Beyond Extractivism
Supporting communities and social movements on the front line of struggles to protect land, water and life, and to build regenerative alternatives to mining and extractivism.
Grabbing and destroying ecosystems on a vast scale in order to exploit minerals, metals and fossil fuels, the extractive industries are driving climate change and toxifying water and land for generations to come.
When ecosystems are destroyed, communities and their ancestral lands suffer. Backed by state governments, extractive companies are often associated with human and ecological rights abuses, including killings of Earth Defenders who oppose destructive projects.
In recent years Gaia’s long-standing community partners have found their lands, livelihoods and cultures threatened by the extractive industries. We are working alongside these frontline communities to assert their right to defend their homes, revive and strengthen the customary laws and practices that have conserved their territories for millennia, and campaign to protect their sacred lands.
Extractivism is driven by the unsustainable consumption and speculation of rich nations and the world’s elites. Regulating extraction is important, but we also need to explore how we can drastically reduce it. Earth’s systems simply cannot sustain this extractive onslaught.
Going beyond extractivism requires us to transcend today’s dominant anthropocentric worldview that regards Nature as an inert ‘resource’ to be exploited and commodified relentlessly. Together with social movements and allies, Gaia is actively exploring and promoting ‘post-extractivism’ from an Earth-centred perspective. This involves shifting power over Earth’s common wealth away from transnational corporations and elites, back into the hands of citizens and communities committed to sustaining the living world for all species.
Read on to learn more about our work supporting communities to go beyond extractivism and defend the habitats of all species.

Yes to Life, No to Mining
The Yes to Life, No to Mining (YLNM) global solidarity network is supporting Earth defenders, communities and organisations rejecting extractive projects to unite in solidarity and explore regenerative alternatives to extractivism. Read more

In Defence of Life
Philippine people’s network Amianan Salakniban is using Gaia’s 2016 film, In Defence of Life, to raise critical consciousness about the devastating impacts of mining with rural communities, students and civil society groups. Read more

Post-Extractivism: Emblematic cases
This collection of interactive case studies from the Yes to Life, No to Mining Network shares the stories of communities resisting mining, restoring damaged ecosystems and protecting and developing alternatives to extractivism. Read more

Post-Extractivism: Readings
Post-extractivism offers an emerging and radical approach to the problems caused by mining and the extractivist ideology. This growing collection of writings from around the world draws together ideas on regenerative alternative pathways. Read more
Related news

Videos: Gaia at the Global Oxford Real Farming Conference
Catch up with videos from Gaia and partners’ contributions to the global Oxford Real Farming Conference this January! From the fisherpeople conserving Taiwan’s flying fish to the growers sowing seed… Read More

January newsletter: Seed, Food, Flying Fish…
Seed sovereignty in the UK; how to catch a flying fish; seed week approaches. In our January newsletter, we share what is coming up from Gaia at the start of… Read More
Useful reports & publications

Defenders of the Earth by Global Witness
At least four people are killed every week while protecting land, water and life. Find out how, why and who’s behind the killings of Earth’s defenders. It has never been… Read More

Protecting Your Community from Mining and other Extractive Industries
A how-to guide for resisting mining and extractivism anywhere and everywhere. Written by Carlos Zorilla, a community organiser and anti-extractive campaigner from Intag, Ecuador, this is a how-to guide for… Read More
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We live in a time of multiple, complex crises. There are no easy answers. Working to uphold the health and diversity of our living planet is always rewarding, but we think you’ll agree it can sometimes feel like swimming against the stream. And yet like salmon we leap, and more often than you might expect, we make it. We invite you to make the next leap with us by making a donation of any size. Thank you for your solidarity.