ABSTRACT
This chapter offers some empirical evidence on the complex relations among the material, socio-economic and political factors that shape the socio-environmental conflicts connected with the expansion of agrofuel crops in particular, oil palm. An analysis of the territorialization processes connected with the expansion of agrofuel crops in specific socio-spatial contexts helps to shed light on the multiplicity of interrelated factors involved in the socio-environmental conflicts associated with this expansion. The palm oil agroindustry started to consolidate in Colombia in the 1960s. Mostly national entrepreneurs started to cultivate and produce palm oil to supply the domestic market with the support of the national government. Local socio-environmental conflicts connected with the expansion of energy crops such as oil palm in the global South are often considered to be a direct consequence of the emergence of a policy-driven agrofuel market on the global scale.
