This project sets out to generate a knowledge base on the digitalization of natural resource extraction and exploitation, addressing the complexity of global databases use in biodiversity governance.
Other objectives include:
- Map the various legal and technical instruments and infrastructures for biodiversity governance.
- Develop a track and tracing methodology to follow biodiversity data across sites, from extraction to commercialization
- Develop a conceptualization of ʻextractionsʼ in emerging info-economies, of which biodiversity-governance is an advanced case
- Establish a research program in 'digital extractivism', fostering collaborations across the research traditions of Science and Technology Studies and Political Ecology
Natural resources exist not only physically but also as data. Our project examines how governance mechanisms for resource extraction are challenged and effectively rendered obsolete when extraction sites are not just physical locations like oceans or mines situated in specific jurisdictions but increasingly cloud-based databases where valuable resources can be searched for using data mining software and AI.
Along with partners from institutions including University College London and the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, the project will examine how Norway and Brazil position themselves and implement global governance mechanisms for biodiversity at the national level.
Project period: 2025-2029
