Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
4
Foreign Investment and Environmental
Justice in an Island Economy: Mining,
Bottled Water, and Corporate Social
Responsibility in Fiji
Saleem H. Ali and Mary A. Ackley
Global inequality necessitates some transfer of resources from developed
countries to developing economies, and foreign investment in various
business sectors is a potentially viable conduit for this purpose. Global-
ization as manifest through responsible trade and accountable invest-
ment is likely to improve development indicators. However, without
appropriate structures in place to manage the form and function of such
investment, the larger goal of sustainable development for developing
economies can be impaired, even if the investments are diversifi ed. Small
island economies are largely dependent on external investment as they
move away from subsistence livelihoods and become part of the global
economic system. The potential for environmental harm from external
agents that are only remotely connected to the culture and have little to
lose in this context becomes magnifi ed. Such cases thus allow for social
scientists to more acutely study the structural challenges of diversifying
and making economies sustainable in economic, environmental, and
social terms.
This chapter presents some survey fi ndings and observational analysis
of a mining region in the island nation of Fiji, which also has the poten-
tial for greater tourism development and is home to one of the country's
most celebrated international brands, FIJI Water. Investment in all
economic sectors has largely been from foreign interests with minimal
government intervention. While diversifi cation can theoretically provide
an opportunity for a sustainable and more just economy and may be
a necessary ingredient in “dependent development” (Evans 1979), the
chapter will argue that such diversifi cation is not a suffi cient means
of achieving these goals. Environmental planning processes and appro-
priate systems of accountability that allow different industrial sectors to
intersect with each other at temporal and spatial levels are essential to
make diversifi cation effective. Such efforts need to be coordinated at the
