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Environment and development in the caribbean: Geographical perspectives
Book
wider environment’ (p. 230). Few readers will have any problem with that. The difficulty comes in trying to understand quite how to do it. Abbott’s approach seems sensible but exceptionally expensive and time consuming. By the time all the stages of his ‘multi-level, multiobjective intervention strategy’ have been satisfied, everyone is likely to be exhausted. The author admits that there is no ‘single universally applicable form of community participation’ and that there are cases when ‘community empowerment’ is needed more than ‘negotiated development’. The latter may help resolve problems when misunderstanding is the root of a dispute and when a genuine area of mutual benefit can be identified, but I am not convinced that it will help greatly when there is a deep level of distrust between the actors and when fundamentally different interests are involved. Since the author is South African, and many of the examples are drawn from that country, it is perhaps surprising that he is so optimistic that ‘conflict resolution’ is usually possible. Surely it was not possible during the depths of apartheid; surely it was not during the darkest days of South American dictatorship? Most of the book is devoted to establishing a theoretical framework which the author believes sustains his conclusion. Sprinkled throughout are a series of case studies, showing what went right or wrong in particular instances. Unfortunately, these examples are described rather too concisely and the reader will have difficulty in understanding properly what happened in each case. That is classically demonstrated in the discussion of PLANACT, a South African NC0 which played an important role in advising African communities in the Transvaal in the 1980s but ultimately failed to establish a niche for itself in the post-apartheid period. Many reorganizations of the cooperative are summarized but no personalities are mentioned: the whole experience is described without the presence of people. Arguably, this is a recurrent weakness throughout the book. Successes and failures in community projects are often due to the work of individuals. Abbott is wholly correct in ascribing many failings to the wider environment but I cannot help feeling that the book attributes too little to individual human agency. The absence of personalities also means that the
reviews
case studies do not really come alive. This is a pity, because given the extensive experience of the author in South Africa during an extremely difficult period for community participation he has a great deal to tell us. Alan Gilbert Department of Geography, University College London
Environment and Development in the Caribbean: Geographical Perspectives D. Barker and D. F. M. McGregor The Press, University of the West Indies, Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobugo (1995) 304 pp. E8.50 paperback The editors, contributors and publishers of this volume, which explicitly focuses on issues relating to the environment-development interface, are to be congratulated on producing a timely set of readings on matters of pressing contemporary salience to the Caribbean region. The 17 chapters derive from papers which were presented at the first British-Caribbean Geography seminar, held at the Mona, Jamaica Campus of the University of the West Indies, in August 1992. The gathering was sponsored by the Commonwealth Foundation, the British Council and the Institute of British Geographers. I should stress that I was a participant at the seminar, and as with the session itself, the editors have done a very efficient job in organizing and marshalling the proceedings. My paper, along with a number of others, was published in a special issue of the journal Caribbean Geography (Vol. 3, No. 4, September 1992) which was also edited by Dave Barker and Duncan McGregor. The only material introduced subsequent to the seminar is the opening chapter by the editors, covering environmental risk and environmental change, island environments, and arguing that geography has a key role to play in applied research. This is a well-written account which serves to take the reader forward into the empirically based accounts which follow. The 16 chapters are grouped into sections dealing 83
Book reviews with coastal zone management, tourism, natural hazards and disaster management, and land resources and national parks in Jamaica. There are some very informative policy-orientated accounts, for instance, dealing with the impact of thermal effluent on the southwest coast of Barbados, tourism in St Maarten/St Martin and Bermuda, tropical cyclone activity since 1500 and landslide activity in Jamaica, although equally, a few contributions seem rather short and cursory, such as those on sustainable tourism, and wetlands in the eastern Caribbean. The majority of chapters are general and PanCaribbean in remit, although five focus attention on Jamaica. The only other territory to have more than one chapter devoted to it is Barbados, whilst Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Eastern Caribbean, St Martin, the US Virgin Islands and Guyana provide the focus elsewhere. The publishers have produced an attractive and very reasonably priced volume, features that are not always characteristic of Caribbeanorientated books. The editors are to be congratulated on bringing together an up-to-date, policyorientated set of essays. (Indeed it is indelicate of me to observe that thankfully the contents are far more up to date than the photograph of one of the editors shown on the back cover!) The second seminar has already taken place at Royal Holloway, University of London, in the summer of 1996, and I know that the proceedings, almost inevitably dealing with issues of sustainability, are currently being prepared for publication. Robert B. Potter Department
of Geography, Rojlal Holloway2 University of London
International Trade and the Montreal Protocol D. Brack Royal Institute of International Affairs and Earthscan, London (I 996) 118 pp. gl2.95 paperback The relationship between trade and environmental protection is deeply contested. Some argue that trade liberalization generates the economic growth needed for investment in environmental 84
protection, helps to diffuse environmentally benign technologies and promotes more efficient use of scarce resources. However, there is a widespread acceptance that some restriction of trade is necessary to protect the environment, particularly when environmental externalities are not incorporated into the price of economic goods and services. The question is where and how far to apply such controls. The long running ‘Tuna-Dolphin’ dispute between the USA and Mexico starkly revealed the legal and political problems of unilateral action. As Duncan Brack explains in this short but highly informative book in the Earthscan/Royal Institute of International Affairs (RNA) series, multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) are one of the major mechanisms for reconciling the need for environmental protection with the principle of free trade as defined by the General Agreement of Trade and Tariffs (GATT). He explores their principal strengths and weakness using a case study of the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. The Montreal Protocol is commonly but sometimes uncritically held up as a shining example of successful multilateral environmental diplomacy, and a possible model of how to incorporate environmental controls into the international trade system. Brack confirms the political claims that the trade-related provisions of the Protocol were vital in building support for the agreement, whose aim is the successful phase-out of ozone depleting substances such as CFCs and HCFCs, and discouraging potential free riders. After a brief resume of the characteristics of the ozone problem and the negotiation and internal architecture of the Protocol, he carefully guides the reader through the complicated relationship between the trade-related provisions of the agreement and the GATT, explaining how new problems, such as black-market CFCs from the former Soviet Union and the need for developing country participation and support, have arisen and been addressed by participants. The section on Russian non-compliance and illegal imports to the USA covers much new ground and inevitably generated interest in the media when the book was first published. In spite of the undoubted success of the ozone regime, Brack is quick to point out that it
wider environment’ (p. 230). Few readers will have any problem with that. The difficulty comes in trying to understand quite how to do it. Abbott’s approach seems sensible but exceptionally expensive and time consuming. By the time all the stages of his ‘multi-level, multiobjective intervention strategy’ have been satisfied, everyone is likely to be exhausted. The author admits that there is no ‘single universally applicable form of community participation’ and that there are cases when ‘community empowerment’ is needed more than ‘negotiated development’. The latter may help resolve problems when misunderstanding is the root of a dispute and when a genuine area of mutual benefit can be identified, but I am not convinced that it will help greatly when there is a deep level of distrust between the actors and when fundamentally different interests are involved. Since the author is South African, and many of the examples are drawn from that country, it is perhaps surprising that he is so optimistic that ‘conflict resolution’ is usually possible. Surely it was not possible during the depths of apartheid; surely it was not during the darkest days of South American dictatorship? Most of the book is devoted to establishing a theoretical framework which the author believes sustains his conclusion. Sprinkled throughout are a series of case studies, showing what went right or wrong in particular instances. Unfortunately, these examples are described rather too concisely and the reader will have difficulty in understanding properly what happened in each case. That is classically demonstrated in the discussion of PLANACT, a South African NC0 which played an important role in advising African communities in the Transvaal in the 1980s but ultimately failed to establish a niche for itself in the post-apartheid period. Many reorganizations of the cooperative are summarized but no personalities are mentioned: the whole experience is described without the presence of people. Arguably, this is a recurrent weakness throughout the book. Successes and failures in community projects are often due to the work of individuals. Abbott is wholly correct in ascribing many failings to the wider environment but I cannot help feeling that the book attributes too little to individual human agency. The absence of personalities also means that the
reviews
case studies do not really come alive. This is a pity, because given the extensive experience of the author in South Africa during an extremely difficult period for community participation he has a great deal to tell us. Alan Gilbert Department of Geography, University College London
Environment and Development in the Caribbean: Geographical Perspectives D. Barker and D. F. M. McGregor The Press, University of the West Indies, Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobugo (1995) 304 pp. E8.50 paperback The editors, contributors and publishers of this volume, which explicitly focuses on issues relating to the environment-development interface, are to be congratulated on producing a timely set of readings on matters of pressing contemporary salience to the Caribbean region. The 17 chapters derive from papers which were presented at the first British-Caribbean Geography seminar, held at the Mona, Jamaica Campus of the University of the West Indies, in August 1992. The gathering was sponsored by the Commonwealth Foundation, the British Council and the Institute of British Geographers. I should stress that I was a participant at the seminar, and as with the session itself, the editors have done a very efficient job in organizing and marshalling the proceedings. My paper, along with a number of others, was published in a special issue of the journal Caribbean Geography (Vol. 3, No. 4, September 1992) which was also edited by Dave Barker and Duncan McGregor. The only material introduced subsequent to the seminar is the opening chapter by the editors, covering environmental risk and environmental change, island environments, and arguing that geography has a key role to play in applied research. This is a well-written account which serves to take the reader forward into the empirically based accounts which follow. The 16 chapters are grouped into sections dealing 83
Book reviews with coastal zone management, tourism, natural hazards and disaster management, and land resources and national parks in Jamaica. There are some very informative policy-orientated accounts, for instance, dealing with the impact of thermal effluent on the southwest coast of Barbados, tourism in St Maarten/St Martin and Bermuda, tropical cyclone activity since 1500 and landslide activity in Jamaica, although equally, a few contributions seem rather short and cursory, such as those on sustainable tourism, and wetlands in the eastern Caribbean. The majority of chapters are general and PanCaribbean in remit, although five focus attention on Jamaica. The only other territory to have more than one chapter devoted to it is Barbados, whilst Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Eastern Caribbean, St Martin, the US Virgin Islands and Guyana provide the focus elsewhere. The publishers have produced an attractive and very reasonably priced volume, features that are not always characteristic of Caribbeanorientated books. The editors are to be congratulated on bringing together an up-to-date, policyorientated set of essays. (Indeed it is indelicate of me to observe that thankfully the contents are far more up to date than the photograph of one of the editors shown on the back cover!) The second seminar has already taken place at Royal Holloway, University of London, in the summer of 1996, and I know that the proceedings, almost inevitably dealing with issues of sustainability, are currently being prepared for publication. Robert B. Potter Department
of Geography, Rojlal Holloway2 University of London
International Trade and the Montreal Protocol D. Brack Royal Institute of International Affairs and Earthscan, London (I 996) 118 pp. gl2.95 paperback The relationship between trade and environmental protection is deeply contested. Some argue that trade liberalization generates the economic growth needed for investment in environmental 84
protection, helps to diffuse environmentally benign technologies and promotes more efficient use of scarce resources. However, there is a widespread acceptance that some restriction of trade is necessary to protect the environment, particularly when environmental externalities are not incorporated into the price of economic goods and services. The question is where and how far to apply such controls. The long running ‘Tuna-Dolphin’ dispute between the USA and Mexico starkly revealed the legal and political problems of unilateral action. As Duncan Brack explains in this short but highly informative book in the Earthscan/Royal Institute of International Affairs (RNA) series, multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) are one of the major mechanisms for reconciling the need for environmental protection with the principle of free trade as defined by the General Agreement of Trade and Tariffs (GATT). He explores their principal strengths and weakness using a case study of the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. The Montreal Protocol is commonly but sometimes uncritically held up as a shining example of successful multilateral environmental diplomacy, and a possible model of how to incorporate environmental controls into the international trade system. Brack confirms the political claims that the trade-related provisions of the Protocol were vital in building support for the agreement, whose aim is the successful phase-out of ozone depleting substances such as CFCs and HCFCs, and discouraging potential free riders. After a brief resume of the characteristics of the ozone problem and the negotiation and internal architecture of the Protocol, he carefully guides the reader through the complicated relationship between the trade-related provisions of the agreement and the GATT, explaining how new problems, such as black-market CFCs from the former Soviet Union and the need for developing country participation and support, have arisen and been addressed by participants. The section on Russian non-compliance and illegal imports to the USA covers much new ground and inevitably generated interest in the media when the book was first published. In spite of the undoubted success of the ozone regime, Brack is quick to point out that it