Amazon – New Report: Energy Transition, Mining Expansion and Ecosocial Conflicts in the Amazon
The Amazon has historically been perceived as a land of promise and a source of raw materials for the global market. Since the first colonization until today, its territory has been exploited for different resources (mining, timber, meat, agriculture and hydrocarbons). In the last decade, the need to increase the production of critical minerals for the energy transition has accentuated this trend, generating the paradox that the green transition as it is being proposed requires an increase in extraction, with the impacts that this entails.
Today we are pleased to present the research Energy Transition, Mining Expansion and Ecosocial Conflicts in the Amazon, the result of the joint work of the Center for Applied Ethics of the University of Deusto and the Alboan Foundation, in collaboration with local organizations such as the Latin American Center for Rural Development (RIMISP) and the Agricultural Service for Research and Economic Promotion (SAIPE).
This research work, coordinated by Javier Arellano-Yanguas and María del Pilar Bernal-Gómez, arises from the need to propose useful responses in the context of the debate on the energy transition and its consequences for Amazonian populations affected by mining operations. Its objectives are to prevent the deterioration of the living conditions of indigenous communities, guarantee their rights and halt the large-scale ecological damage caused by mining.
The report is divided into two chapters that address complementary aspects of mineral resource extraction processes in the Amazon or in the headwaters of the rivers that feed the Amazon basin. The first chapter reviews the literature on the adverse impacts of mining extraction in the Amazon and the conflict dynamics it generates with local indigenous and/or peasant populations. It complements these findings with the analysis of two concrete cases in the Amazonian territory, that of the Afrodita Mining Company in the Cordillera del Cóndor (Peru) and that of the Líbero Cobre mining company in Mocoa (Colombia); the second chapter, on the other hand, focuses on the Mocoa Project, and delves into the resistance of Amazonian populations to mining projects. Read more…
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