Presentation short abstract

Green colonialist renewable energy production entails aggressive land-grabbing schemes over marginalized territories and protected areas. This presentation examines the motivations and conditions driving indigenous resistance to these environmental injustices, using the case of Honduras after 2008

Presentation long abstract

After the 2008 world economic crisis, renewable energy production has become a new area of financialized territorial expansion. This has translated into renovated expressions of green colonialism that push for aggressive land-grabbing schemes over marginalized territories and protected areas across the globe. Usually, those same territories constitute the material and cultural base for the reproduction of indigenous communities. In the shadow of a push for capitalist decarbonization structures, the growth of renewable energy production has translated into displacement and dispossession for these groups. However, indigenous communities and their allies have placed resistance against it. This presentation addresses the case of indigenous communities' opposition to these projects in Honduras. For this, I integrate the insights of statistical and geographic data of renewable energy expansion (compiled by national and international organizations which sought to document these processes) after 2008, on one hand, and fieldwork conducted in 2023-2024 that engaged in dialogue with Lenca communities that mobilized against these forms of environmental injustice. Based on this, I reflect on the motivations and conditions for indigenous resistance against green colonialist speculative decarbonization projects, and the experiences and consequences of those who are currently mobilizing against them for their cultural and material survival.