The role of social protection has expanded beyond poverty alleviation to address gaps between societal needs and state capabilities, particularly in the Global South. A transformative perspective emphasizes predistribution – shaping market outcomes like wages and earnings over post-damage redistribution. In the context of climate change, this raises questions as to whether predistributive policies should complement redistribution or if social protection could be assessed for its capacity to mitigate climate impacts.

The concept of extractivism, which originated in political ecology and decolonial studies, refers to a model of development based on the large-scale and intensive extraction of natural resources, often exported with minimal processing. For its proponents, extractivism is seen as inevitable and linked to the world’s growing demand for raw materials.

Critics, however, emphasize its major socio-economic impacts, such as the forced displacement of entire communities and severe environmental degradation in a context of asymmetrical globalization. Nevertheless, numerous ethnographic studies highlight the importance of clarifying this all-encompassing concept, to better understand the contradictions and heterogeneous dynamics of extractivism at the local level.

Environment is a complex term to define because it has multiple meanings that vary across disciplines, cultures, and individuals. Most definitions refer to the relationship between humans and their environment. However, this relationship is open to different interpretations.

Are humans and their environment interconnected and interdependent, or are they separated by a hierarchical relationship?

These divergences are reflected in debates and political orientations on environmental and climate issues. Ecofeminism and decolonial ecology also draw attention to the political and social issues that affect how the environment is perceived.

Broadly speaking, the term “nature” refers to all the living (plants, animals) and non-living (minerals, water, fire) physical elements that exist on Earth. Other views consider these physical elements to be part of a larger system, such as an ecosystem, or biodiversity. The broadest interpretations associate nature with a cosmological dimension of harmony and wisdom.