The Detrimental Consequences of Resource Extraction

By: Chloe Cheng

Resource extraction has an extremely negative impact on indigenous communities, and in particular, on indigenous women.

Kahea Pacheco, the Operations Manager and North America Advocacy Network Coordinator for the Women’s Earth Alliance, said, “We should start by looking at the term ‘environmental violence’. It’s a new term that’s been coming up that a lot of indigenous-led movements are using, and it’s the deliberate release of toxins or the deliberate practice of other harmful, environmentally degrading industries on our lands and territories despite evidence that they cause a range of serious health and social impacts, which disproportionately affect indigenous communities.” 

The Women’s Earth Alliance works to provide women - particularly, indigenous women - with the tools and resources needed to better their communities and confront ecological, health, and social concerns.

According to study submitted to the United Nations Forum on Indigenous Issues entitled “Indigenous Women and Environmental Violence”, resource extraction releases a multitude of toxins, including pesticides, that adversely affect individuals’ health and ultimately, the health of overall communities.

In relation to this, Pacheco added, “Some examples of these environmentally degrading practices include pesticide exploitation and in particular, resource extraction, so Native American women are 2.5 times more likely to be raped than any other woman in the US. And in 86% of these cases, the perpetrator is reported to be non-native.” Indigenous Native American women are more likely to be raped or assaulted because oftentimes, in order to extract resources, desolate temporary camps of non-native workers are set up near the extraction site, which is often near indigenous communities.

Pacheco expanded, “There’s a part of eastern Montana where there are 3 camps that have caused victims, many of which are young, native women (indigenous youth) between the ages of 16 and 21. They report being given drugs or alcohol as a form of coercion and then being taken to these remote camps where they are raped. ”

Pacheco discussed other consequences, saying, “There are other social stressors caused by environmental violence, including high rates of HIV and sexually transmitted infections, increasing rates of youth suicide, and land and water contamination, which has led to rises in cancer, which can affect women’s reproductive health and the future generations of these communities.”

It is imperative that a change be made to protect the rights of indigenous women and their communities because as Pacheco said, “When women thrive, communities thrive. Women are often the center of communities - the center of the home - and they are often the people who do work with the resources around them. So these are the women who just need a few more resources to take what they are already doing to the next level.”

Pacheco and the Women’s Earth Alliance believe that the first step toward bettering the situation is to realize that environmental violence is a real, tangible, hard-hitting issue. The second step is to determine what resources and tools communities need to escape their predicaments, combat their problems, and accomplish their goals.