Joan Martinez-Alier

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Recent Instances for Debate

After 1992 many conservation biologists thought that the use of economic instruments would be more effective to halt biodiversity loss than policies based on setting apart some natural spaces outside the market. At the same time there was a new elaboration of the concept of ecosystem services and, since 1997, there have been attempts at costing in money terms the loss of ecosystem services and biodiversity, including the high profile TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) project (2008-2011). Our discussion rests on instances showing the analytical implications of three main socio-economic meanings of biodiversity loss: 1) the loss of natural capital; 2) the loss of ecosystem functions; and 3) the loss of cultural values and human rights to livelihood. We review several approaches to include economic considerations in biodiversity conservation. We show cases where monetary valuation is relevant and other cases where it is controversial and even counterproductive, as it undermines the objectives of conservation.

Weak comparability of values as a foundation for ecological economics

The main argument of this paper is that weak comparability of values should be seen as one characteristic feature of ecological economics. The formal properties of the concepts of strong comparability (implying strong or weak commensurability) and weak comparability (implying incommensurability) will be clarified. Multicriteria evaluation offers the methodological and mathematical tools to operationalize the concept of incommensurability at both macro and micro levels of analysis. The concept of incommensurability of values already has a long tradition in economics; moreover, we will show that analytic philosophy, theories of complexity, post-normal science and the recent theories of rationality lead with different trajectories to a non-algorithmic approach which, in our view, could be implemented by some forms of multicriteria evaluation.

Trade and the environment: from a ‘Southern’ perspective

The relationship between free trade and the environment is one of the main issues of contention between environmental and ecological economics. Environmental economics assumes a positive relationship between free trade, economic growth and environmental policies. Environmental externalities may cause important damage. However, trade is not to be blamed for this. Instead, the fault lies with policy inadequacies at the national level. On the other hand, some ecological economists criticise the assumptions of environmental economics, especially the immobility of production factors and the positive correlation between income and environmental quality. They plead for measures to prevent deterioration of ‘Northern’ environmental standards in a ‘race to the bottom’ due to ‘ecological dumping’’ from the South. In this paper, we argue that neither environmental economics nor ‘Northern’ ecological economics take into account the structural conditions determining the international trade system. Based on some new empirical evidence on material flows, we stress the notion of environmental cost-shifting. If physical and political ecology perspectives are adopted, a ‘Southern’ approach to the trade-and-environment issue may arise.

Embodied Pollution in Trade: Estimating the 'Environmental Load Displacement' of Industrialised Countries

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What is Degrowth? From an Activist Slogan to a Social Movement

Degrowth is the literal translation of ‘decroissance’, a French word meaning reduction. Launched by activists in 2001 as a challenge to growth, it became a missile word that sparks a contentious debate on the diagnosis and prognosis of our society. ‘Degrowth’ became an interpretative frame for a new (and old) social movement where numerous streams of critical ideas and political actions converge. It is an attempt to re-politicise debates about desired socio-environmental futures and an example of an activist-led science now consolidating into a concept in academic literature. This article discusses the definition, ori gins, evolution, practices and construction of degrowth. The main objective is to explain degrowth’s multiple sources and strategies in order to improve its basic definition and avoid reductionist criticisms and misconceptions. To this end, the article presents degrowth’s main intellectual sources as well as its diverse strategies (oppositional activism, building of alternatives and political proposals) and actors (practitioners, activists and scientists). Finally, the article argues that the movement’s diversity does not detract from the existence of a common path.

Mining conflicts, environmental justice, and valuation.

In this article some historical and contemporary mining conflicts are described. The international environmental liability of mining corporations is discussed. Comparisons are made with conflicts in the United States and in South Africa which fall under the rubric of the Environmental Justice movement. Such conflicts are fought out in many languages, and the economic valuation of damages is only one of such languages. Who has the power to impose particular languages of valuation? Who rules over the ways and means of simplifying complexity, deciding that some points of view are out of order? Who has power to determine which is the bottom-line in an environmental discussion?

The political ecology of Jatropha plantations for biodiesel in Tamil Nadu, India

Jatropha curcas is promoted internationally for its presumed agronomic viability in marginal lands, economic returns for small farmers, and lack of competition with food crops. However, empirical results from a study in southern India revealed that Jatropha cultivation, even on agricultural lands, is neither profitable, nor pro-poor. We use a political ecology framework to analyse both the discourse promoting Jatropha cultivation and its empirical consequences. We deconstruct the shaky premises of the dominant discourse of Jatropha as a ‘pro-poor’ and ‘pro-wasteland’ development crop, a discourse that paints a win-win picture between poverty alleviation, natural resource regeneration, and energy security goals. We then draw from fieldwork on Jatropha plantations in the state of Tamil Nadu to show how Jatropha cultivation favours resource-rich farmers, while possibly reinforcing existing processes of marginalisation of small and marginal farmers.

Social Metabolism, Ecological Distribution Conflicts, and Languages of Valuation

Thirty-five years after the start of the Chipko movement in 1973, twenty years after the death of Chico Mendes in December 1988 in Brazil as the victim of a ‘‘tragedy of enclosures,’’ thirteen years after the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his companions for defending the Niger Delta and its populations against the Shell company and the government of Nigeria, the debate on the ‘‘environmentalism of the poor’’ is growing.

Environmental Justice and Economic Degrowth: An Alliance between Two Movements

The flows of energy and materials in the world economy have never been so large as today. This article argues that this increased social metabolism is causing more and more conflicts on resource extraction and waste disposal. This gives rise to a movement for environmental justice around the world. The words “environmental justice” were first used in the United States in the early 1980s for local complaints against “environmental racism”, i.e. the disproportionate pollution burdens in areas primarily inhabited by disadvantaged ethnic groups but the term is now applied to spontaneous movements and EJOs anywhere in the world (and to the networks or coalitions they form across borders), resisting extractive industries and complaining against pollution and climate change. Environmental justice is about intragenerational distribution, not forgetting intergenerational distribution. It includes non-distributional dimensions of justice such as recognition (Schlosberg, 2007) and also avoidance of participatory exclusions (Agarwal, 2001).

The Politics of Landscape Value: A Case Study of Wind Farm Conflict in Rural Catalonia

Conflicts over the installation of wind farms constrain the potential to adopt an effective means for mitigating climate change. Although conventional wisdom attributes wind farm opposition to ‘not in my back yard’ attitudes, research shows that this explanation fails to incorporate the multiplicity of underlying motivations of opposition. Instead, distributional and institutional factors and procedural opportunities for public participation significantly influence support for wind farms. We consider the relevance of a political ecology explanation of wind farm conflicts by focusing on a case study in rural Catalonia, Spain. We argue that the conflict constitutes a recurrence of older and broader ‘centre’–‘periphery’ antagonisms and that two more explanatory elements are complementary to this political ecology explanation: the existence of alternative landscape valuations and the encouragement of instrumental rationality by the planning framework. We suggest that the absence of opportunities for meaningful deliberation in decision making and the predominance of decisional bottom lines curtail claims to fairer distribution of costs and benefits from locally hosted energy developments, as well as alternative landscape value claims, and that this fuels conflict.