Costa Rica’s environmental regime is world renowned, and since the mid-twentieth century, the country has protected its inestimable natural resources via land conservation expropriation. Through conservation Costa Rica ended the historical plague of deforestation, and its national parks and nature reserves buttress an ecotourism industry that is an important source of foreign revenue. But with every act of conservation, a human toll was also paid. As rural lands became protected areas, rural people lost access to places they depended on for survival. They hence became “victims” or, to some, “enemies” of conservation, and in nearly every setting, they resisted by carrying out land invasions; squatting; unauthorized ranching, farming, and mining; and even environmental banditry (as with the burning of La Casona in Santa Rosa National Park in 2001). Focusing on a handful of celebrated cases of land conservation, this analysis demonstrates how the creation of natural havens such as Corcovado National Park in 1975 displaced rural people and the various ways those people responded.

This study assesses the environmental damage caused by copper mining on surface water bodies in Chile. The few official records on the discharges and concentrations of arsenic and copper only allow for identifying the impacts of some mining operations in the regions of Coquimbo, Valparaíso, and O’Higgins. The economic valuation is carried out through the impact pathway approach, which relates copper production, discharges, concentrations, and dose-response coefficients to establish effects on health and agriculture. The results show that the economic damage due to water pollution occurs mainly in the regions of Coquimbo and O’Higgins. The above is explained because the greatest externalities are generated in agricultural areas, while the damage to health is low because of the small population exposed (97.6% versus 2.4%). Finally, total damages represent 0.43%, 0.26%, and 0.0001% of copper sales in the mining operations analyzed in the regions of Coquimbo, O’Higgins, and Valparaíso, respectively.

Sustainable energy economics in Latin America has become relevant due to the region’s dependence on the oil market and the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A systematic review of the ten major economies in the region based on gross domestic product is conducted. We primarily analyze production performance of hydro, wind, and solar energies, in terms of total gigawatt hours produced, current participation levels in energy matrices, and total installed capacity. Current and future trends and legal frameworks for each technology and country are discussed. Our analyses indicate that Latin America and the Caribbean can potentially increase the usage of renewable energy sources given a plethora of natural resources, favorable geographical and climatic conditions, and existing large-scale hydro installations to counteract the inconsistency of wind and solar projects. Therefore, governments in the region must overhaul sustainable policies to increase awareness and reduce energy dependence on foreign powers.

This essay reviews the following works:

Limits to Decolonization: Indigeneity, Territory, and Hydrocarbon Politics in the Bolivian Chaco. By Penelope Anthias. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2018. Pp. 312. $27.95 paperback. ISBN: 9781501714368.

The Extractive Zone: Social Ecologies and Decolonial Perspectives. By Macarena Gómez-Barris. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2017. Pp. xii + 208. $24.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780822368977.

Oil, Revolution, and Indigenous Citizenship in Ecuadorian Amazonia. By Flora Lu, Gabriela Valdivia, and Néstor L. Silva. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. Pp. 313. $119.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9781137564627.

Undoing Multiculturalism: Resource Extraction and Indigenous Rights in Ecuador. By Carmen Martínez Novo. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021. Pp. 280. $50.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780822946632.

Landscapes of Inequity: Environmental Justice in the Andes-Amazon Region. Edited by Nicholas A. Robins and Barbara J. Fraser. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2020. Pp. xxxiv + 347. $65.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9781496208026.

La lucha por los comunes y las alternativas al desarrollo frente al extractivismo. Compiled by Denisse Roca-Servat and Jenni Perdomo-Sánchez. Buenos Aires: CLACSO, 2020. Pp. 430. E-book. ISBN: 9789877228137.

Shifting Livelihoods: Gold Mining and Subsistence in the Chocó, Colombia. By Daniel Tubb. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2020. Pp. xxviii + 217. $95.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780295747521.

This essay reviews the following works:

Community of Peace: Performing Geographies of Ecological Dignity in Colombia. By Christopher Courtheyn. Pittsburgh, PA: Pittsburgh University Press, 2022. Pp. xx + 284. $55.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780822947141.

Latin American Extractivism: Dependency, Resource Nationalism, and Resistance in Broad Perspective. Edited by Steve Ellner. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021. Pp. ix + 292. $41.00 paperback, $94.00 hardcover, $39.00 eBook. ISBN: 9781538141564.

Things with a History: Transcultural Materialism and the Literatures of Extraction in Contemporary Latin America. By Héctor Hoyos. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019. Pp. xiii + 302. $30.00 paperback, $90.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780231193054.

Planetary Longings. By Mary Louise Pratt. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2022. Pp. viii + 340. $28.95 paperback, $104.95 cloth. ISBN: 9781478018292.

Life without Lead: Contamination, Crisis, and Hope in Uruguay. By Daniel Renfrew. Oakland: University of California Press, 2019. Pp. xv + 308. $29.95 paperback, $85.00 hardcover, $29.95 e-book. ISBN: 9780520295476.

Mourning El Dorado: Literature and Extractivism in the Contemporary American Tropics. By Charlotte Rogers. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2019. Pp. xv + 340. $39.50 paperback, $79.50 cloth. ISBN 9780813942667.

The Small Matter of Suing Chevron. By Suzana Sawyer. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2022. Pp. xv + 400. $29.95 paperback, $109.95 cloth. ISBN: 9781478017950.

Breaking Ground: From Extraction Booms to Mining Bans in Latin America. By Rose J. Spalding. New York: Oxford University Press, 2023. Pp. xvii + 308. $83.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780197643150.

The Three Deaths of Cerro San Pedro: Four Centuries of Extractivism in a Small Mexican Mining Town. By Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2022. Pp. xiii + 307. $34.95 paperback. ISBN: 9781469671109.

In 1939 an earthquake destroyed south-central Chile, especially the city of Chillán. This event was arguably the most catastrophic socio-natural disaster in Chilean history, yet it has been mostly ignored in historical research. This article shows that the earthquake triggered a critical juncture for the Chilean state and was a determining factor in some of the most important institutional developments of the period. Using primary sources, the article describes this juncture, focusing on the destabilizing effect of the earthquake and linking it to the creation of two new state institutions, the Production Development Corporation (CORFO) and the Reconstruction and Assistantship Corporation (CRA), together with other important changes in state capacities. It concludes that the disaster is crucial in understanding the Chilean transition from an exporting economy to an import-substituting one after 1940, and to account for the strength of the Chilean state in the decades to come.

This essay reviews the following works:

A Future History of Water. By Andrea Ballestero. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2019. Pp. 248. $25.95 paperback. ISBN: 9781478003892.

Big Water: The Making of the Borderlands between Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. Edited by Jacob Blanc and Frederico Freitas. Foreword by Zephyr Frank. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2018. Pp. vii + 344. $55.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780816537143. Open access e-book. ISBN: 9780816541737.

The Last Turtlemen of the Caribbean: Waterscapes of Labor, Conservation, and Boundary Making. By Sharika D. Crawford. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020. Pp. xii + 216. $27.95 paperback. ISBN: 9781469660219.

Cuerpos, territorios y feminismos: Compilación latinoamericana de teorías, metodologías y prácticas políticas. Edited by Delmy Tania Cruz Hernández and Manuel Bayón Jiménez. Quito: Abya Yala, 2020. Pp. 422. ISBN: 9789942096708.

The People of the River: Nature and Identity in Black Amazonia, 1835–1945. By Oscar de la Torre. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2018. Pp. xii + 242. $34.95 paperback. ISBN: 9781469643243.

Landscapes of Freedom: Building a Postemancipation Society in the Rainforests of Western Colombia. By Claudia Leal. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2018. Pp. ix + 352. $55.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780816536740.

Conflictos territoriales y territorialidades en disputa: Re-existencias y horizontes societales frente al capital en América Latina. Edited by Pabel López and Milson Betancourt. Buenos Aires: CLACSO, 2021. Open access e-book, PDF. ISBN: 9789877229011.

Vital Diplomacy: The Ritual Everyday on a Dammed River in Amazonia. By Chloe Nahum-Claudel. New York: Berghahn, 2017. Pp vi + 302. $140.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9781785334061.