Mapping social disruptive effects of extractivism

Erradicating poverty, reducing inequality and achieving decent work and economic growth for the least developed countries is a major challenge in the 21st century.

In this context, the way we provide and manage natural resources necessary for our day-to-day – athmosphere, water, minerals, wind, vegetation, sunlight, land – plays a fundamental role, as the resources tend to be extracted through large-scale infrastructures and in middle and low income countries.

Since 1970, extraction of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) has increased from 6bn tonnes to 15bn tonnes, metals have risen by 2.7% a year, and other minerals (particularly sand and gravel for concrete) have surged nearly fivefold from 9bn to 44bn tonnes.

Overall, resources are being extracted from the planet three times faster than in 1970, even though the population has only doubled in that time (UN Global Resources Outlook 2019).

This study aims to build evidence based theories around and for the better understanding of the so-called Resource Curse, i.e. the paradox that countries with an abundance of natural resources tend to be associated with lower growth rates, promotion of authoritarianism and worsening living standard.

We will give a central place to the concept of social disruption, a term used in sociology to describe the alteration, dysfunction or breakdown of social life, often in a community setting.

By bringing together Earth Observtion (EO) and secondary data analysis to the study of natural resources extracition in Colombia, we will provide evidences that the large-scale extraction of resources disrupt regional economies in a number of ways: increase in crime, poverty and inequality and the creation of an “economic dessert” in the surrounding of the extraction sites.

The results are expected to challenge some of the existing regional development theories, whille highlighting the conditions under which extractivism can still drive sustainable development.