The mining-conservation nexus: Rio Tinto, development ‘gifts’ and contested compensation in Madagascar

This paper traces a genealogy of land access and legitimisation strategies culminating in the recent convergence of multinational mining and conservation in southeast Madagascar. Drawing on empirical research carried out on the Rio Tinto/QMM ilmenite mine in Fort Dauphin, it focuses on how local Malagasy land users are incorporated into new forms of inclusion (into the neoliberal capitalist economy) and exclusion (from land-based, subsistence activities) resulting from private sector engagement in conservation. Various material impacts of the mine were inverted and remediated to global audiences as necessary to sustainable development and biodiversity conservation. By financing, partnering with and participating in the same land access markets as international conservation NGOs, and setting aside small ‘conservation enclaves’ in each mining site, Rio Tinto/QMM legitimise mining in situ despite the negative socio-environmental consequences for the Malagasy. Mining–conservation partnerships may fail to adequately address — and ultimately exclude — the needs of people affected by the mines

Ecosystems as Commodity Frontiers - Challenges Faced by Land Set Aside as Protected Areas (PAs) in the Dubai Emirate, United Arab Emirates (UAE)

This chapter examines natural habitats in Dubai, UAE that the state has demarcated as protected areas (PAs) in an attempt to utilize them for recreational/economic purposes while also mitigating habitat fragmentation. The authors employ the concept of the ‘commodity frontier’ to demonstrate how these PAs have contributed to the ongoing commodification of land that began with the rise of modern agriculture in the mid-twentieth century. The rise of the oil economy in the mid-twentieth century stimulated significant development that, over time, has resulted in ecological degradation. In line with state conservation agendas aimed at greening the desert and preserving biodiversity, PAs also serve as a mechanism for promoting tourism. Ironically, these activities have in turn put further pressure on the country’s natural resources and desert ecology. The authors also present an example of a PA that has been effectively managed and could serve as a model of sustainable development

Exploring the High-Pressure Phases of Carbon through X-ray Diffraction of Dynamic Compression Experiments on Sandia’s Z Pulsed Power Facility

The carbon phase diagram is rich with polymorphs which possess very different physical and optical properties ideal for different scientific and engineering applications. An understanding of the dynamically driven phase transitions in carbon is particularly important for applications in inertial confinement fusion, as well as planetary and meteorite impact histories. Experiments on the Z Pulsed Power Facility at Sandia National Laboratories generate dynamically compressed high-pressure states of matter with exceptional uniformity, duration, and size that are ideal for investigations of fundamental material properties. X-ray diffraction (XRD) is an important material physics measurement because it enables direct observation of the strain and compression of the crystal lattice, and it enables the detection and identification of phase transitions. Several unique challenges of dynamic compression experiments on Z prevent using XRD systems typically utilized at other dynamic compression facilities, so novel XRD diagnostics have been designed and implemented. We performed experiments on Z to shock compress carbon (pyrolytic graphite) samples to pressures of 150–320 GPa. The Z-Beamlet Laser generated Mn-Heα (6.2 keV) X-rays to probe the shock-compressed carbon sample, and the new XRD diagnostics measured changes in the diffraction pattern as the carbon transformed into its high-pressure phases. Quantitative analysis of the dynamic XRD patterns in combination with continuum velocimetry information constrained the stability fields and melting of high-pressure carbon polymorphs

Inverting the impacts: Mining, conservation and sustainability claims near the Rio Tinto/QMM ilmenite mine in Southeast Madagascar

This paper traces a genealogy of land access and legitimization strategies culminating in the current convergence of mining and conservation in Southeast Madagascar, contributing to recent debates analyzing the commonalities and interdependencies between seemingly discrete types of land acquisitions. Drawing upon research carried out near the Rio Tinto/QMM ilmenite mine in 2009 (January–March), it focuses on how local Malagasy land users are incorporated into new forms of inclusion (into the neoliberal capitalist economy) and exclusion (from land-based, subsistence activities) resulting from private sector engagements in conservation and sustainability. Sustainability tropes and corporate partnerships with international conservation NGOs were found to play a part in land access, in part through the neoliberal project of commodifying, economically valuing and objectifying nature. Through a process of mimesis (of conservation NGOs) and alterity (‘othering’ land users), Rio Tinto's process of creating scarcity of biodiversity paradoxically lends support to the company's claim to be ‘saving’ biodiversity from local Malagasy people; this is described as a process of inversion, wherein actual mining impacts are abstracted and remediated as part of a broader sustainable development strategy