Hydroelectric projects and community resistance in defense of the rivers of Costa Rica: A geographic analysis

Abstract

Most of the electric power in Costa Rica comes from hydroelectric power plants, which have caused strong socioenvironmental impacts and provoked conflicts in many of the country’s communities. The article analyzes the tension between the expansion of hydroelectric projects and community resistance in defense of the rivers of Costa Rica, from a geographic perspective. To that effect, it discusses and interprets those conflicts by mapping the operating hydroelectric plants and the focal points of community resistance to them, at the national level. Different types of sources were consulted and combined, and the projects and resistance movements were systematized. One of the results was the identification of numerous processes of community resistance in defense of the rivers, widely distributed throughout the country’s different regions. Proof of that is the fact that many projects about to be built have been stopped due to those resistance movements, especially in the last two decades. Those struggles gave rise to a nationwide social movement in defense of the rivers, thus positioning the communities and their organizations as social actors in a field that had historically excluded them from decision making.