Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
describe the impacts that the operations of
corporations like UFC were having in places like
Central America. In this context, it is important to
consider in more detail the impacts that such
political and economic activities had on the forest
ecosystems in which UFC operated.
At one level, UFC was able to use its unchal-
lenged power to gradually acquire more and more
of Central America's first-growth rainforests.
These forests were either cleared to make way for
large banana or sugar plantations, or simply left
unused. UFC would often take ownership of large
tracts of land, which it had no intention of using,
in order to prevent its competitors being able to
acquire productive land from which they could
compete for market share. This land-banking
process often meant that communities who had
previously relied on forests to secure precious
food and resources had to move elsewhere (this
problem was at the heart of Árbenz's proposed
land reforms).
In the plantations that were formed by UFC,
emphasis was placed on high levels of agricultural
production with little regard being given to the
ecological sustainability of the practices. The
emphasis that UFC placed on high-yielding
agricultural output resulted in it concentrating
most of its plantation activities on the growing
of one particular type of banana: the Gros Michel,
or Big Mike (Chapman, 2007). The Big Mike is
actually the larger type of banana you will come
across when perusing the fruit shelves of your
local green grocer. The problem was that in
concentrating its efforts on the growth of the Big
Mike, UFC created a monoculture plantation
system throughout Central America that was
prone to disease. It was in this context that Panama
disease was able to sweep through UFC plantations
and decimate its banana harvest. Given its
relatively unchallenged power in Central America,
and its access to large swathes of forested land,
UFC's solution to the problem was simple: it
moved its activities around. Chapman (2007: 105)
thus describes how 'United Fruit's response when
the disease had taken hold was to move on to new
land, to a new country if need be, and to carve out
another part of Central America's infinite jungle'.
As more jungle was replaced by single-crop
plantations, the diverse sets of plant and animal
species that depended on these forests found their
survival increasingly threatened.
Although UFC is not a multinational timber
company, its operations in Central America reveal
the impacts that the processes associated with
globalization can have on forest ecosystems.
MNCs are able to use their economic power and
political influence in order to avoid the regulations
that may exist in certain countries to protect
forest ecosystems. They often employ ecologically
damaging practices that can result in the need to
convert more and more forests into agricultural
land just to maintain food production levels. The
example of UFC also indicates how, in the age of
globalization, the fate of forests becomes dislocated
from the places in which they are located, and is
instead connected to economic decisions that are
made in distant corporate boardrooms.
5.5.1 IKEA arrives!
I remember vividly when IKEA first opened a
branch in my hometown. I must have been about
14 at the time, and had a weekly paper round. As
part of my paper delivery duties I would also
distribute fliers advertising local businesses. One
week I was given a large and eye-catching brochure
to slip into the papers I was delivering. The
brochure was a distinctive blue and yellow colour
and was emblazoned with, what seemed to me at
the time at least, the exotic sounding name 'IKEA'.
I remember as I delivered those brochures feeling
a sense of excitement: it seemed like something
of great corporate importance, which held the
promise of new exciting lifestyles, had arrived. My
sense of IKEA's significance was not diminished
when I caught my first sight of the store as I passed
