CBSE Class 12 · Environment and Natural Resources

Environmental Movements, Resource Geopolitics and Indigenous Peoples (Class 12 Political Science)

Updated 16 October 2026 · Fact-checked

Environmental movements are groups of volunteers, mostly working locally, who resist forest clearing, mining and mega-dams. Resource geopolitics is about who gets what, when, where and how: rivalry over timber, oil and water. Indigenous peoples, whose survival depends on land, link both themes, since development projects have displaced them more than any other group.

Notice that indigenous peoples connect local movements against forest clearing, mining and dams with global rivalry over timber, oil and water.

Illustration drawn for QuestionBuddy.

Understand Environmental Movements and Resource Geopolitics

Why this topic matters. The second half of Chapter 6 moves from governments to movements and from treaties to rivalry over resources. It yields 1-mark assertion-reason items on oil, 2-mark questions on water or indigenous peoples, and 6-mark questions on environmental movements. NCERT sections: 'Environmental movements: one or many?', 'Resource geopolitics' and 'The indigenous peoples and their rights'.

1. Environmental movements: why they matter.

Some of the most significant responses to degradation have come not from governments but from groups of environmentally conscious volunteers; a few work internationally, most locally.
NCERT calls them among the most vibrant, diverse and powerful social movements; new forms of political action are born within them, and they raise long-term visions of how we should live.

2. Three kinds of movement.

Type	Key facts
Forest movements of the South	Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia, Africa, India; forest clearing continues at an alarming rate despite three decades of activism; destruction of the last grand forests has increased in the last decade
Against the minerals industry	Economies of the South re-opened to MNCs through liberalisation; criticism of chemicals, pollution, clearing of vegetation and displacement; the Philippines campaign against the Western Mining Corporation (WMC), an Australian MNC, also opposed at home on anti-nuclear and indigenous rights grounds
Against mega-dams	Every mega-dam tends to face a movement; they are increasingly pro-river movements for sustainable, equitable river management; first in the North: the early-1980s campaign to save the Franklin River (Australia); India's best known: Narmada Bachao Andolan; the shared idea in Indian movements is non-violence

3. Are forests 'wilderness'? (NCERT box).

North	South
Forests seen as devoid of people: 'wilderness' to be protected from humans in parks and reserves	Forests are still peopled; issues assume people live there
Strong in Australia, Scandinavia, North America, New Zealand	Wilderness campaigns exist too: eagles in the Philippines, Bengal tigers in India, ivory trade in Africa, forests of Brazil and Indonesia

Many wilderness issues have been renamed biodiversity issues, often run by NGOs such as WWF with local people.

4. Resource geopolitics.

Definition: who gets what, when, where and how.
Resources gave Europe the means and motives for global expansion; naval timber became a priority from the 17th century because sea power depended on it.
Oil was vital in both World Wars.
Cold War methods of the North to secure supplies: troops near sites and sea-lanes, stockpiling, propping up friendly governments, backing MNCs and favourable agreements; concern for oil in the Gulf and minerals in southern and central Africa.
After the Cold War, supply security still worries states, especially for radioactive materials, but oil remains the most important resource; its history is also a history of war and struggle.

Gulf oil fact	Figure
Share of global production	About 30 per cent
Share of known reserves	About 64 per cent
Saudi Arabia	A quarter of world reserves; single largest producer
Iraq	Reserves second only to Saudi Arabia, possibly larger

5. Water.

Scarcity of freshwater may make shared water a leading source of conflict in the 21st century: 'water wars'.
A typical dispute: a downstream (lower riparian) state objects to pollution, excessive irrigation or dams by an upstream (upper riparian) state.
Examples: Israel, Syria and Jordan in the 1950s-60s over the Jordan and Yarmuk; Turkey, Syria and Iraq over dams on the Euphrates.

6. Indigenous peoples.

UN definition: descendants of peoples who lived in a territory when people of a different culture or ethnic origin arrived from elsewhere and overcame them.
About 30 crore worldwide, for example 20 lakh in the Cordillera (Philippines), 10 lakh Mapuche (Chile), 6 lakh in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (Bangladesh), 35 lakh North American natives.
They seek admission to the world community as equals; 'since times immemorial' expresses their continuous occupancy of land.
Loss of land is the most obvious threat, since land is also their economic base.
India: applied to Scheduled Tribes, nearly 8 per cent of the population; mostly dependent on cultivation; constitutionally protected in representation but the single largest group displaced by development projects since independence.
World Council of Indigenous Peoples (1975): the first of 11 indigenous NGOs to receive consultative status in the UN.

Key quotations

Short lines worth knowing by heart: who says them, when, and why they matter.

who gets what, when, where and how
NCERT, Contemporary World Politics, Chapter 6: Definition of resource geopolitics.
The one-line definition to open any resource answer.
the most important shared idea is non-violence
NCERT, Chapter 6: On anti-dam and other environmental movements in India.
Distinguishes Indian environmental movements.
Since times immemorial
Phrase used by indigenous peoples, cited in NCERT Chapter 6: Their continued occupancy of their lands.
Captures why land is central to indigenous identity.

Environmental Movements and Resource Geopolitics: key facts

Movements: Forest movements of the South
Against minerals industry (WMC, Philippines)
Anti-dam, pro-river (Franklin River, early 1980s; Narmada Bachao Andolan)
Indian shared idea: non-violence; Most work locally; a few internationally.
Oil: Gulf about 30% of production, about 64% of reserves
Saudi Arabia a quarter of reserves, largest producer
Iraq second largest reserves; Oil remains the most important resource in global strategy.
Water: Upper vs lower riparian
Israel-Syria-Jordan, 1950s-60s, Jordan and Yarmuk
Turkey-Syria-Iraq, Euphrates dams
'Water wars'; Shared rivers linked with military conflict.
Indigenous peoples: UN definition: original inhabitants overcome by later arrivals
About 30 crore worldwide
India: Scheduled Tribes, nearly 8%
Main threat: loss of land
World Council of Indigenous Peoples 1975; first of 11 with UN consultative status; Largest group displaced by development in India.

Gulf	about 30% of production, about 64% of reserves
Saudi Arabia	a quarter of reserves, largest producer
Iraq	second largest reserves

How to answer Environmental Movements and Resource Geopolitics questions

Questions ask for examples of movements, the meaning of resource geopolitics, why oil or water causes conflict, and who indigenous peoples are and what they demand. Use named examples: they turn a general answer into a full-mark answer.

1Open with NCERT's definition: resource geopolitics, indigenous peoples or environmental movements.
2Give each point a named example (WMC, Franklin River, Narmada Bachao Andolan, Euphrates).
3For oil, quote the Gulf figures and the Cold War methods.
4For water, explain the upstream-downstream logic before the example.
5For indigenous peoples, link land to survival and to displacement in India.
6In 6-mark answers, end with why these movements matter: new forms of political action.

Environmental Movements and Resource Geopolitics in real life

The idea, met in an everyday situation. Answer the question in your own words, then compare with the model answer. The one-line hook is what to remember.

Securing supplies

Suppose a city depends on one distant reservoir. It posts guards along the pipeline, builds large storage tanks in case of a cut-off and stays on good terms with the village council where the reservoir lies.

Which methods of resource geopolitics does this mirror?

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Guards along the pipeline mirror military forces near sites and along sea-lanes.
Storage tanks mirror the stockpiling of strategic resources.
Good terms with the village council mirror propping up friendly governments in producing countries.

Answer: It mirrors the methods industrialised countries used during the Cold War to secure strategic resources such as oil.

Memory hook: Guard it, store it, befriend the source.

Indigenous land rights

Imagine a family that has farmed the same hillside for generations without papers. A company gets a licence to mine the hill and offers the family a small cash payment to move to a city.

Why would the family see this as a threat to survival, not just a property loss?

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

The land is their economic base: food and livelihood come from it.
Their identity and customs are tied to it ('since times immemorial').
Cash cannot replace a whole way of life, which is why displacement hits indigenous groups hardest.

Answer: Loss of land means loss of the means of physical survival and of identity.

Memory hook: No land, no life.

Tricks to remember Environmental Movements and Resource Geopolitics

Short memory aids. Say each one aloud once, then use it on a question the same day.

F-M-D
Forests, Minerals, Dams: the three kinds of environmental movement in NCERT.
Use it when: Examples of movements.
30-64, 1/4
The Gulf produces 30 but holds 64; Saudi Arabia holds a quarter.
Use it when: Oil figures.
J-Y and E
Jordan and Yarmuk (Israel, Syria, Jordan); Euphrates (Turkey, Syria, Iraq).
Use it when: Water conflict examples.

Environmental Movements and Resource Geopolitics: solved examples

Ordered from board level to HOTS. Try each one before you open the solution.

Example 1: Timber and sea power · 1 mark · MCQBoard level

From which century did naval timber supply become a key priority for the major European powers?
(a) The 15th century
(b) The 17th century
(c) The 19th century
(d) The 20th century

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

NCERT: since sea power rested on access to timber, naval timber became a key priority from the 17th century (1 mark).

Answer: (b) The 17th century

Example 2: Resource geopolitics · 2 marks · Very short answerBoard level

What is meant by resource geopolitics? Give one historical example. (2 marks)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Definition (1 mark).
Example: naval timber or oil in the World Wars (1 mark).

Answer: Resource geopolitics is about who gets what, when, where and how: competition between states for access to and control of resources. Example: from the 17th century, European powers treated naval timber as a key priority because sea power depended on it; in both World Wars, assuring the supply of oil was critical.

Example 3: Assertion and reason: forests of the South · 1 mark · Assertion-reasonHarder board level

Assertion (A): Environmental issues in the South usually assume that people live in forests.
Reason (R): In the North, forests are often seen as wilderness from which humans should be kept out.
(a) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A.
(b) Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A.
(c) A is true but R is false.
(d) A is false but R is true.

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Both statements are in NCERT's box, but the Northern view does not explain the Southern one; Southern forests are peopled (1 mark).

Answer: (b) Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A.

Example 4: Movements against mining and dams · 4 marks · Short answerHarder board level

Describe the movements against the minerals industry and against mega-dams, with one example of each. (4 marks)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Minerals: liberalisation, damage, WMC example (2 marks).
Dams: pro-river, Franklin, Narmada, non-violence (2 marks).

Answer: Minerals industry: with liberalisation, many economies of the South have reopened to multinational mining companies. Their extraction, use of chemicals, pollution of land and water, clearing of vegetation and displacement of communities invite resistance. In the Philippines a large network of groups campaigned against the Western Mining Corporation, an Australian company that also faced opposition at home on anti-nuclear and indigenous-rights grounds. Mega-dams: almost every mega-dam faces an environmental movement, and these are increasingly pro-river movements seeking sustainable and equitable management of rivers. The first in the North was the early-1980s campaign to save Australia's Franklin River; in India the best known is the Narmada Bachao Andolan, and Indian movements share a commitment to non-violence.

Example 5: Source-based: oil and power · 4 marks · Source-basedHarder board level

Read the passage (written for this page) and choose the most appropriate answer for each question.

One region produces less than a third of the world's oil but holds nearly two-thirds of its known reserves. The big consumers lie far away. During the Cold War they kept ships on sea routes, stored reserves and supported friendly rulers in producing countries.

(i) The region described is:
(A) Central Africa (B) the Gulf region of West Asia (C) South-East Asia (D) Latin America
(ii) About what share of global oil production does this region account for?
(A) 10 per cent (B) 30 per cent (C) 64 per cent (D) 90 per cent
(iii) Whose known oil reserves are second only to Saudi Arabia's?
(A) Iran (B) Kuwait (C) Iraq (D) Syria
(iv) Which of the following was NOT among the methods used by industrialised countries during the Cold War to secure resources?
(A) Deploying military forces near exploitation sites and along sea-lanes (B) Stockpiling strategic resources (C) Propping up friendly governments in producing countries (D) Banning their own multinational companies from producing countries

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

(i) (B): the Gulf (1 mark).
(ii) (B): about 30 per cent of production, against about 64 per cent of reserves (1 mark).
(iii) (C): Iraq (1 mark).
(iv) (D): they supported, not banned, multinational companies (1 mark).

Answer: (i) (B) the Gulf region of West Asia; (ii) (B) 30 per cent; (iii) (C) Iraq; (iv) (D) banning their own multinational companies from producing countries.

Example 6: Long answer: indigenous peoples · 6 marks · Long answerHOTS / competency

"The question of indigenous peoples brings environment, resources and politics together." Explain with reference to their concerns at the global level and in India. (6 marks)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

UN definition and numbers (1 mark).
Environment and resources: land as survival base (2 marks).
Politics: demands, World Council 1975 (1 mark).
India: Scheduled Tribes, displacement (2 marks).

Answer: The UN defines indigenous populations as descendants of peoples who inhabited a territory when people of a different culture or ethnic origin arrived from elsewhere and overcame them. About 30 crore indigenous people live across the world, from the Cordillera of the Philippines and the Mapuche of Chile to the Chittagong Hill Tracts and North America.

Environment and resources meet in their lives because their worldviews are bound to land and the life it supports. Loss of land, which is also the loss of their economic resource base, is the most obvious threat to their survival; mining, dams and forest clearing usually take their land first.

The issue is political because they demand admission to the world community as equals and ask governments to accept indigenous nations as enduring communities. Long neglected, their concerns gained a voice when growing contacts in the 1970s led to the World Council of Indigenous Peoples in 1975, which later became the first of 11 indigenous NGOs given UN consultative status; many anti-globalisation movements also focus on their rights.

In India the term usually refers to the Scheduled Tribes, nearly eight per cent of the population, most of whom depend on cultivation. They enjoy constitutional protection in political representation but have gained little from development; they are the single largest group displaced by development projects since independence. Their case therefore shows how control over resources decides who bears the cost of development.

Where students lose marks in Environmental Movements and Resource Geopolitics

The slips examiners see most often, and what to write instead.

Mistake: Vague definition of resource geopolitics
Writing only 'politics of resources'.
Wrong working
Resource geopolitics is about natural resources in politics.
Right working
Who gets what, when, where and how; rivalry over timber, oil, water.
Do this: Use NCERT's four-question definition.
Usually costs: 1 mark.
Mistake: Wrong oil figures
Swapping production and reserves.
Wrong working
The Gulf produces 64 per cent of world oil.
Right working
About 30 per cent of production, about 64 per cent of known reserves.
Do this: Produces 30, holds 64.
Usually costs: 1 mark.
Mistake: Movements without examples
Listing types only.
Wrong working
There are forest, mining and dam movements.
Right working
WMC in the Philippines; Franklin River; Narmada Bachao Andolan.
Do this: One named example per movement.
Usually costs: 1-3 marks.
Mistake: Incomplete UN definition of indigenous peoples
Writing 'tribal people' only.
Wrong working
Indigenous people are tribals living in forests.
Right working
Descendants of original inhabitants overcome by people of a different culture who arrived later.
Do this: Learn the definition's two parts: original inhabitants, overcome by newcomers.
Usually costs: 1 mark.

Exam tips

Asked in: 2023 board paper 59/4/1 Q28(b) (6 marks, three international environmental movements); 2024 board paper 59/2/1 Q6 (1 mark, assertion-reason on oil in global strategy); 2025 board paper 59/4/1 Q14 (2 marks, define indigenous people); 2026 board paper 59/4/1 Q15 (2 marks, water as a crucial resource in global politics, with one example). Answers here are our own.
Learn one example for each type of movement.
Quote the Gulf oil figures exactly.
Use 'upper riparian' and 'lower riparian' in water answers.
Link indigenous peoples in India to displacement by development projects.

Practice questions on Environmental Movements and Resource Geopolitics

Write each answer on paper first. Open the hint only if you are stuck, and the answer only when you have finished.

Q1 · 1 mark · MCQBoard level
The World Council of Indigenous Peoples later became:
(a) a specialised agency of the UN
(b) the first of 11 indigenous NGOs to receive consultative status in the UN
(c) a member of the UN Security Council
(d) part of the Earth Summit secretariat
Hint
Think of NGOs and the UN.
Answer
(b) the first of 11 indigenous NGOs to receive consultative status in the UN.
Q2 · 2 marks · Very short answerBoard level
Name any two wilderness campaigns in the South mentioned by NCERT. (2 marks)
Hint
Birds, tigers, elephants, forests.
Answer
Any two: protecting eagles and other birds of prey in the Philippines; protecting the low number of Bengal tigers in India; the campaign against the ivory trade and the slaughter of elephants in Africa; wilderness struggles in the forests of Brazil and Indonesia.
Q3 · 2 marks · Very short answerHarder board level
Why does the minerals industry provoke environmental movements in the South? (2 marks)
Hint
Liberalisation; what mining does.
Answer
Many economies of the South have been reopened to multinational companies through the liberalisation of the global economy. The industry's extraction of earth, use of chemicals, pollution of waterways and land, clearance of native vegetation and displacement of communities invite criticism and resistance.
Q4 · 1 mark · Assertion-reasonHarder board level
Assertion (A): Iraq's actual oil reserves may be much larger than its known reserves.
Reason (R): Substantial portions of Iraqi territory are yet to be fully explored.
(a) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A.
(b) Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A.
(c) A is true but R is false.
(d) A is false but R is true.
Hint
What NCERT says about exploration.
Answer
(a) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A.
Q5 · 4 marks · Short answerHarder board level
Compare the campaign against the Western Mining Corporation with the campaign to save the Franklin River. (4 marks)
Hint
Type of movement; place; what each combined.
Answer
Western Mining Corporation: a movement against the minerals industry. In the Philippines a vast network of groups campaigned against WMC, an Australia-based multinational; in Australia itself opposition to the company rested on anti-nuclear sentiment and support for the basic rights of Australian indigenous peoples. Franklin River: a movement against a mega-dam. In the early 1980s it became the first anti-dam movement in the North, a campaign to save the Franklin River and its surrounding forests in Australia; it was a wilderness and forest campaign as well as an anti-dam one. Comparison: one targeted a mining company across borders, the other a dam at home; but both linked Australia, and both joined environmental concerns to wider causes, indigenous rights in one case and wilderness protection in the other.
Q6 · 4 marks · Short answerHOTS / competency
Suppose a state government plans a large dam that will irrigate farmland downstream but submerge forest villages upstream. Using NCERT's ideas, explain why an environmental movement is likely, and what form it would probably take in India. (4 marks)
Hint
Displacement, pro-river, non-violence, indigenous people.
Answer
NCERT notes that in every country where a mega-dam is built, an environmental movement is likely to oppose it. Here the villagers would lose land, which for forest and tribal communities is their economic base, and Scheduled Tribes have been the single largest group displaced by development since independence. The movement would likely present itself as pro-river, demanding sustainable and equitable management of the river valley rather than just stopping the dam, as the Narmada Bachao Andolan did. In India it would most probably be non-violent, since non-violence is the most important shared idea in Indian environmental movements.
Q7 · 6 marks · Long answerHOTS / competency
"The history of oil is also the history of war and struggle." Examine resource geopolitics from the age of naval timber to oil after the Cold War. (6 marks)
Hint
Definition; timber; World Wars; Cold War methods; Gulf; after 1991.
Answer
Resource geopolitics is about who gets what, when, where and how. Resources have given European powers some of the key means and motives for global expansion, and they have been the object of rivalry between states.
In the age of sail, sea power rested on timber, so from the 17th century naval timber became a key priority for the major European powers. In the twentieth century, assuring the uninterrupted supply of strategic resources, especially oil, was critical during both World Wars.
During the Cold War the industrialised countries of the North adopted several methods to secure supplies: deploying military forces near exploitation sites and along sea-lanes of communication, stockpiling strategic resources, propping up friendly governments in producing countries, and supporting multinational companies and favourable international agreements. Their concern centred on the oil of the Gulf and the minerals of southern and central Africa.
After the Soviet Union disintegrated, security of supply continued to worry governments, especially for radioactive materials, but oil remained the most important resource in global strategy. The Gulf produces about 30 per cent of the world's oil but holds about 64 per cent of known reserves; Saudi Arabia has a quarter of all reserves and Iraq the second largest. Because the wealth linked to oil generates political struggles to control it, its history is indeed also a history of war and struggle.

Test your recall

Answer in your head or on paper first, then open the card. Pulling an answer out of memory makes it stick far better than re-reading.

1.Which Australian company did groups in the Philippines campaign against?Show answer
The Western Mining Corporation (WMC).
2.Which NGO initiated and funded many wilderness campaigns in the South?Show answer
The Worldwide Wildlife Fund (WWF).
3.About what share of global oil production comes from the Gulf region?Show answer
About 30 per cent.
4.Which river's dams have caused tension between Turkey, Syria and Iraq?Show answer
The Euphrates.
5.Approximately how many indigenous people are there in the world, according to NCERT?Show answer
About 30 crore.
6.What share of India's population are Scheduled Tribes, per NCERT?Show answer
Nearly eight per cent.

Environmental Movements and Resource Geopolitics: frequently asked questions

What is resource geopolitics?

The politics of who gets what, when, where and how, especially rivalry over strategic resources such as timber, oil and water.

Did worries about resource supply end with the Cold War?

No. Security of supply still worries governments, especially for radioactive materials, and oil remains the most important resource in global strategy.

What do indigenous peoples mean by 'since times immemorial'?

Their continued occupancy of the lands from which they originate.

What is common to Indian environmental movements?

Non-violence is their most important shared idea.