Prior Consultation Frameworks and Green Extractivism in Latin America: A Case Study of Guatemalan Hydroelectric Projects Post-1996

Abstract

Green extractivism, a term attributed to Uruguayan social ecologist Eduardo Gudynas, refers to a process that reproduces and reifies existing material inequalities through the exploitation, dispossession and neocolonialism by development projects categorized as “green” or “sustainable.” The framework refers to a wide encompassing array of industries including hydroelectric power, critical materials, agriculture, and infrastructure. This framework is consolidated by Alexander Dunlap to describe an evolved form of capital accumulation designed to accommodate new political ideologies and priorities associated with global anthropogenic climate change. Existing legal frameworks in Latin America and the Global South, namely the International Labor Organization Convention no. 169, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), normatively empower Indigenous Peoples (IP) to exert their land and resource rights in the face of green extractivist projects through the process of prior consultation, or consulta previa, and Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). This paper employs a mixed-method approach to a case study of Guatemalan consultation procedures and their relationship to the emerging green extractive model. Using quantitative data in the form of a compiled dataset of hydroelectric projects on Indigenous territory in Guatemala, and a comparative analysis of mining and hydroelectric projects in Guatemala, I find that hydroelectric mega-projects are subject to less intense scrutiny in the consultation process than other extractive industries in Guatemala, specifically mining, firmly placing them within the extractive model. Furthermore, I recommend that the principles of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent should be regarded as the dominant framework, beyond “soft law,” to inform consultation proceedings with Indigenous Peoples ahead of extractive projects.