Political ecology of mining: linkages between resource governance and environmental injustice

With the increasing global demand for minerals and metals, environmental and social harms caused by extractive industries will worsen unless the sector is paid careful attention to. Resource-use decisions are shaped by political economy forces that often lead to degradation of the local environment. The sector has also threatened the survival of marginalized communities and indigenous peoples, whose lands and habitats are often seized and altered for mining activities. Environmental defenders and activists are even being killed, with the cases often left unsolved. All these issues are severe and are linked to the political economy of resource extraction.

My proposed study would look at the linkage between natural resource governance and environmental injustice in India and Myanmar, within a political ecology framework. Through a political ecology lens, the study would explore how power relations and institutional arrangement influence resource use decisions and environmental management, how political, social, economic, and cultural factors shape the mining sector, how differences in power shape many aspects of peoples’ relations with the environment, and how environmental and social justice is being sought; in this later context, crimes – against both ecosystems and environmental activists – will be examined.