The expansion of commodity crops for export in Argentina and Costa Rica. Socio-environmental conflicts and peasant struggle for environmental justice

Abstract

The paper analyzes the expansion of agricultural extractivism in Costa Rica and Argentina and its negative impacts on the natural capital and peasant communities. The methodology included interviews conducted in both countries, grey literature, press and bibliographic sources. It concludes that socio-environmental conflicts in both countries are caused by the lack of territorial planning, scant State control on environmental issues and the alliance between governments and concentrated capital. In this context, peasants are developing a series of strategies aiming at resisting capitalist expansion and fighting for environmental justice and the realization of an environmental institutionality more suitable to their interests.