorecer la inversión
turística.
Planetary Health has emerged as a new approach to respond to the existential risks that the clime and global environmental crises pose to human societies. As stated by various stakeholders, the ...challenges involved in Planetary Health are of such magnitude that education must be at the forefront to obtain a meaningful response. Universities and higher education institutions have been specifically called to embed the concept of planetary stewardship in all curricula and train the next generation of researchers and change makers as a matter of urgency. As a response to this call, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) developed the first online and asynchronous Master in Science (MSc) in Planetary Health. The aim of the programme is to train a new generation of academics and professionals who understand the challenges of Planetary Health and have tools to tackle them. This article describes the development of the curriculum of this MSc, presents the main characteristics of the programme and discusses some of the challenges encountered in the development of the programme and its implementation. The design of this MSc was based on: the alignment of the programme with the principles for Planetary Health education with a focus on human health; a multi-, inter-, and trans-disciplinary approach; the urgency to respond to the Anthropocene challenges; and the commitment to the 2030 Agenda. The MSc was recognized as an official degree by the Agency for Quality of the Catalan University System, included in the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education, and the Spanish National Academic Coordination body in April 2021 and launched in October 2021. There are currently more than 50 students enrolled in the program coming from a broad range of disciplines and geographic locations. The information presented in this article and the discussion on challenges encountered in developing and implementing the programme can be useful for those working in the development of similar programs.
•Environmental health conflicts (EHCs) differ from non-Environmental health conflicts.•Human health related issues are key concerns in working-class environmentalism.•Delayed effects of pollution ...affect preventive actions in EHCs.•Halting a project is not enough to consider a successful outcome in EHCs.
Analysing a sample of 3,033 environmental conflicts around the globe, we compared conflicts reporting no human health impacts to those reporting health impacts linked to toxic pollution. Our study suggests four main findings. First, health impacts are a key concern for working-class communities. Second, the long-term effects of toxic pollution undermine communities' ability to act preventively. Third, industrial activities, waste management and nuclear energy conflicts are more likely to report health impacts than other economic activities. Last, mobilising groups are reluctant to consider the closure of a polluting project a successful outcome because of the persistence of toxic pollution across time. Our results contribute to a better understanding of the dynamics of what we have termed ‘environmental health conflicts’ (EHCs).
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