A Decolonial View

Joris Heyvaert

In 2024, I worked with a grassroots network of Indigenous women, the Red Nacional de Mujeres en Defensa de la Madre Tierra (RENAMAT – The National Network of Women Defending Mother Earth).  RENAMAT brings together women from various rural communities, most of whom are engaged in agriculture and livestock raising, which form the basis of their livelihoods and play a central role in sustaining their families and communities. Their lifestyle, however, is increasingly threatened by the arrival of extractive projects – especially mining – to their territories. Mining of silver, tin, zinc and other materials causes contamination and depletetion of  water sources, degrades soils, reduces agricultural productivity, harms livestock and ecosystems, and ultimately threatens the ability of communities to continue living from the land. While the socio-environmental consequences of extractive activity in Indigenous territories have received much of the attention, the gendered dimensions of environmental degradation have often been overlooked (Garcia-Torres et al. 2020). 

The gendered Impacts of Extractivism 

The idea is not to dismiss that entire Indigenous communities are affected by the arrival of mining activities in their territories. But what’s important is that these impacts are not experienced equally by all. In Bolivian Andean society, women already carry much of the responsibility for agriculture, food production, water collection, caregiving, and the care of animals. As men often become employed in the mines or migrate elsewhere in search of work, women are left alone to confront the deterioration of their territories and livelihoods, intensifying their reproductive work even more.  

When water sources become contaminated or dry up, women often have to travel longer distances to collect clean water, which reduces their time to take care of their other reproductive tasks. Water contamination also exposes women to health problems and makes everyday tasks such as cooking and washing more dangerous. Their bodies become increasingly exposed to toxic chemicals that can cause diseases, respiratory problems, gastrointestinal issues, irritations, and even unwanted abortions (Aliaga 2015). At the same time, soil pollution can lead to the loss of crops and the death of their livestock. This undermines women’s economic autonomy, increasing their dependence on market incomes and threatening livelihoods that depend directly on the land. Extractive industries can also reinforce existing gender inequalities in other ways. The influx of predominantly male workers into mining areas has been associated with gender-based violence and sexual exploitation, while men’s exclusive access to mining wages can strengthen patriarchal power relations within communities. Women’s concerns about land, water, and community wellbeing may therefore remain marginalized in decision-making spaces that are already largely dominated by men.  

These gendered impacts can be understood through Indigenous feminist Lorena Cabnal’s concept of body-territory. The concept emphasizes that women’s bodies and the territories they inhabit are deeply interconnected, and that both are sites of exploitation, control, and dispossession (Cabnal 2015). For the women of RENAMAT, territory is not simply understood as land, but as the basis of material survival as well as social relations, cultural practices, ancestral knowledge, and collective identity. So, when the land is contaminated, the women’s bodies and livelihoods are also affected. It is from this understanding of the interconnected violence between their bodies and territories that RENAMAT developed the concept of “environmental violence against women,” which they define as “any action or omission which, in causing damage to the environment, restricts or limits women’s exercise of their rights, in relation to their patrimony, economy, work and health” (Aliaga & Cuenca 2015:74). This awareness generates the emotional and ethical commitments to resist extractivism and defend life for future generations. 

Building alternatives from below 

While RENAMAT women participate in marches, road blockades, public demonstrations, and other forms of collective mobilization to defend their territories, their resistance is not limited to opposing extractive projects. Rooted in Andean principles of ayni (reciprocity), minka (communal labor), and trueque (exchange), resistance also involves protecting and strengthening the ways of living that extractivism threatens to undermine. 

An important part of this resistance is engaging in a communitarian economy, or an economy that takes place outside formal state structures and is centred on meeting the needs of families and communities rather than on making profit. Women grow crops and raise animals mainly for their own consumption and for their communities, while any surplus can be sold or exchanged at agroecological fairs to cover other basic needs. The aim is therefore not to accumulate money, but to sustain everyday life. At the same time, these fairs make women’s agricultural work more visible and show that communities can continue to sustain themselves through the land rather than becoming dependent on mining.  

Where mining has damaged soils and water sources, RENAMAT also tries to come with alternatives. These women have developed rainwater harvesting systems and revived ancestral practices to collect and store water. They have established community gardens, solar greenhouses, and microtunnels that allow vegetables and medicinal plants to be cultivated throughout the whole yearwith limited water and under increasingly unpredictable climatic conditions. Native seeds passed down through generations are shared, reproduced, and protected collectively. The work of planting, watering, and harvesting is likewise shared, as is the produce that results from it. Such initiatives strengthen food sovereignty while reducing dependence on external markets and reclaiming a degree of control over the conditions necessary to sustain everyday life. 

These collective practices also transform the position of women themselves. Workshops, assemblies, productive projects, and shared spaces give women opportunities to exchange experiences, learn about their rights, speak publicly, and take on leadership roles. For women who had previously been excluded from political decision-making or discouraged from participating outside the household, collective organization can become a space for gaining confidence and challenging patriarchal expectations. As a result, their resistance is directed not only against extractivism but also against the gender relations that have historically marginalized women’s voices, labour, and knowledge within their own communities. 

The alternatives created by RENAMAT are therefore part of their resistance itself. Planting seeds, protecting water, exchanging products, preserving ancestral knowledge, and creating spaces where women can speak and take on leadership roles all help defend the way of life that mining threatens. These practices also show that Indigenous women are not only affected by extractivism; they are actively responding to it and building other ways of organizing economic and community life. RENAMAT therefore connects environmental protection with women’s rights, collective care, and the defence of Indigenous knowledge. At a time when debates about climate change, environmental futures, and sustainable development continue, RENAMAT’s experience shows that alternatives can also be built from below, through everyday practices that already exist within communities. 

Bibliography 

Aliaga, C., 2015. La tierra es nuestra madre, el agua es nuestra leche. La defensa de la Madre Tierra y del agua como estrategia de lucha contra la violencia medioambiental hacia las mujeres. La Paz: Colectivo CASA. 

Aliaga. C., & Cuenca, A., 2015. Participation of Peasant Indigenous Women In Contexts of Environmental Violence in Bolivia. In Women Defending the Territory: Experiences of participation in Latin America. Fondo de Accion Urgente. 

Cabnal, L., 2015. Without being consulted: the commodification of our body-land territory. In Women defending the Territory: Experiences of participation in Latin America. 

Garcia-Torres, M., 2020. Extractivismo y (re)patriarcalización de los territories. In book: Cuerpos, Territorios y Feminismos: Compilación latinoamericana de teorías, metodologías y prácticas políticas (pp.23-43) Publisher: Abya Yala, IEETM y Bajo Tierra Ediciones. Quito- Ecuador/México.