Violence in Environmental Conflicts: The Need for a Multidimensional Approach
Publisher: Sustainability Science
Author(s): Grettel Navas, Sara Mingorria, and Bernardo Aguilar-González
Date: 2018
Topics: Extractive Resources, Gender, Governance, Renewable Resources
Countries: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama
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.