The intersections of colonialism and the climate crisis in Western Sahara

By: Kiana Montakhab, SFU Student

On January 17, Embark Sustainability, the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies, and Spheres of Influence e-zine hosted a presentation titled “Western Sahara is a Climate Justice Issue” on the Burnaby campus. The talk focused on the intersections of climate justice and the ongoing struggle for self-determination of the Sahrawi people. Parsa Alirezaei, an SFU research assistant, managing editor at Spheres of Influence, and former intern at the International Court of Justice, was the event’s featured speaker. He highlighted Morocco’s exploitation of Western Sahara’s natural resources and its contribution to climate injustice.

Western Sahara is a long-disputed territory in North Africa. It not only has the largest phosphate reserves in the world but also some of the richest fishing waters globally, making the region highly valuable for its natural resources. This has made Western Sahara a focal point for colonial agendas, starting with Spain in the 20th century.

In 1973, the Polisario Front started to rise. Primarily composed of the Sahrawis, the Indigenous people of Western Sahara, the organization initially sought to liberate Western Sahara from Spanish colonial control and establish self-determination. After Spain withdrew in 1975, the territory became occupied by Morocco and Mauritania through the Madrid Accords. The situation escalated with the launch of the Green March, as 350,000 unarmed Moroccan civilians marched into Western Sahara and claimed the region as part of Morocco. This pressured Spain to cede control, marking the start of Morocco’s illegal occupation.

The Polisario Front shifted its focus to opposing Moroccan dominance, resulting in a 16-year-long guerrilla war that displaced thousands. Many Sahrawis remain in refugee camps in Algeria’s Tindouf region. According to the UN Refugee Agency, “more than 173,000 people need humanitarian assistance in five camps” and economic opportunities available to Sahrawi refugees are “extremely limited.” Alirezaei explained that the jobs available are “low-wage labour jobs in agriculture,” small-scale “illicit trade,” and refugee tourism. He said that despite a 1991 UN-brokered ceasefire promising a self-determination referendum, it has “never came about.”

“People who are least responsible for the emissions and climate change itself are most vulnerable to its consequences.” — Parsa Alirezaei, SFU research assistant, managing editor at Spheres of Influence, former intern at the International Court of Justice

Alirezaei also explained that since the Green March, Morocco has sponsored settler colonial schemes, wherein Moroccan citizens relocate to Western Sahara under the promise of “economic incentives” and “national conquest.” In the process of greenwashing the land, he said Morocco has invested heavily in infrastructure projects, such as “wind farms and solar panels,” exploiting the region’s resources.

“With the help of North American, Chinese, and European corporations,” Morocco has illegally exploited Western Sahara’s abundant natural resources, said Alirezaei. According to estimates from the Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW), Morocco’s revenue from Western Sahara’s phosphate reserves alone could have reached as much as $655.5 million USD in 2022.

Canada is deeply established in this extraction enterprise. According to WSRW, from 2013 to 2017, Canadian companies Agrium and PotashCorp accounted for “49.5% of the total trade” of phosphate rocks from the occupied Western Sahara. After merging in 2018 to form Nutrien, the company ceased importing phosphate from Western Sahara due to international pressure and criticism over supporting Morocco’s occupation.

Alirezaei stressed, “People who are least responsible for the emissions and climate change itself are most vulnerable to its consequences.” He said that “the particular region that the Sahrawis are living in, and trying to make their living in, in this hyper precarious circumstance, is one of the most vulnerable areas to climate change in the world.”

Struggles of minority groups across the world continue to share patterns of colonial expansion, exploitation, and displacement. At the end of the presentation, Alirezaei stated, “There’s no way that you look at Palestine and then you look at Kurdistan and then you look at Western Sahara as completely discrete events happening, separate from common historical critical junctures.”