View source for Concepts:Eco-Territorial Internationalism/Breno Bringel and Sabrina Fernandez

{{Definition
|definition:concept=Concepts:Eco-Territorial Internationalism
|definition:summary=Eco-territorial internationalism is a concept and a praxis that emerges from the convergence of social, ecological, and territorial struggles across borders. It articulates experiences of resistance and transformation—such as democratic energy, agroecology, food sovereignty, workers’ control, and housing justice— by connecting local roots to a global horizon of systemic change. These are not isolated or merely “local” efforts; they embody a global sense of place and foster transnational solidarities grounded in justice, autonomy, and care. In the face of green colonialism, ecological imperialism, and systemic polycrises, this new internationalism reclaims the radical legacies of anti-imperialism while expanding the political imagination toward just transitions and ecological expressions of sovereignty. It challenges the dominant models of extractivist development and resists greenwashed capitalist transitions that reproduce sacrifice zones, particularly in the Global South. Eco-territorial internationalism does not abandon the state but goes beyond statist approaches, promoting multiscalar articulations and a biocentric politics of scale—from the body, to rivers and ecosystems. It is already in motion, through networks that articulate grassroots movements and resistances confronting the root causes of the crisis and shaping pluriversal futures.
|definition:author=Breno Bringel and Sabrina Fernandes
|definition:quote=Eco-territorial internationalism is a concept we have articulated to describe a praxis that emerges from the convergence of social, ecological, and territorial struggles across borders.
}}
'''Eco-territorial internationalism''' is a concept and a praxis that emerges from the convergence of social, ecological, and territorial struggles across borders. It articulates experiences of resistance and transformation—such as democratic energy, agroecology, food sovereignty, workers’ control, and housing justice— by connecting local roots to a global horizon of systemic change. These are not isolated or merely “local” efforts; they embody a global sense of place and foster transnational solidarities grounded in justice, autonomy, and care. In the face of green colonialism, ecological imperialism, and systemic polycrises, this new internationalism reclaims the radical legacies of anti-imperialism while expanding the political imagination toward just transitions and ecological expressions of sovereignty. It challenges the dominant models of extractivist development and resists greenwashed capitalist transitions that reproduce sacrifice zones, particularly in the Global South. Eco-territorial internationalism does not abandon the state but goes beyond statist approaches, promoting multiscalar articulations and a biocentric politics of scale—from the body, to rivers and ecosystems. It is already in motion, through networks that articulate grassroots movements and resistances confronting the root causes of the crisis and shaping pluriversal futures.

'''Origins and philosophy'''
Eco-territorial internationalism is a concept we have articulated to describe a praxis that emerges from the convergence of social, ecological, and territorial struggles across borders. It is related to a transformative form of internationalism grounded in transnational articulations between communities and territories impacted by socio-environmental conflicts. These experiences are not just about resistance, but also about constructing concrete alternatives for just transitions in fields like energy (community-based, decentralized yet integrated systems), food (agroecology and food sovereignty), production (workers' self-management and territorial democratic planning), consumption (solidarity and proximity economies), care (feminist, communal practices), housing and urban mobility (public spaces and dignified and sustainable living). Although territorially rooted, these experiences are not confined to “the local.” They embody what geographer Doreen Massey described as a global sense of place—a situated yet outward-looking orientation.

The concept builds on decades of internationalist organizing while also responding to the specific challenges of our time: climate emergency, green colonialism, systemic inequality, and the failures of both state-centric and purely localist approaches. Eco-territorial internationalism reclaims the ecological dimension of internationalism, recognizing that no emancipatory project can be sustainable without ensuring the conditions for life. This internationalism is ecological because it recognizes that peoples and species are materially interdependent, so that solidarity and cooperation are not options but necessities.

The eco-territorial turn in contemporary social struggles, particularly visible in the Global South, shows that contemporary conflicts are increasingly territorialized, with communities resisting the destruction of their territories of life while prefiguring new ways of organizing society. The interconnectedness of productive and extractive systems—what is produced, how, for whom, and at what cost—reveals that these are not isolated battles, but part of a shared global struggle.

'''Learning from Past Internationalisms'''

Eco-territorial internationalism does not emerge from scratch. It learns from recent internationalist waves, such as the alter-globalization movement, the World Social Forum, and the squares movements, while acknowledging their limits. It also builds on lessons from anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles – national and transnational – and their calls for cooperation and solidarity. 

The alter-globalization movement offered valuable tools for global coordination, denouncing corporate power and promoting systemic critique. However, it struggled to respond to the 2008 financial crisis in a coordinated way, and many of its demands were later co-opted. The cycle of square protests in the 2010s (e.g., Occupy, Indignados, Arab Spring) expanded participation but often lacked sustained transnational infrastructure and the ability to consolidate progressive alternatives. 

This legacy is translated to the context of the planetary polycrisis—a systemic entanglement of economic, ecological, political, and social crises that amplify one another. Climate change, far from being just another issue, functions as a multiplier of other systemic risks. Therefore, eco-territorial internationalism expands its horizon by foregrounding Nature—not as a resource, but as a political actor—reconfiguring the spatial logic of internationalism itself, emphasizing both territorial autonomy and international articulation. It seeks to build enduring infrastructure for exchange, mutual learning, and strategic convergence.

To properly converge over the ecological basis of life, eco-territorial internationalism breaks with anthropocentric and hierarchical notions of scale (local–national–global) and instead promotes a biocentric and relational politics of scale. Here, the “territory” becomes  a strategic notion because its reference to space is not limited to specific borders or property enclaves, but rather recognizes the interdependencies that sustain life across multiple scales.

Here, the body is understood as the first political territory, embedded in a web of interdependencies with ecosystems and other beings. Territories of struggle are not defined solely by borders or jurisdictions but can also encompass bioregions, watersheds, or ecosystems. Rivers, forests, and biomes become central to resistance and re-existence. This framework enables organizing across spatialities that correspond with ecological realities rather than those imposed by states or markets, while allowing political subjects to confront and build power through various organizing tools in a multi-scalar fashion.

'''In Practice: Initiatives, Shared Frameworks and Plural Strategies'''

Eco-territorial internationalism is already in motion. It materializes in concrete networks, platforms, and coalitions that expand regionally to the global level. Alliances of frontline organizations committed to a Just Transition, even when nationally based, have recognized the tenets of transnational solidarity and systemic change. In the Global South, this often means articulating diverse territorial experiences to promote an alternative narrative to green capitalism, denouncing how the global energy transition often reproduces colonial logics. This involves fostering relationships between communities experimenting with post-extractivist, post-development, and pluriversal models of organizing life.

Named as such or not, eco-territorial internationalism is a lived practice rooted in territory, connected across borders, and aimed at systemic transformation. The shared recognition of interconnectedness through ecological conditions updates internationalism to the 21st Century, enriching strategies of autonomy beyond historical experiences of taking over the state. A few examples of initiatives fostering eco-territorial internationalist practice are the Amazon Indigenous G9 (Amazon-based), the Global Tapestry of Alternatives (Global), the Ecosocial and Intercultural Pact of the South (Latin America and the Caribbean), the Climate Justice Alliance (US-based), the Web of the Peoples (Brazil-based), and the People’s Summit articulations on climate (Global).
One of the key strengths of eco-territorial internationalism lies in its ability to articulate diversity without flattening it. It recognizes and honors the specific histories, identities, and geographies of struggles, while weaving them into shared frameworks such as just transition, energy democracy, food sovereignty, ecological debt, and degrowth. This convergence is not based on a single blueprint or ideology, but on plural, situated strategies that point toward a common horizon of ecosocial transformation.
Across territories, movements are resisting dispossession while building autonomous infrastructures of life. In the Andean region, Indigenous communities resisting lithium extraction in the salt flats of Argentina and Bolivia have joined forces with urban collectives fighting for clean water and decentralized energy. In North America, Indigenous resistance against oil pipelines has become a powerful symbol of territorial defense and energy democracy. In India, forest-dwelling communities have resisted corporate land grabs while sustaining forest-based livelihoods rooted in biocultural diversity.

These movements are not isolated. They are increasingly connected through transnational alliances, learning from each other’s practices and coordinating common actions. They contribute to a shared agenda:
* Denouncing green capitalism and exposing false solutions that commodify Nature and reproduce corporate and extractivist logics under new names.
* Promoting cross-border solidarity and knowledge exchange between communities defending land, water, forests, and urban commons.
* Coordinating global actions—such as climate marches, caravans, community-led tribunals, and decentralized days of resistance.
* Building grassroots communication and political infrastructure, independent from corporate platforms and algorithms, to amplify subaltern voices.
* Sharing tools for collective planning of production and resource use, based on the needs of life rather than profit, and promoting territorial governance that prioritizes care, equity, and sustainability.

Eco-territorial internationalism is not a fixed structure but a living process—nurtured by dialogue, practice, and the collective imagination of peoples in resistance. It is through this flexible and rooted articulation that another end of the world becomes not only possible, but already underway.

'''Ecological Anti-Imperialism and Anti-Capitalism in the Polycrisis'''

In a game of false solutions to the crises, corporations and powerful states promote green capitalism: a supposed ecological transition that maintains extractivist logics while exploiting new resources (e.g., lithium, rare earths) under the guise of decarbonization. This has led to a new phase of green extractivism, especially in the Global South, where entire regions become sacrifice zones to sustain the “green” consumption of the North. Under this model, decarbonization is pursued without questioning capitalism’s metabolism or imperial mode of living, perpetuating colonial hierarchies and deepening global inequalities. States engage in climate action through market tools and the root causes are undermined in order to ensure capitalism’s profit imperative.
Even the anti-imperialism camp is subject to this destructive strategy, built on classical notions of sovereignty based on control and exploitation of resources, in a context of militarization and financialization, made possible by the capitalist capture of the state. This logic is rendered obsolete by the worsening of interconnected crises and is more likely to lead to mutual annihilation than sovereign strongholds, especially when used to justify the expansion of destructive kinds of energy, agrarian, industrial and extractive activities. In the Global South, ideas of development and anti-imperialism have become embedded in the exploitation of Nature in ways that do not really shield production and territories from imperialist intervention, while delivering inequality and accelerating the path for localized collapses with great loss of life and economic costs. 

When sovereignty is framed through capitalist interests, the incentive for international solidarity is also weakened and cooperation ends up limited to short-run economic and security goals. Eco-territorial internationalism challenges this logic by confronting ecological imperialism and calling for just transitions that are defined by communities themselves, often relying on alliances and networks to support one another and reclaim the notion of transition from its corporate capture, insisting that transitions must be democratic, territorial, and ecologically grounded. Because eco-territorial internationalism is rooted in the recognition of interdependence of life and production, it is an alternative to both statist and localist vices present in modern day internationalism. It promotes sovereignty based on ensuring a good life, but not at the expense of others today or in future generations. It stresses longevity and a common strategy for defeating the polycrisis.  

Thus, an eco-territorial internationalism can nurture an ecological form of sovereignty, where strategies of stability, sustainability and longevity build from interdependence with the rest of the planet in relation to the ecological and material conditions we share at various scales. This is particularly important when entire territories risk disappearing – an ultimate kind of loss of sovereignty – unless capitalism, in fossil and green expressions, is overcome. 

This internationalism based on care, solidarity and life is still under construction; it needs to grow, strengthen its ties, and build new alliances. It faces strong challenges in addition to the polycrisis itself: there is little time left to articulate struggles beyond mere survival and authoritarian forces insist on persecuting peoples involved in eco-territorial alternatives. But the weaving together of struggles for food, energy, territory, housing, race, gender, and class—forming the outlines of a global, intersectional, decentralized movement of movements – brings hope for another world shaped by communities in resistance, guided by ecological justice, and rooted in the defense of plural territories of life.

'''Further exploration:'''
Bringel, Breno. “Energy and ecosocial democracy against fossil gattopardismo.” In Energy Transitions: Just and Beyond, edited by Sabrina Fernandes and Benjamin Fogel. Alameda Institute, 2025. https://alameda.institute/dossier/energy-and-ecosocial-democracy-against-fossil-gattopardismo/ 
Ecosocial and Intercultural Pact of the South, “Manifesto from the Peoples of the South: For an Ecosocial Energy Transition”, 2023. https://pactoecosocialdelsur.com/manifesto-for-an-ecosocial-energy-transition-from-the-peoples-of-the-south/
Fernandes, Sabrina. “‘Just’ Means ‘Just’ Everywhere: How Extractivism Stands in the Way of an Internationalist Paradigm for Just Transitions.” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 37 (2024): 493–511. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-024-09475-4.
Fernandes, Sabrina; Bringel, Breno (Eds) ‘Green Capitalism in the Americas’, NACLA Report on the Americas, special issue, Fall 2025. 
Visual reference: 
La Sandía Digital, (2019): La Energía de los Pueblos.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXlA-2S_uAs 

'''About the authors'''

'''Breno Bringel''' is a Brazilian activist, an editor and a sociologist. Professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro and Senior Fellow at the Complutense University of Madrid, where he coordinates the Observatory of Geopolitics and Ecosocial Transitions. He is a member of the Ecosocial Pact of the South and co-editor of The Geopolitics of Green Colonialism (Pluto Press, 2024). His research focuses on critical geopolitics, social movements and socio-ecological transitions.

'''Sabrina Fernandes''' is a Brazilian activist, sociologist and political economist, currently the Head of Research at the Alameda Institute. She is part of the Ecosocial and Intercultural Pact of the South, a member of NACLA’s editorial committee, and a Senior Research Advisor to the Oxford Technology & Industrialisation for Development (TIDE) centre. Her research is focused on just transitions, Latin America, and internationalism.