ABSTRACT
Extraction and conservation seem to be polar opposites, yet they entertain multiple relations. Many extractive activities increasingly take place in conservation areas, while conservation relies on extractive funding and extractive companies need green credentials. How do conservation and extraction come together and transform each other in an era of growing authoritarianism and crisis conservation? This chapter discusses relations between extractive violence and crisis conservation, focusing on environmental defenders and the politics of enmity in spaces of ‘double exception’ combining extraction and conservation. Extractivism - development through extraction - is frequently denounced for its violent imposition and counterproductive effects on local communities. Extractive areas often become spaces of exception, with restrictive rules of access and militarization drawing parallels with ‘fortress’ conservation paradigms that exclude traditional resource users, thereby pitting ‘nature protectors’ against ‘land defenders’. As the deadly struggles of defenders and militarized conservation receive greater attention, the chapter points to the challenges posed by the extraction and conservation nexus for the defense of Indigenous and local community lives and territories.
