Extracting at the borders: Negotiating political and ecological geographies of movement in mineral frontiers

Saleem H. Ali

Sustainable Development, 2018, vol. 26, issue 5, 481-490

Abstract: This paper questions the drive towards more ecologically determined porosity across national borders in the context of incongruent economic regulation and incentives. The push towards regionalization and less austere border conditions have socio‐ecological salience and deserve consideration. However, mining creates human and financial capital flows across “mineral frontiers” which deserve greater attention by policy‐makers who are advocating for more relaxed border conditions. While minerals frontiers can be areas of cooperation under certain circumstances, they are highly vulnerable to acting as threat multipliers if not effectively monitored. A typology from border studies is used to develop a framework of how mineral resource projects can lead to human movement across borders. While mining projects in resource frontiers can be a means of fostering regional cooperation, they can also create vulnerabilities involving the migrants. The ways in which development donors and companies can facilitate more constructive harmonization of regulatory mechanisms to prevent such vulnerabilities are examined.

Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.1893

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:26:y:2018:i:5:p:481-490

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainable Development is currently edited by Richard Welford

More articles in Sustainable Development from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().