Abstract

This article examines Latin America's critical contributions to global political ecology through concepts such as extractivism, ecological debt, ecologically unequal exchange, epistemic equity, body-territory, and political ontology. Drawing on decades of grassroots struggle and political and intellectual production, it traces how movements across the region have reframed environmental conflicts as ecological and ontological distribution conflicts and defended territories of life against extractivist and sacrificial logics. Examples – including Yasuní-ITT in Ecuador – illustrate the grounded practices of autonomy, care, and re-existence that challenge capitalist valuation systems. The article does not claim to be an exhaustive meta-analysis or an official genealogy of Latin American political ecology, rather it offers a selective review of contributions from different intellectual, activist, feminist, Indigenous, and environmental justice traditions in order to show how Latin American debates have expanded global political ecology conceptually, politically, and methodologically. The article proposes a renewed research agenda for political ecology centered on the growth and changes in social metabolism, ontological plurality, epistemic justice, and the co-production of knowledge. The article argues that Latin American political ecology offers concrete pathways for socio-ecological transformations in other territories of the Global South that demands that alliances across North and South – as geographical designations– be built on mutual recognition, historical accountability, and pluriversal horizons.

Keywords: Extractivism, Ecological debt, Epistemic equity, Political ontology, Environmental justice

How to Cite:

Tornel, C., López Gómez, A. L. & Martinez-Alier, J., (2026) “Major Latin American contributions to global political ecology and environmental justice”, Journal of Political Ecology 33(1): 9615. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.9615