Deforestation and Terrorism in South America: Fueling Economic Growth to Decrease Terrorism or Just Fueling Terrorism

• In Event: Terrorism and the Environment

Abstract

Deforestation has left indelible impacts on communities and environments across the world. While deforestation can lead to a variety of short- and long-term economic benefits, it has also exacerbated existing grievances between people and their governments with the potential to increase collective strains that could lead to terrorism. Concordantly, from the perspective of general strain theory, deforestation practices have the potential to lead to increases, decreases, or heterogeneous impacts on terrorism. Leveraging satellite data collected from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), this presentation examines both the immediate and longer-term impacts of deforestation on terrorism within 12 South American nations. Preliminary findings from this research indicate that deforestation in South American nations was related to increases in terrorist violence in some but not all nations. In addition, these analyses demonstrate that these impacts were observable across a range of temporal periods and across analytic procedures. These findings suggest that terrorist violence can be fueled by deforestation, and this presentation concludes with a discussion of the importance of including political violence outcomes in driving government decisions regarding deforestation, environmental conservation policies, and responses to illegal deforestation practices.

Authors

• Daren Fisher, Hampton University

• Michelle Fabiani, University of New Haven