A window into what we’re reading at the Stimson Center’s Environmental Security Program

Disaster Response Aid: Data Argues for New Focus on Inequality (Dialogue Earth)

When a 2019 oil spill and the COVID-19 pandemic struck coastal fishing communities in north-eastern Brazil back-to-back, researchers tracked 402 small-scale fishers across three states to assess the impacts. What they found was that fallout from these crises was were not uniform. The oil spill’s contamination of nearshore mangroves disproportionately harmed the women who make up the bulk of the workforce that harvests shellfish, while men fishing offshore for open-water species retained more of their income. Pandemic impacts were also distributed unevenly, hitting older fishers hardest: those in their 50s and 60s struggled to find alternative income or navigate digital platforms to sell their catch directly to consumers. Other challenges emerged as well as bureaucratic hurdles in state relief distribution forced some fishers to travel long distances and spend money to access aid.
A new study based on this work argues that one-size-fits-all national aid ignores how gender, age, and location determine who is most harmed by systemic crises. And as the IPCC projects worsening extreme events across South America, researchers now advocate for gender-responsive financial support during ecological disasters, as well as age-focused adaptation programs during health crises.

READ | Climate Change and Gender Roles: Women’s Active Role in Adaptation

Ghana’s First Lithium Mine Risks Repeating a Legacy of Community Deprivation (Mongabay)

After more than two years of delays, Ghana’s parliament has ratified a deal for the country’s first lithium mine. The initial deal was struck in 2023 with Australian mining company Atlantic Lithium, which was awarded a 15-year mining lease for the Ewoyaa Project. Automaker Tesla is the designated recipient for half of the 3.6 million metric tons of spodumene concentrate which is projected to be produced over 12 years. Yet the approval comes despite the fact that the mine’s own draft environmental impact assessment acknowledges risks that include water pollution, significant habitat loss, soil erosion, and potential damage to at least 30 culturally sensitive sites including sacred groves and cemeteries.  

Experts and community members warn that the project will continue a long history of mining in Ghana benefiting foreign companies as local communities bear the costs. Prolonged renegotiations over royalty rates have left roughly 1,500 farmers on land tagged for demolition without receiving any compensation as they are unable to produce key agricultural goods. The project’s gross revenue distribution is also unequal. Only 1% of those revenues are earmarked for local development, leaving little money for an investment in jobs and development which was promised to the community. While some see the Ewoyaa mine as a chance to break from business as usual and enforce strong environmental and community protections, the current circumstances bring into question whether Ghana will ever meaningfully benefit from its mineral wealth.

READ | Protecting Water in the Mining Rush: A World Water Day Panel

Deforestation and Illegal Logging of Mexico’s Ancient Forests Linked to Cartels (The Guardian)

Mexico’s northwest Chihuahua state boasts ecologically diverse pine-covered mountains which are now under threat due to illegal logging perpetrated by cartel factions in that country. Since the mid-2010s, elements of the Sinaloa cartel have dispossessed legal residents of their communal lands (ejidos) through intimidation, extortion, and murder. These activities are linked to an acceleration in deforestation and illegal logging as well. Since 2001, 22,400 acres of forest in the Sierra Tarahumara have been illegally deforested – a crisis which disrupts the hydrological system of the entire region and creates droughts, crop failure, and food insecurity.

Other criminal activity, including drug trafficking and money laundering, also overlaps (and comes into convergence) with the timber industry. Investigative reporting has confirmed that armed groups extort the local logging industry, co-opt revenue streams, or forcibly log more timber than legally permitted. Falsified documentation also enables cartel-linked sawmills to launder timber in a practice is estimated to be worth at least $270 million annually. Forcible displacement and disappearance of people in the region in this wave of institutional impunity has come into confluence with an ecological breakdown that created more internal displacement affecting small farmers. It is estimated that approximately 400 people have been either forcibly disappeared or displaced in Chihuahua.

READ | Fostering Citizen Enforcement and Rule of Law Could Cut Down Illegal Logging