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REDD Gold in Latin America: Blessing or Curse?

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New Political Spaces in Latin American Natural Resource Governance

Part of the book series: Studies of the Americas ((STAM))

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Abstract

The notion of natural resource extraction as a “curse” on development has conventionally been associated with the history of internationally traded commodities such as oil and gas, gold and silver, which yield substantial revenues for governments and private companies. In Latin America, as several of the contributions to this volume make very clear, little of this wealth has trickled down to the wider population. The economic benefits from extractive industries have generally been concentrated in the hands of powerful political and commercial groups, tending to generate national dependence on such exports, reinforcing mass poverty, polarizing income distribution, and causing extensive environmental damage. As the introductory chapter to this collection notes, however, there is now qualified hope that, as the result of political reforms and grassroots pressure, resource extraction on the continent could help foster broad-based social and economic development through more careful management and fairer distribution of commodity revenues.

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  1. Anthony Hall
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Håvard Haarstad

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© 2012 Håvard Haarstad

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Hall, A. (2012). REDD Gold in Latin America: Blessing or Curse?. In: Haarstad, H. (eds) New Political Spaces in Latin American Natural Resource Governance. Studies of the Americas. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137073723_4

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