Geography

‘Tradescapes’ in the forest: framing infrastructure's relation to territory, commodities, and flows

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Pressure to facilitate the flow of commodities and capital across global and national markets has translated into narratives and programs prioritizing integration and development of forested regions. The 2009 World Bank Development Report argues that to reduce distance, infrastructure development is crucial. The infrastructure imperative, however, reworks a broader array of investment flows, property regimes, forest cover, and socio-political rights across scales as it drives increases in the speed of commodity extraction, production, mobility, and consumption. With illustrations from Amazonia and Selva Maya, the paper proposes ‘tradescapes’ as a useful framework to analyze infrastructure projects as part of multi-scalar mega-corridor networks and financial flows. Tradescapes transform relations between society, territory, and environment, with implications for infrastructure governance, resilience, and sustainability.

Publication Title

Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability

Publication Date

12-2021

Volume

53

First Page

29

Last Page

36

ISSN

1877-3435

DOI

10.1016/j.cosust.2021.10.004

Keywords

governance approach, market conditions, spatiotemporal analysis, sustainability, territory, World Bank

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