Diana Córdoba

Diana Cordoba is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Development Studies at Queen’s University. She is a transdisciplinary researcher investigating environmental governance and land use change of agricultural developments and Payment for Environmental Services (PES) programs in Latin America. Her research draws on critical agrarian studies and political ecology approaches to emphasize the interactions between local situations and wider economic and political processes in which power influences the (uneven) distribution of resources and shapes development discourses, interventions and institutions.

Lecture: Oil Palm Expansion, Forest Territories and Agrarian Politics in the Brazilian Amazon

The current oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) boom is arguably one of the most rapid agro-environmental transformations in the Brazilian Amazon. Although there has been extensive research on the ecological impacts of oil palm plantations, little is known about how these plantations impact traditional livelihoods in forest territories. This talk explores this gap. I start by analyzing geo-historical context and changes in livelihoods of differentiated social groups. Next, I connect these changes to the technical choices and agrarian development model based on the intensive use of agrochemicals, and the socio-political arrangements that led to this situation since the recent expansion of oil palm (2010 onwards) in the state of Pará, Brazil. Finally, I outline some of the challenges forest communities face when trying to claim their rights to defend nature and their livelihoods. My research speaks to the importance of using an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the impacts of agro-extractivist activities, and the production and transformation of particular nature-social configurations in the Amazon.