Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Harms, crimes and natural resource
exploitation:A green criminological
and human rights perspective on
land-use change
Damián Zaitch 1 ,Tim Boekhout van Solinge 1 & Gudrun Müller 2
Abstract This chapter claims that a 'green criminological' perspective can be used
fruitfully for conceptualizing and researching the exploitation of natural resources
and, more specifically, the processes of land use change and land grabbing that take
place in many countries (closely connected, for example, to the expansion of agro-
fuel monocultures, deforestation for timber, the construction of mega-hydroelectric
dams, or increased large-scale commercial mining activities). This perspective offers
the possibility of simultaneously focusing on three interrelated issues. First, if criminal
offences are involved, we can analyze who the perpetrators are, how illegal mechanisms
operate and why these illegal practices take place. Second, this perspective can reveal
the victims, as well as identifying the social and environmental harms surrounding the
exploitation of natural resources. Finally, a green criminological approach also focuses
on the 'rights' that are being violated (whether constitutional, human, environmental,
social, etc.), the social initiatives to defend them (communities affected, NGO's), and
the measures and interventions taken (or not) by private, state or international actors
to guarantee, protect and enforce them. After presenting what a green criminological
perspective would imply for the study of land-use change, the article finishes by briefly
focusing on two particular cases being researched in Colombia and Brazil.
Keywords Land-use change, green criminology, human rights, Brazil, Colombia.
6.1 INTRODUCTION
The aim of this chapter is to present and discuss a green criminological perspective
and human rights based approach (HRBA) for studying the exploitation of natural
resources and, more specifically, the process of land-use change and land grabbing
taking place in Latin America. To that end, we will use the ongoing LAR project, 3 in
which the authors are involved, as an illustration of how these two approaches can
be applied in practice. The LAR project aims to describe and explain the conditions,
 
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