Extractivism is a colonial and capitalist model of appropriating natural resources through intensive and ecologically harmful practices aimed at exporting raw materials to the global market and maximizing profits for investors. The report “Pacha: Defending the Land,” concludes that within this model, “the limits of resources are not calculated nor [are] the consequences that the extractive processes cause on the lives of the people and the territories affected.” Communities that stand in resistance to extractivist projects organize and collaborate in the creation of documentary films and other audiovisual materials that narrate their collective stories and educate the broader public about their struggles for land rights, environmental justice, and ecological well-being.  

Each of the following pages offer examples of digital resources designed to bear witness, raise consciousness, and call national and international communities to action around various sectors of the extractivist economy. We include environmental justice struggles against extractivism in North America here because the same story of colonialism, extractivism, and resistance pervades not just Latin America but all of the Americas.