Natural Resource Management and Development Discourses in the Caribbean: reflections on the Guyanese and Jamaican experience

Abstract

International discourses on environment and development help to shape global shared understandings of environmental issues. This paper describes the environment and development history of Guyana and Jamaica through pre-colonial, colonial, independence and market liberalisation stages. Two opposing discourses are used to frame this history: a dominant global environmental discourse characterised by technical and ‘scientific’ expertise and hierarchical governance; and a counter-discourse emphasising local control over natural resources. This analysis serves as a first step in surfacing and understanding the highly complex and multifaceted nature of environmental issues in these locations. However, we conclude with the recognition that further work should go beyond a bipolar analysis to one taking a critical, multidimensional approach, in order to promote more sustainable management of natural resources than has previously taken place.

Notes

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3 See, for example, J Keeley & I Scoones, ‘Knowledge, power and politics: the environmental policy-making process in Ethiopia’, Journal of Modern African Studies, 38 (1), 2000, pp 89–120.

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5 M Foucault, ‘Two lectures’, in Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972–1977, C Gordon (ed), New York: Pantheon Books, 1980, pp 78–108.

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7 See, for example, J Crush (ed), Power of Development, New York: Routledge, 1995; and A Escobar, Encountering Development, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.

8 Hajer, The Politics of Environmental Discourse.

9 A Dobson, Green Political Thought: An Introduction, London: Unwin Hyman, 1990.

10 Dryzek, The Politics of the Earth.

11 See, for example, WN Adger, TA Benjaminsen, K Brown & H Svarstad, ‘Advancing a political ecology of global environmental discourses’, Development and Change, 32, 2001, pp 681–715.

12 Ibid; TJ Bassett & D Crummey (eds), African Savannas: Global Narratives and Local Knowledge of Environmental Change, Oxford: James Currey, 2003; and LC Gray & WG Moseley, ‘A geographical perspective on poverty–environment interactions’, Geographical Journal, 171 (1), 2005, pp 9–23.

13 M Bookchin, The Ecology of Freedom, Palo Alto, CA: Cheshire Books, 1982.

14 Ibid.

15 CV Black, The History of Jamaica, London: Collins Educational, 1983.

16 VT Daly, A Short History of the Guyanese People, Oxford: Macmillan Caribbean, 1975.

17 Black, The History of Jamaica; and J Forte, About Guyanese Amerindians, Guyana: J Forte, 1996.

18 D Watts, The West Indies: Patterns of Development, Culture and Environmental Change since 1492, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

19 Ibid.

20 Daly, A Short History of the Guyanese People.

21 A Crosby, The Columbian Exchange, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1972.

22 Watts, The West Indies; and M Colchester, Guyana Fragile Frontier: Loggers, Miners and Forest Peoples, London: Latin America Bureau, 1997.

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24 Crosby, The Columbian Exchange.

25 Colchester, Guyana Fragile Frontier.

26 Watts, The West Indies.

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28 P Rivière, Absent-minded Imperialism: Britain and the Expansion of Empire in Nineteenth-century Brazil, London: IB Tauris, 1995.

29 Ibid.

30 A Benjamin & L Pierre, ‘Review of legislation in relation to land, forestry and mining’, in J Forte (ed), Situation Analysis Indigenous Use of the Forest with Emphasis on Region 1, Georgetown: University of Guyana, 1995, Annex 1.

31 Ibid.

32 Colchester, Guyana Fragile Frontier.

33 Ibid.

34 Watts, The West Indies.

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36 R Thornton, Letter from Director of Roads, Miscellaneous Reports: Jamaica Forestry/15.4, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, London, 1877.

37 D Morris, Forest Conservation in Jamaica, Miscellaneous Reports: Jamaica Forestry/15.4, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, London, 1881.

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40 P Blaikie, The Political Economy of Soil Erosion in Developing Countries, London: Longman, 1985.

41 P Mars, Ideology and Change: The Transformation of the Caribbean Left, Detroit, MI/Kingston: Wayne State University Press/The Press, University of the West Indies, 1998.

42 Ibid.

43 M Manley, Up the Down Escalator: Development and the International Economy—a Jamaican Case Study, London: Andre Deutsch, 1987.

44 SJ Randall & GS Mount, The Caribbean Basin: An International History, London: Routledge, 1998.

45 Ibid.

46 Manley, Up the Down Escalator.

47 DT Edwards, Small Farmers and the Protection of the Watersheds: The Experience of Jamaica since the 1950s, University of the West Indies Centre for Environment and Development, Occasional Paper Series, No 1, Kingston: Canoe Press, 1995.

48 Colchester, Guyana Fragile Frontier.

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50 Colchester, Guyana Fragile Frontier.

51 Edwards, Small Farmers and the Protection of the Watersheds.

52 Barker & McGregor, ‘Land degradation in the Yallahs Basin’; D McGregor & D Barker, ‘Land degradation and hillside farming in the Fall River Basin, Jamaica’, Applied Geography, 11, 1991, pp 143–156; and Edwards, Small Farmers and the Protection of the Watersheds.

53 For a general statement on neo-colonialism, see RB Potter, T Binns, JA Elliott & D Smith, Geographies of Development: An Introduction to Development Studies, Harlow: Pearson, Prentice Hall, 2008, p 76. For a brief discussion, with some examples, of neo-colonialism in the Caribbean, see RB Potter, D Barker, D Conway & T Klak, The Contemporary Caribbean, Harlow: Pearson, Prentice Hall, 2004, pp 464–468.

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59 National Development Strategy for Guyana 1996, available online at www.guyana.org/NDS, accessed 20 December 2008.

60 Colchester, Guyana Fragile Frontier, p 103.

61 D Hogg, The sap in the Forest: The Environmental and Social Impacts of Structural Adjustment Programmes in the Philippines, Ghana and Guyana, London: Friends of the Earth, 1993.

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63 D McGregor, D Campbell & D Barker, ‘Environmental change and Caribbean food security: recent hazard impacts and domestic food production in Jamaica’, in D McGregor, D Dodman & D Barker (eds), Global Change and Caribbean Vulnerability: Environment, Economy and Society at Risk?, Kingston: University of the West Indies Press (in press).

64 Ibid.

65 M Pelling, ‘Coastal flood hazard in Guyana: environmental and economic causes’, Caribbean Geography, 7 (1), 1996, pp 3–22; Pelling, ‘Vulnerability, urbanization and environmental hazard in coastal Guyana’, in D Barker & D McGregor (eds), Resources, Planning and Environmental Management in a Changing Caribbean, Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 2003, pp 133–152; and P Williams, & L Johnson-Bhola, ‘An investigation into the causes and consequences of coastal flooding in Guyana’, in McGregor et al, Global Change and Caribbean Vulnerability.

66 D McGregor & A Tate, Hazard and Vulnerability in a Small Island State: Impacts and Lessons from Recent Jamaican Experience, Centre for Developing Areas Research (cedar) Research Paper No 44, 2007.

67 RJ Kent, ‘History and necessity: the evolution of soil conservation technology in a Jamaican farming system’, Geographical Journal, 168, 2002, pp 48–56; D Beckford & D Barker, ‘The role and value of local knowledge in Jamaican agriculture: adaptation and change in small-scale farming’, Geographical Journal, 173 (2), 2007, pp 118–128; D Beckford et al, ‘Adaptation, innovation and domestic food production in Jamaica’; and McGregor et al, ‘Environmental change and Caribbean food security’.

68 Adger et al, ‘Advancing a political ecology of global environmental discourses’, p 683.

69 See ibid, pp 693–697.

70 See Iwokrama International Centre website, at www.iwokrama.org, accessed 20 January 2009.

71 See various media reports, including bbc, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7603695.stm, accessed 20 December 2008; and statements by the Guyanese Office of the President, at http://op.gov.gy.

72 ‘Guyana's modest proposal’, Globe and Mail (Toronto), 19 January 2008, at http://www.theglobeandmail.com, accessed 20 December 2008.

73 See redd Monitor's website, at http://www.redd-monitor.org, for more information; and D O'Connor, ‘Governing the global commons: linking carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation in tropical forests’, Global Environmental Change, 18 (3), 2008, pp 368–374.

74 See, for example, Special Issue on ‘Payments for Environmental Services in Developing and Developed Countries’, Ecological Economics, 65 (4), 2008.

75 See relevant items on the Iwokrama International Centre website, at www.iwokrama.org.

76 See Canopy Capital's website, at http://canopycapital.co.uk, for more information.

77 See Guiana Shield Initiative website, at http://www.guianashield.org accessed 20 December 2008.

78 ‘Guyana in forest carbon first’, Stabroek News (Georgetown), 24 July 2008, at http://www.stabroeknews.com/news/guyana-in-forest-carbon-first, accessed 20 December 2008.

79 A Escobar, ‘Constructing nature: elements for a poststructural political ecology’, in R Peet & M Watts (eds), Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development, Social Movements, London: Routledge, p 47.

80 A Bulkan & J Bulkan, ‘These forests have always been ours: official and Amerindian discourses on Guyana's forest estate’ in MC Forte (ed), Indigenous Resurgence in the Contemporary Caribbean: Amerindian Survival and Revival, New York: Peter Lang, 2006, pp 135–154.

81 See, for example, J Bulkan, ‘gfc's misleading data on forestry in Guyana’, Kaieteur News (Georgetown), 16 November 2008, at http://www.kaieteurnews.com/2008/11/16/gfc's-misleading-data-on-forestry-in-guyana accessed 20 December 2008; Bulkan, ‘Bulkan responds to Vivian Li's gfc data on concession allocations’, Kaieteur News, 23 November 2008, at http://www.kaieteurnews.com/2008/11/23/bulkan-responds-to-vivian-li's-gfc-data-on-concession-allocations, accessed 20 December 2008; Bulkan, ‘Why is the gfc Commissioner defending Barama when wwf does not believe that company can regain the forestry stewardship certificate?’, Stabroek News, 20 January 2009, at http://www.stabroeknews.com/letters/why-is-the-gfc-commissioner-defending-barama-when-wwf-does-not-believe-that-company-can-regain-the-forestry-stewardship-certificate, accessed 26 January 2009; and K Dooley, T Griffiths, H Leake & S Ozinga, Cutting Corners: World Bank's Forest and Carbon Fund Fails Forests and Peoples, fern/Forest Peoples Programme, 2008.

82 S Allicock, ‘Developing partnerships between the North Rupununi District Development Board (nrddb) and the Iwokrama International Centre Programme for Rain Forest Conservation and Development’, paper submitted to the Indigenous Rights in the Commonwealth Caribbean and Americas Regional expert meeting, Georgetown, Guyana, 2003, p 3, available online at http://www.iwokrama.org/people/nrddb.htm.

83 See item ‘Guyana, Germany ink euro 2.93m protected areas project’, 18 February 2006, at the Guyana Government Information Agency (gina) website, http://www.gina.gov.gy/archive/daily/b060218.html, accessed 20 December 2008.

84 Adger et al, ‘Advancing a political ecology of global environmental discourses’.

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