Geopolitics of Natural Spaces Protection: The Cases of Argentina and Brazil.

BLINDER, DANIEL; REINGOLD, JULIÁN

París

Congreso; IAPSS World Congress ? Paris, France ? 24-28 April, 2018; 2018

IAPSS

Climate change has been for decades an issue of international debate, and the way to counter the increasingglobal fossil fuel emissions at the same time of promoting the developing of nations holding rainforests represents achallenge with a solution yet to be found. Each country comprehends its own power dynamics involving the interactionof local communities, the state, the private sector and stateless actors (such as illegal loggers and gold diggers) interritories containing reserves of natural resources within conservation areas. Nowadays, the role of satellite technologyis growing considerably in security strategies, particularly in vast inhabited regions in undeveloped countries of theGlobal South.Space technology, as a part of a country?s governmental projects to orientate it towards the world (itsgeopolitical code) can be applied to the idea of resources protection. We will see how, in the Brazilian case, the militaryfactor is much more embedded regarding the defense of Green and Blue Amazon, and in the Argentine case the notionof defense is more linked to the productive structure of the agro-export scheme.This paper aims to analyze and compare, from a critical geopolitics of environment perspective, the experienceof natural resources protection throughout satellite agencies in Argentina by the CONAE (Comisión Nacional deActividades Espaciales) and in Brazil by the AEB (Agência Espacial Brasileira) during the period of 2003-2016.The methodology to be used will be based on primary sources collected from the Argentine and Brazilian space plans.