In James Cameron’s Avatar, what is the name of the corporation operating on Pandora?

The corporation operating on Pandora in James Cameron’s Avatar is the Resources Development Administration.

Usually abbreviated as the RDA, the Resources Development Administration is a powerful Earth-based organization that extracts resources from Pandora. Its main target is unobtanium, a valuable mineral found on the moon. The RDA funds the Avatar Program and deploys personnel, spacecraft, mining equipment, and military forces.

The corporation’s activities drive the film’s central conflict. Human expansion threatens the Na’vi people and the ecosystems of Pandora, especially the forest around Hometree. The RDA’s security forces are commanded by Colonel Miles Quaritch, while Administrator Parker Selfridge oversees the commercial operation.

Viewers sometimes substitute Weyland-Yutani, the corporation from the Alien franchise. That company does not belong to Avatar. The RDA is specific to Cameron’s Avatar universe and is also identified in related fictional materials as a major interplanetary resource enterprise.