Trade, Environment and Development: A Political Ecology and Material Perspective

Esta tesis doctoral no sigue una estructura tradicional. El manuscrito que aqui se presenta es mas bien un compendio de articulos independientes, algunos de ellos ya publicados. Los articulos no son presentados en un orden cronologico, ni necesariamente tienen que ser leidos en orden consecutivo. La mayoria de los articulos tratan con un tema general comun: la relacion entre comercio y medio ambiente. Este tema es abordado desde la perspectiva de la ecologia politica y el analisis de flujos de materiales. Diferentes enfoques y escalas fueron adoptados, yendo desde la discusion general acerca de los efectos de la globalizacion en paises especializados en la exportacion primaria, hasta el analisis local de conflictos entre proyectos dirigidos a promover las exportaciones de recursos naturales y poblaciones rurales. Diferentes metodologias y literaturas fueron exploradas, haciendo el alcance del trabajo aqui presentado bastante amplio y transdisciplinario entre economia, ecologia y sociologia. Algunas veces, la transdisciplinaridad puede ser lograda a expensas de profundidad y rigurosidad, desde el punto de vista de un especialista. Sin embargo, uno de los objetivos del doctorado en ciencias ambientales es lograr que surjan sinergias fructiferas cuando distintas disciplinas coinciden alrededor de temas ambientales. Este tambien fue una de mis principales motivaciones. El primer articulo, Globalisation and Poverty-an Ecological Perspective, es el mas politico de los articulos aqui compilados. Este puede ser visto como una introduccion general y un resumen del marco que hemos adoptado para estudiar las relaciones ambientales y economicas Norte-Sur. Este articulo fue publicado por la fundacion Heinrich Boell. El siguiente articulo, Trade and the Environment: From a Southern Perspective, publicado en Ecological Economics, hace una revision de la literatura economica sobre la relacion entre comercio y medio ambiente, y propone una vision alternativa sobre el tema, mostrando al mismo tiempo alguna evidencia empirica relevante. En contra de la vision ortodoxa de que el comercio es bueno para el crecimiento economico y este ultimo es bueno para el medio ambiente, se argumenta que los paises especializados en la produccion de recursos naturales pueden quedar atrapados en trampas de pobreza y degradacion ambiental, lo que produciria una polarizacion internacional de la renta y las condiciones ambientales. El tercer articulo, South-North material flows: history and environmental repercussions, fue publicado en Innovation. Aqui se reportan series de tiempo para las importaciones de recursos no renovables provenientes desde los paises en desarrollo hacia los paises desarrollados. Tambien se introduce el concepto de desplazamiento internacional de cargas ambientales y se discute su importancia para el debate sobre la relacion entre ingreso y calidad ambiental (curva ambiental de Kuznets). Luego, el articulo titulado Embodied Pollution in Trade: Estimating the Environmental Load Displacement of Industrialised Countries (aceptado en Ecological Economics) ahonda en la idea de desplazamiento de cargas ambientales, calculando las emisiones contenidas en el comercio de Japon, Estados Unidos y Europa. El siguiente articulo, International Capital vs. Local Population: The Environmental Conflict of the Tambogrande Mining Project, Peru, adopta escalas de analisis y metodologias totalmente diferentes. Aqui se describe con detalle un conflicto ambiental entre una empresa transnacional minera de Canada y una poblacion en el norte del Peru, desde un enfoque sociologico y enmarcandolo en la discusion general sobre la naturaleza de los movimientos ambientales perifericos y el rol de los expertos en la toma de decisiones en situaciones de incertidumbre. El ultimo articulo de esta compilacion, Ecological Thresholds: A Survey, publicado tambien en Ecological Economics, no trata directamente el tema de comercio. Este articulo es una revision de la literatura ecologica sobre discontinuidades ambientales. Este tema esta relacionado con la validez de la hipotesis de una relacion positiva entre ingreso y calidad ambiental. Aqui se muestra que las discontinuidades ecologicas son comunes en los sistemas ecologicos y que esto arroja dudas sobre la validez de los supuestos de la curva ambiental de Kuznets, particularmente sobre la reversibilidad del cambio ambiental. This doctoral thesis does not follow a traditional structure. It is rather a compendium of independent articles, some of them already published. The papers are not presented in a chronological order, neither have to be read in the order of arrangement. Since each article can be read independently and has its own introduction and discussion, the general introduction and discussion sections will be very short, intending not to be redundant. Most of the papers deal with a common general theme: the relationship between trade and the environment. This subject is tackled from a political ecology and material perspective, making emphasis on North-South relations. Different standpoints and scales were adopted, going from the general discussion about the effects of globalisation in countries specialised natural resources to the very local analysis of environmental conflicts between outward-oriented development projects and local populations. Different methodologies and literatures were explored, making the scope of the whole work here presented very broad and trans-disciplinary between economics, ecology and sociology. Sometimes, trans-disciplinarity can be reached at the expense of in-depth analysis and rigour, from the point of view of a specialist. However, one of the aims of the doctoral program in ecological economics was to get fruitful synergies arising when different disciplines meet around environmental issues. This was also one of my main motivations. The first article, Globalisation and Poverty-an Ecological Perspective, is the more political of the papers here compiled. It can be seen as a general introduction to and summary of the framework we have adopted to deal with North-South environmental and economic relations. This paper is going to be published by the Heinrich Boell Foundation. The following article, Trade and the Environment: From a Southern Perspective - published in Ecological Economics- reviews the economic literature about the relationship between trade and the environment, and proposes an alternative vision on the issue, showing some statistical data to support it. Against the orthodox view that trade is good for economic growth, and economic growth is good for the environment (through the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis), this article describes two different ecological economics approaches (North and South) to the debate on trade and the environment. It also suggests some general policy options for developing countries specialised in natural resources exports. The third paper, South-North material flows: history and environmental repercussions, was published in Innovation. It reports time-series of Northern non-renewable imports from developing countries, introduces the idea of environmental load displacement and discusses its implications for the EKC hypothesis. The paper entitled Embodied Pollution in Trade: Estimating the Environmental Load Displacement of Industrialised Countries (accepted in Ecological Economics) goes further on the idea of environmental load displacement, calculating entailed pollution in material flows for different economic sectors in Europe, US and Japan. Later, the article International Capital vs. Local Population: The Environmental Conflict of the Tambogrande Mining Project, Peru adopts a totally different scale of analysis and methodology. It describes with detail an environmental conflict between a transnational mining corporation and a rural population in northern Peru, from a sociological point of view, and framing it on the general discussion over the nature of peripheral environmental movements and the role of experts and social relations in environmental decision-making and governance. The final paper of this compilation, Ecological Thresholds: A Survey - published also in Ecological Economics- does not address the topic of trade. It is a review of the ecological literature dealing with environmental discontinuities. However, it is related to the discussion about the validity of the EKC hypothesis. The EKC hypothesis rests on the assumption that environmental changes are reversible and continuous. The latter paper shows that ecological discontinuities are common in ecological systems as the consequence of human intervention. Therefore, some of the key assumptions of the EKC have to be revised.

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