ABSTRACT
Environmental problems caused by natural resource exploitation always have a political context: this point has been clearly made in Chapter 2. Any such context has at least three aspects. First, there are those general processes of steering and choosing through time by governments, business organizations, NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and other political organizations at local, national and international levels which produce policies or courses of action that create or otherwise affect environmental problems. Second, there are the conflicting interests and values related to such policies or actions by various organizations from which certain interests benefit more than others. Third, there are more enduring structures of power that shape the actions of political organizations, help to determine whose interests and values prevail, and frame the processes of steering and choosing at different levels.
