Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Arctic Circle
6
0
°
60
°
60
°
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
40
°
40
°
40
°
40
°
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
PACIFIC
Tropic of Cancer
Tropic of Cancer
20
°
20
°
20
°
20
°
OCEAN
PACIFIC
OCEAN
INDIAN
OCEAN
0
°
Equator
Equator
0
°
ATLANTIC
160
°
140
°
120
°
20
°
20
°
20
°
20
°
20
°
20
°
NUMBER OF EXPORT PROCESSING
ZONES BY COUNTRY, 2007
Tropic of Capricorn
OCEAN
Over 20
11-20
6-10
1-5
None
40
°
40
°
40
°
40
°
40
°
80
°
60
°
40
°
0
°
20
°
40
°
60
°
100
°
120
°
140
°
160
°
60
60
60
60
60
60
°
°
°
°
°
°
SOUTHERN
OCEAN
0
2000
4000
6000 Kilometers
Antarctic Circle
0
2000
4000 Miles
Figure 10.12
Export Processing Zones.
Number of export processing zones by country, 2006.
Data from:
International Labor Organization.
any benefi ts, putting them to work in repetitive jobs, often
in environmentally questionable conditions.
In 1992, the United States, Mexico, and Canada
established the
North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA)
, which prompted further indus-
trialization of the border region. NAFTA took effect
January 1, 1994. In addition to manufacturing plants,
NAFTA has facilitated the movement of service indus-
tries from the United States to Mexico, including data
processing operations. Most of the new plants are located
in two districts: Tijuana on the Pacifi c Coast—linked to
San Diego across the border—and Ciudad Juarez on the
Rio Grande across from El Paso, Texas. In recent years
the socioeconomic and environmental contrasts between
cities on either side of the U.S.-Mexico border have
become increasingly stark. Violent crime has become a
particularly serious problem in Juarez, even as El Paso
remains comparatively safe, and the slums of Tijuana
are a world apart from much of San Diego. Although
NAFTA was designed to foster increased interaction in
North America, cross-border disparities have worked
together with growing U.S. concerns over illegal immi-
gration and the infi ltration of foreign terrorists to make
the U.S.-Mexico border more tightly controlled and
more diffi cult to cross than in prior decades.
agricultural conglomerate. Where zones of larger-scale,
modernized agriculture have developed in the periph-
ery, foodstuffs are produced for the foreign market and
often have minimal impact on the impoverished condi-
tions of the surrounding lands. Little is produced for the
local marketplace because distribution systems are poorly
organized and because the local population is typically
unable to pay for foodstuffs. If the local population owns
land, their landholdings are usually fragmented, creating
small plots of land that are diffi cult to farm in a manner
that produces much income. Even on larger plots of land,
most farmers are equipped with outdated, ineffi cient
tools and equipment. The main crops tend to be grains
and roots; farmers produce little protein because high-
protein crops typically have lower yields than grain crops.
On the farms in the periphery, yields per unit area are
low, subsistence modes of life prevail, and many families
are constantly in debt.
Impoverished farmers can ill afford such luxuries
as fertilizers, and educational levels are typically too low
to achieve widespread soil conservation. As a result, soil
erosion is commonplace in most peripheral areas. Severe
soil erosion in areas with dry or semiarid climates around
deserts results in extreme degradation of the land and the
spread of the desert into these lands. Although the expan-
sion and contraction of deserts can occur naturally and
cyclically, the process of
desertifi cation
is more often
exacerbated by humans destroying vegetation and erod-
ing soils through the overuse of lands for livestock grazing
or crop production.
Agriculture
In peripheral countries, agriculture typically focuses
on personal consumption or on production for a large
