International Environmental Justice: Building the Natural Assets of the World’s Poor

In recent years, vibrant social movements have emerged across the world to fight for environmental justice –- for more equitable access to natural resources and environmental quality, including clean air and water. In seeking to build community rights to natural assets, these initiatives seek to advance simultaneously the goals of environmental protection and poverty reduction. This paper sketches the contours of struggles for environmental justice within and among countries, and illustrates with examples primarily drawn from countries of the global South and the former Soviet bloc. This working paper is also accessible at the folllowing URL: http://www.peri.umass.edu/236/hash/28d064d65f/publication/107/ A newer, revised version of this article appears in the 2007 edited volume, Reclaiming Nature: Environmental Justice and Ecological Restoration, James Boyce, Sunita Narain, and Elizabeth Stanton, eds., pp. 326-48. Chicago: Anthem