LDPI Working Paper 43. The drive for accumulation. Environmental contestation and agrarian support to Mexico’s oil palm expansion

Abstract

Oil palm expansion has been related to rural dispossession, environmental degradation and rural resistance. In this paper we explore the politics and impact of farmer-based oil palm expansion in Chiapas, Mexico. In relation to the debate on the greening of the agrarian question, we engage with the theses of ‘environmentalism of the poor’ and ‘green grabbing’ and point at the problematic centrality of the concept of ‘enclosure’ in these theories. We argue that in absence of enclosure, poor peasants and farmers may strive for further market integration. Peasant engagement with capital accumulation in Mexico undermined green efforts to curb oil palm production. In this context, environmental movements were unsuccessful in contesting the state’s oil palm programme. Our analysis suggests that a green agrarian question solely focusing on enclosure is unable to explain agrarian and environmental processes