Letras Verdes. Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Socioambientales

Cartography of (D)enunciated and (Em)plotted Violence: Methodological Proposal for the Analysis of Conflicts Regarding Extractive Projects

Débora Andrea Cerutti — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0500

The article proposes a tool for the analysis of the complexity of violence in Latin American territories where extractive projects are deployed, and there are communities that resist mega mining extractivism. The objective is to socialize a methodological proposal within the framework of research on violence and extractivism. Throughout qualitative and quantitative approaches, chromatic “series” for the characterization and analysis of violence, together with a systematization of it in a “casuistry of violence” and its translation into a cartographic language are exposed. Thus, the proposal is presented as political and critical, of denunciation and verification of the damages in the territories, present or future.

“It all starts Local”: Self-Government and Alternatives to Extractivism of the Amazon Peoples of Peru

Raquel Neyra Soupplet — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0500

Amazonian indigenous peoples demand the integral delimitation of their territory, which includes hunting and fishing areas, in response to territorial invasion by extractive activities. These peoples have developed management and territorial planning proposals as concrete local alternatives. After reviewing the extractivist moment in which Peru finds itself, the proposals for alternatives registered in the Atlas of Environmental Justice based on the parameter “Result of the conflict” are analyzed. Common features of stalled conflicts that led to successful resistance, albeit temporary, are identified. We delve into the most elaborate and advanced concrete proposals made by the Amazonian indigenous peoples in agreement with local state agencies in charge of the Amazon Forest, and the legal or illegal activities that threaten even their existence with murders of environmental defenders. It is concluded that local self-government is an important response to extractivism.

Toxic Trajectories: Inhabiting, Migrating, and Settling in Rural and Urban Sacrifice Zones

Malena Ines Castilla — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0500

This article analyses and describes two different but similar scenarios in which the indigenous population is one of the most affected sectors. On the one hand, the Chaco region in the north of Argentina and, on the other, the Metropolitan Region of Buenos Aires in the center of the country, both of which, despite having different productive histories, are affected by an extractive model that is advancing on their territories, transforming them into sacrifice zones. Based on previous and current research conducted in the framework of ethnographic work, in-depth interviews, virtual and telephone interviews, conversational situations, field notes, primary and secondary sources, cadastral maps, population censuses, among others are used. The scenarios of socio-economic and environmental inequality that develop in both regions and the impact they have on local populations, who, in many cases, are forced to migrate and consolidate their toxic experiences, marked by scenarios of poverty, overcrowding, contamination, invisibilisation and denial are analysed, from the perspective of social anthropology.

Nature on Canvas: Narrations on Human-Nature Relationships through Art-Based Methods in La Paz, Bolivia

Camila Benavides-Frias, Stefan Ortiz-Przychodzka, Tamara Schaal — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0500

Arts-based research offers innovative ways to study human-nature relationships. We conducted an exploratory study with inhabitants of the city of La Paz in Bolivia, using drawings as an art-based approach to understand how people value and relate to municipal protected areas. Thirty-seven people participated in a drawing competition organized by one of the municipal protected areas where participants depicted some element (landscape, species) of the protected areas that they considered inspiring and reflective of the importance of these areas. Participants highlighted different protected areas; most drew specific local plants or animals, and they expressed various forms of intrinsic, instrumental and relational values. Our pilot study demonstrates how an arts-based approach has potential as a research tool, revealing underexplored aspects of human-nature relationships. We conclude that arts-based approaches can highlight plural values and local ecological knowledge, which provides opportunities to rethink participatory management and environmental education, and inform policy toward sustainability.

Evaluating the SEEA-Water as a Tool for Guiding Urban Water Sustainability

Susana Torres Lopez, Beatriz Rodríguez-Labajos — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0500

Among the different analytical methods that can be used to analyze sustainable water management and policies, the United Nations promotes the standards within the System of Environmental Economic Accounting for Water (SEEA-Water). While the SEAA-Water has been tested at sub-national levels, its implementation in urban settings is just beginning. The objective of this article is to assess the extent to which the tools available within the SEEA-Water can actually guide sustainable urban water management. A multidimensional, predominantly qualitative methodology is used. Based on the compiled SEEA-Water information and supplementary information for social aspects, the framework itself was assessed as a tool to respond to the urban sustainability challenges of growing Latin American cities. The study concludes that the implementation of the SEEA-Water at the urban level enables the compilation of information on the quantity and quality of water resources and the monetary economy of the city. This is helpful to organize information on water flows and economic productivity of water, and to detect key urban pressures on water quality. However, this framework misses relevant information needed to manage water as a holistic element intertwined with socio-environmental processes in urban areas. A key gap identified is related to issues of water equity.

Pajareros profession, a living biocultural practice from Mexico

Blanca Roldán-Clarà, Ileana Espejel — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0500

Pajareros are people who know, use and handle songbirds. Their profession, a tradition in Mexico and part of the living biocultural heritage of the country, is currently threatened by various social factors, such as a distorted perception and criminalization. This research aims to document for the first time in an academic article their experiences concerning this problem. The methodology used was ethnographic immersion, participant observation, and 60 interviews with aviaries in Mexico. Pajareros coincided in naming five types of problems, and most of the solutions proposed were based on the request to be heard. To solve this problem and for their voice to be part of a plural valuation of the profession, transdiscipline is proposed as a democratic environmental practice that places them as protagonists in the decision-making process for permit issuance, and promotes teaching/learning processes among all those involved.

The aqueduct II of Querétaro: water transfer works and scenarios of social inequality

Luis Enrique Granados Muñoz — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0500

Transferring water from one basin to another is a very popular activity among many governments in the world. Works of this type are being built and completed on all continents and Mexico is no exception. Through the case of the transfer of water to the city of Querétaro, this investigation aims to demonstrate that the transfer works are technical-political artifices that build, propagate and accentuate social inequality, through concepts such as development, modernity and the scarcity paradigm. This article maintains that any mobilization, transfer or relocation of water generates voices of disagreement, those affected and benefited, as well as subjugating and eliminating local knowledge of water. Through the ethnographic method of observation, recording and analysis of the case, this work concludes that the transfer of water has consequences such as an unsustainable financial debt, ecological devastation with multiple effects, the loss of autonomy of the peoples of the extraction zone and differentiated beneficiaries located in the city of Querétaro, in other cities of Mexico and the world.

Ecuadorian environmental policy on climate change as a guarantee of the right to a healthy environment

Andrea Carolina Subía-Cabrera, John-Fernando Subía-Cabrera — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0500

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, an infectious disease linked to environmental deterioration, this article analyzes the Ecuadorian public policies on climate change as a guarantee of the human right to a healthy environment, through documentary research based on the behaviorist theory of public policies. The deductive method and the documentary analysis technique were used. Ecuador has incorporated regulations on the adaptation and mitigation of climate change, and has implemented plans and programs to eliminate greenhouse gases. However, environmental policy requires state attention, generating investment in environmental matters for national financing (public-private). The strategic health sector requires a budget in order to guarantee the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment.

Social Representations of Daily Mobility: An Approach from Sustainability

Laura-Elena Castro-Sánchez, Gian Carlo Delgado Ramos — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0500

In the context of growing global daily mobility, fragmented visions of knowledge predominate when assisting policies for advancing the sustainability of this phenomenon. Such visions have mostly focused on material aspects. In this paper, from an inter- and transdisciplinary perspective, a hybridization of theoretical perspectives around the notions of daily mobility and sustainability is proposed. For that, we review the existing literature to provide theoretical approaches and key concepts for the construction of a Sustainable Daily Mobility Index - IMCS. That index comprises a set of indicators around four dimensions: ecology, well-being, governance and culture; the latter seen from prevailing social representations and as a way forward to establish nexuses with the material dimension of daily mobility. Based on preliminary findings for the case of Barrio Antiguo in the city of Monterrey, Mexico, we conclude with a reflection on the IMCS usefulness in a Latin American context where socioeconomic, cultural and spatial characteristics turn social representations into a key explanatory factor of many mobility dynamics, challenges, and potential solutions.