The purpose of this article is to analyze the main aspects on which the extractivist development model is based, and the way in which environmentalism has raised criticisms of its use. Based on this, we present the way in which the two models contradict each other in Colombia from a theoretical, legal and case law approach. To this end, the bases of the extractivist scheme and the way in which it has been implemented in Colombia are analyzed first. Secondly, some proposals of the environmentalist critique to such bases, and the form in which they have influenced the Colombian juridical order, are outlined. Based on this, we present the main points of discussion between these two paradigms and the way in which they turn out to be contradictory. We end with some conclusions regarding each of the points addressed.