(Re)making landscapes into resources: the role of Hass avocado plantations in Salamina, Colombia

Andres Suarez

World Development Perspectives, 2025, vol. 39, issue C

Abstract: The landscape of Salamina (Caldas, Colombia) has historically fulfilled multiple functions and undergone diverse transformations. The expansion of Hass avocado plantations (HAP) has marked a significant shift, redefining the landscape from a space of peasant self-sufficiency and social reproduction—characterized by landscape use-values—to a market-driven asset centered on the extraction of ecological surplus, represented as landscape exchange-values. This transition has been propelled by market compulsions, reinforced in recent years by the Hass avocado boom. This article applies a critical resource geography perspective to examine how land is reconfigured through the process of resource-making. It identifies the socio-historical, political, economic, and material factors that converge to facilitate HAP expansion, emphasizing the role of the state-capital nexus in enabling the commodification and exploitation of Salamina’s landscape.

Keywords: Resource-making; Ecological surplus; Land suitability; Materiality; Landscape values; Landscape (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wodepe:v:39:y:2025:i:c:s2452292925000402

DOI: 10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100695

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