NILAS Research Seminar – Taís Sonetti González & Veronica Olofsson

This presentation examines how large-scale wind energy expansion in Brazil’s Caatinga and northern Sweden reproduces territorial injustices often obscured by green-transition narratives. Resembling Quilombola territories in Chapada do Araripe with Sámi territories in northern Sweden, it explores how centralised energy policies affect biodiversity, traditional livelihoods, food sovereignty and Indigenous rights. The comparison situates Latin America within wider dynamics of green colonialism while highlighting the region’s histories of environmental racism and territorial dispossession. Combining Indigenous and traditional knowledge, empirical evidence and conceptual analysis, the presentation shows how communities challenge dominant transition narratives and advance more locally grounded, socially just energy futures.