Environmental Peacebuilding Association

Mine-ing What’s Ours: Creative Peacebuilding Responses to Extractive Violence

Date & Time
Jun 18, 2026 | 14.00 - 15.30

Participants
Chair: Rami Khoucha, Association Cèdre pour la Protection de l'Environnement et le Développement Durable (Algeria)
Saara-Maria Salonen, Independent (Finland)
Ria Das, Justice.in.Every.Celsius (India)
Becca Farnum, Queen Mary University of London (United Kingdom)
Jesse Matas, University of Manitoba (Canada)

Public awareness around conflict minerals was popularized by the 2006 film “Blood Diamond”, giving rise to increased consumer interest in fair trade certifications and showcasing that creative projects - whether Hollywood movies or local arts workshops - can play a productive role in addressing negative interactions between conflict and the environment. Yet two decades later, the Kimberley Process is criticized for its narrow scope, and mining operations around the global continue funding, supporting, and enacting violence on communities and ecosystems. This panel will engage with the “slow violence” of resource extraction as well as episodes of acute violence experienced during confrontations between communities, corporations, and governments. With case studies ranging from the mountains of Turtle Island (North America) to the depths of the ocean floor and from the Arctic to the Sahara, the discussion will address how universal themes of power, politics, profit, and peace play out in local contexts.

Mine-ing What’s Ours: Creative Peacebuilding Responses to Extractive Violence

What Belongs to All: Grassroots Protests as More-Than-Human Reconciliation

The Common Heritage of Mankind? Socioenvironmental Impacts of Deep Seabed Mining

The ‘Climate, Conflict, Corruption’ Game – Helping Communities Identify, Understand, and Protest Environmental Crimes

Mining, Protest, and Indigenous Political Processes in Sápmi, the Sámi Homeland in the Arctic Circle of Fennoscandia