La protesta campesina como protesta ambiental, siglos XVIII-XX

Abstract

This article analyses peasant conflicts from an environmental perspective. First, we show a general theory about environmental conflicts making a clear differentiation among environmental conflicts making a clear differentiation among environmental, environmentalist and green movement conflicts. This differentiation is accomplished using as criterion the goals of the actors in relation to both the agroecosystems sustainability and the types of discourses used in the protests. Second, we analyse the peasant use of agroecosystems and the differences between agricultural systems based on organic energy in contrast with those based on fossil energy. Finally, we identify several types of peasant environmental conflicts between 18th and 20th centuries: environmental peasant protests in Mediterranean Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa; conflicts produced around resources like water, common goods or against pollution, Land Reform, reactions to environmental policies or defence of indigenous territories. As these examples show, attention must be paid to the environmental dimension of the peasant protest in order to understand the conflicts, although sometimes mixed with gender and class dimensions.