Extractive Frontiers and Indigenous Resistance: A Quantitative Analysis of Environmental Conflicts in the Arctic

The Arctic, like most Indigenous regions of the world, has been a target for extractive activities -mineral exploitation, coal mining and oil drilling which over the time has undermined local environment and subsistence livelihoods resulting in severe confrontations from the Indigenous people. Drawing on extractive activities from the global Environmental Justice atlas, this study employs logistic regression to examine how factors such as conflict sources, impact intensity, government involvement and number of socio-environmental harms influence resistance outcomes. Findings suggest that projects that involve multiple interconnected sources of conflicts are most likely to face intense opposition resulting in their cancellation in most cases. These findings question the popular notion of resources inevitability in the Arctic and point out the significance of strategic resistance of the Arctic Indigenous people in reshaping the Arctic governance.