Environment and the Law in Amazonia – A Plurilateral Encounter

There are few topics so large yet so uncovered in the academic literature as the Amazon Basin. Much of the area that connects nine South American countries, hundreds of indigenous peoples, and dozens of multinational corporations - as well as being "the world's lungs" - remains unexplored and includes a demographic density that is still low. But, development throughout the Basin has occurred with a ravaging appetite: loggers have decimated parts of the region with their fishbone patterns of extraction; large-scale agribusinesses have moved into a power vacuum; and the region has witnessed an increase in the coffee, sugar, and mining industries, along with ranching. All of these have resulted in significant deforestation, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The booms and busts of traditional commodities - such as rubber latex, nuts, and turtle eggs - impact negatively on the social and economic structure of the basin. In the background to these developments, there is a resurgence of economic nationalism as countries prepare their futures around a pending crisis over food security and global climate change. Hydrocarbon potentials - the possibility of oil and gas fields underground in Amazonia - complicate the situation as indigenous communities, sharecroppers, landless peasants, and others advocate for their respective rights, using ancient methods of protest, as well as digital activism through the Internet. This important book examines how the Amazon Basin's indigenous self-determination meets corporate profiteering, where the future of natural resource stewardship is hotly debated, and where subsistence living, extreme poverty, and the vagaries of the international commodities markets are revealed. The environment and the law are seen to be at the heart of the intersection of sustainable development and unfair trading practices.