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Violence in environmental conflicts: the need for a multidimensional approach

  • Special Feature: Case Report
  • The EJAtlas: Ecological Distribution Conflicts as Forces for Sustainability
  • Published:
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Abstract

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.

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Fig. 1

Source: the authors, based on EJAtlas data

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Notes

  1. Environmental defenders are people who take peaceful action to protect land or environmental rights, whether in their own personal capacity or professionally (Global Witness 2017).

  2. Due to the large sample size, these conflicts give a reliable picture of the environmental conflicts in the region. But, with a growing number of cases, some results might change.

  3. The term was first mention in the novel “Cabbages and Kings” (Henry 1904) to describe the imaginary country of Anchuria inspired by the author’s experiences in Honduras.

  4. People involve themselves in the regional struggles as activists or academics or both. We got in touch with Centro Humboldt and Nicaraguan Social Movement (Nicaragua); Panama Ecological Voices (Radio Temblor), the Environmental Advocacy Center (CIAM) and Alianza para un Mejor Darién (AMEDAR) (Panamá), the Salvadoran Center for Appropriate Technologies CESTA - Friends of the Earth; Justice and Freedom Movement (Honduras), Institute of Agrarian and Rural Studies IDEAR-CONGCOOP, the Central American Institute of Fiscal Studies in Guatemala and Madre Selva.

  5. The data base has received contributions of scholars and activists representing a mixture of academic and grassroots organizations whose names appear in the last part of the data sheet.

  6. Ejatlas classifies conflicts according to ten mutually exclusive primary categories (Nuclear power, Mineral Ore Extraction, Water management, Biomass and land conflicts, Fossil Fuels and Climate Justice, Infrastructure and Built Environment, Waste management, Biodiversity conflicts, Tourism, and Industrial and Utilities conflicts). There are many more secondary categories. For instance, under Nuclear Power conflicts (of which, incidentally, there are none from Central America in the EJAtlas), there could be conflicts classified under Uranium Mining, Nuclear Power Plants, or Nuclear Waste Disposal).

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Acknowledgements

We thank Arnim Scheidel, Joan Martínez Alier, Giacomo D’Alisa, anonymous reviewers, and members of the ENVJustice Project for comments on the previous versions. We also thank collaborators of the EJAtlas in Central America, Francisco Venes, and Lena Weber for language revision. Grettel Navas and Sara Mingorría acknowledge support from the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant ENVJustice (No. 695446).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA), Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193, Barcelona, Spain

    Grettel Navas & Sara Mingorria

  2. FRACTAL Collective, San Remigio 2, 28022, Madrid, Spain

    Sara Mingorria

  3. Fundación Neotrópica, San José, Costa Rica

    Bernardo Aguilar-González

Authors
  1. Grettel Navas
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  2. Sara Mingorria
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  3. Bernardo Aguilar-González
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Correspondence to Grettel Navas.

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Handled by Arnim Scheidel, Erasmus University Rotterdam International Institute of Social Studies, International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Netherlands.

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Navas, G., Mingorria, S. & Aguilar-González, B. Violence in environmental conflicts: the need for a multidimensional approach. Sustain Sci 13, 649–660 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0551-8

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