The short documentary ‘Land, for living’ compiles interviews from fieldwork and follows the journey from the north to the south of the island of Madagascar by an ODG research team, to uncover the impacts of rare earths mining and portray the voices of resistance from the local communities.
In Madagascar there is currently an existing rare earthsmining operation, in Tolagnaro, and two projects that are not yet active, in Toliara and in the Ampasindava peninsula. Rare earths mining on this island is an example of neocolonialism in the name of the green transition driven by the Global North. The impact of raw materials mining on resource-rich territories in the Global South is added on the top of historical debt of the colonial and extractivist legacy. The energy and digital transition is driven by green extractivism.
The short documentary was filmed during field work on the island, and the editing was done by the audiovisual cooperative Bruna. It is available on our Youtube channel in Malagasy, with subtitles in Catalan, Spanish, English and French. In July 2024, two people from the ODG staff travelled to Madagascar on a fact-finding mission to deepen understanding of community experiences at the frontline of potential rare earths mining projects in the country. This research would not have been possible without collaboration with the local organization CRAAD-OI. All information is based on more than 18 interviews with communities, traditional leaders, activists and researchers in the country.
Would you like to organize a screening? The documentary is available as a tool for debate and awareness for groups and organizations. If you want to set up a film forum, you can get in touch viaformacio@odg.cat, and we can organize it together.
Neocolonialism in the name of the green transition
s the climate crisis accelerates, the green transition has become some sort of a catchphrase. At the same time, polarization is increasing along with the advancement of digital capitalism, and securitization is once again on the agenda of the world powers. In this context, and in a world with limited resources, the control of raw materials is key. Both the short film and the publication with the results of the research are available online. This research arises from the need to shedlight on both who stands to benefit and who bears the burden of the new race for raw materials and the global dynamics that accelerate these processes in the name of the transition to a “green” and low carbon world.
“it is a fake narrative to say that the energy transition is “the perfect world”, because somewhere, someone is going to pay for it with their life and their blood”.
The objective is to expand the previous work of the Observatory of Debt in Globalization (ODG) of critical analysis of the energy transition and the corporate capture of it, as we did with our research on the extraction of lithium in Chile and Argentina. It also continues the joint work done with international allies under the umbrella of the Rare Earth Elements Group and the Observatory of Critical Minerals, co-created by the ODG as members of ENCO.