Contents
The Role of the Environment in
Caribbean Economic Development
Elizabeth Thomas-Hope
Ph.D., University of West Indies. Head, Department of Geography and Geology, University of
West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica.
Summary
Environmental factors figure prominently in the economic development of Caribbean states.
Almost 400 years of European hegemony set the pattern of exploitative relations, with sugar cane
production being the dominant activity. The 20th century saw the gradual contraction of sugar,
leaving behind a region environmentally degraded and with poor economies. Marginal peasant
farming practices led to further deforestation, depletion of soil fertility and erosion. While Haiti
represents the worst example, all Caribbean eco-systems declined markedly in both the quality
and variety of life they support. Natural disasters have also played their part in the on-going
process of environmental change.
In the latter half of the 20th century the region has harnessed new environmental resources with
diversified crop production, minerals like bauxite and oil, and the exploitation of coastal amenities
for tourism. The types of resources that have been used as the basis of the respective economies have
played a significant part in explaining the pattern of their economic growth. In all cases the
management of those resources have been critical in determining the level at which growth has
been sustained and consequently, the absolute and relative economic performance of each country
in the region at the end of the 20th century.
I. INTRODUCTION
The role of environmental factors in human behaviour is usually one of providing
the conditions within which livelihood strategies are developed and managed. The conditions
either facilitate or constrain various economic activities and operate in a complex, multidirectional relationship of cause and effect. Resource exploitation subsequently impacts upon
and changes the environment in various ways and unless the process is carefully managed,
the effect is cumulative and invariably irreversible. In such a situation the economic opportunities
are reduced and could even be lost altogether.
This paper briefly examines the state of the Caribbean environment at the turn
of the twentieth century, accounting for its state at that time by the impact of the exploitation
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that had already occurred in the preceding centuries of European colonization, largely driven
by forces external to the region. The environment as a resource in the first part of the
century was almost entirely associated with climatic factors and land. These provided the
ideal conditions for the production of sugar on an extensive scale throughout the Caribbean
from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. After 1960, when external economic
demands and technologies had changed, new industries, particularly associated with mining
and tourism, emerged and once more the economic activities that developed brought about
further massive environmental change.
The environment provides the structures from, and within, which resources are
developed and these facilitate and condition the options available for the use of specific
attributes of the environment as a resource. But the environment is also associated with
events that become hazards in relation to economic and other human activities. The risk of
hazard is enhanced by the disturbance and degradation of ecosystems that have already
occurred, invariably on account of economic and other livelihood activities. Further, the
disasters with which hazards are associated are only relative to the vulnerability of people
and economies to their effects.
Thus, the relationship between the environment and economic performance is a
critical one, but it is neither deterministic nor absolute. It is relative to the scale and nature
of production, the technologies and practices employed as well as the restorative potential
of the ecosystems involved (Thomas-Hope [2001] pp. 1-11). The pattern of environmental
resource exploitation and its implications for environmental degradation, together with an
overview of the hazards that affect the area are discussed and their contribution to an
explanation of the current variations in economic performance of Caribbean states evaluated.
The relationship between environment and economic activities are reviewed from the
beginning of the century to 1960 as the critical turning point, then from 1960 to the end of
the century. The disparities in economic levels within the region are further assessed in
relation to a selection of environmental indicators of those economic activities.
II. THE CARIBBEAN ECONOMY AND ENVIRONMENT AT THE BEGINNING
OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
THE LEGACY INHERITED
The state of the environment at the turn of the century represented the legacy of
the preceding four hundred years of European colonization of the region. The environment
as resource base had permitted those economic activities that were driven by the ambition
of the commercial interests in Europe to produce tropical goods for the return of surplus to
the metropoles. The system and pattern of resource exploitation brought about various
environmental changes and to different degrees throughout the region, but in all cases the
changes that took place were irreversible.
The role of the environment in the economy was principally one of providing
the resource base that influenced the production options. The climate, topography and
soils of the Caribbean had provided the ideal conditions for sugar cane cultivation. This
conditioned the pattern of sugar production that occurred throughout the region from
the mid-seventeenth century in response to opportunities of the market, the availability
of capital for investment and labour for working the plantations. When the market was
favourable, sugar production was extended into the less desirable drier areas and higher
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slopes; when the price of sugar in the world market fell, sugar contracted to the flat,
alluvial lands once more.
While the alluvial plains and sedimentary formations provided the right conditions
for sugar cane, the higher altitudes of the uplands and volcanic ranges provided the ideal
conditions of temperature and drainage for coffee and cacao production. In addition, the
new type of peasant that emerged after emancipation (or revolution in the case of Haiti)
had started cultivation in the hill lands wherever possible, by the clearing of virgin forest or
cultivating abandoned estates. In Jamaica, for example, by 1833, 2,114 persons already
owned holdings of under 40 acres; by 1845 the number who had owned plots under 10acres had increased to 1997 (Eisner [1961]). These small farmers were producing food
crops for subsistence and the local market as well as crops for export, including coffee,
arrowroot, logwood, coconuts, honey, pimento, ginger.
By 1900, there had been a further rapid increase in peasant cultivation with
some squatting on Crown land. The amount of land worked by individual peasants had
also increased, and 39 per cent of the Jamaican small farmers in 1890 owned plots of
between 5 and 50 acres. Haiti was still the main peasant farmer dominated country in the
region at the beginning of the twentieth century. On both the plantations and the peasant
lands, the methods of production practiced by the Indians who had occupied the region
prior to European colonization, had been completely replaced by the new forms, neither
of which were appropriate for the sustainability of the environment with production for
growing populations.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES AND THE ECONOMY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE
TWENTIETH CENTURY
The impact of agricultural production on the environment was due primarily to
the type of crops grown, the nature of the plantation and the estate-based export oriented
system. There were also important impacts associated with plantation production based on
the scale and expansiveness of a single crop and the clearing of forest on flat and steep
lands regardless of aspect and slope. Other environmentally imprudent practices included
the exploitative use of wood for steam to provide power for the sugar mills and other
operations, the practice of usage and abandonment of land with no restorative methods
employed. Mono-cropping and the attendant biodiversity loss affected Caribbean islands
particularly through the losses of endemic species and the exposure that led to the growth
of pest populations. In combination, these factors produced an agricultural production system
that was totally and intrinsically exploitative, with few, if any, conservation methods or
precautionary constraints.
The role of sugar production in environmental change was the most extensive
on account of the overriding dominance of this mono-culture in most territories at some
time during the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. In addition, peasant farming
introduced new problems as the mountainous interiors not hitherto under cultivation were
cleared. Therefore, the resource base was progressively eroded by the production systems
that had and, in many islands, still prevailed, largely initiated by the extensive deforestation
that had accompanied centuries of plantation production. As a consequence, by the
beginning of the 20th century, ecosystems had already been fundamentally changed from
their state prior to European colonization and in many cases, the environmental stock (in
terms of land) was severely degraded.
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ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES AND ECONOMY: 1900 TO MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY
The earlier system of resource exploitation for estate and small farm agricultural
production continued in the twentieth century. The distribution and relative proportions of
these various production methods within the Caribbean changed, especially characterized
by the contraction of sugar in some parts of the region and expansion in others.
The contraction of sugar in much of the former major producing territories in the
second half of the nineteenth century left much of the region strewn with abandoned
estates. Yet, in other parts of the region production was greatly expanding. Whether in
periods of sugar expansion or contraction, the environmental impact was enormous. For in
the process of expansion, the land was totally cleared of its virgin forest cover and habitats
irreversibly changed, whereas following the contraction of cane growing, plantations were
abandoned and lands colonized by secondary forest, bush and scrub. In the early decades
of the twentieth century, contraction of sugar production largely took place in the Windward
and Leeward Islands. Indeed, cane production ceased completely in Grenada and almost so
in Dominica, Montserrat and Nevis. At the same time, expansion was taking place notably
in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and, most of all, Cuba.
The case of Cuba exemplifies the pattern of sugar expansion in the twentieth
century. In 1900, when the market demand for sugar in Europe and North America was
high, Cuba still had vast areas of virgin land, which were cleared of forest and became ideal
for cane production. Watts commented on the many similarities in the expansion of cane in
Cuba in the 1950s to those experienced in Barbados in the second half of the seventeenth
century (Watts [1987]). Cuban sugar production had been already highly centralized and the
Constancia Central had become the largest sugar factory in the world (producing as much as
the whole of Jamaica at that time). Even at the beginning of the twentieth century Cuba
was producing 30 per cent of the world's sugar and 75 per cent of the Caribbean total.
The profit-oriented, export-oriented vast estates (latifundia) had provided Cuba
with an efficient and powerful system of cane production. However, it brought in its train
not only the seeds of future social inequities leading to the 1959 revolution that was to have
major implications for the future of the society and economy, but also for future environmental
degradation. It reflected the enormity of the ecosystem change that was associated with
the clearing of tropical forest lands for sugar.
In the case of Trinidad, despite a low labour force initially, the presence of extensive
areas of suitable virgin clay land, mainly in the western lowlands, was the factor that facilitated
sugar production (made possible by significant immigration of Indian contract labour). In
Barbados, sugar remained important on account of three main factors: a favourable labour
supply; an expansion in the amount of land placed under commercial cultivation; and
increased use of fertilizer to restore or maintain soil fertility.
In the first years of post-emancipation Jamaica most estates had contracted due
to the shortages of labour. It was recorded that of 670 estates at the time of emancipation
(1834), only 146 remained by 1896 (Eisner [1961]). Many of the first estates abandoned
were in the drier parts of the island or in upland locations. By the beginning of the twentieth
century sugar represented only 18 per cent of the island's exports.
The other side of the picture was one of contraction of sugar in most of the British
Windward and Leeward Islands, although in Antigua an initial period of estate abandonment
was followed by renewed production through the greater use of fertilizer. In general, the
small islands were vulnerable to post-emancipation pressures of labour and sugar prices.
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A secondary environmental aspect of sugar production was the depletion of forests
for fuel to produce steam power for the mills. Water and wind power initially provided the
source of energy for the sugar mills chiefly through the use of water wheels and windmills,
but by the twentieth century there was greater reliance on steam power generated by
burning wood. In Antigua, while most mills were run by wind even in the twentieth century,
some were powered by wood-burning steam engines. In St. Kitts after the 1880s most mills
converted to steam power and only 1 out of 52 mills was not using steam by the beginning
of the twentieth century (Watts [1987]). In Nevis also, most of the mills were steam powered
by the end of the century, though water-powered mills were typical in the rest of the
Windwards until the end of the century.
Subsidiary crops grown in various parts of the region were chiefly cacao, coffee,
ginger, indigo, pimento, arrowroot, nutmegs, rice and bananas. Cacao was grown in St.
Vincent and Jamaica, but chiefly in Grenada and Trinidad, on estates as well as on peasant
farms. In either case it was cultivated on hill slopes and therefore was not in competition for
land with cane.
Coffee, likewise, was cultivated on upland, and high mountain slopes. In Jamaica,
after a period of extensive production between 1832 and 1847, a large number of coffee
properties were abandoned and exports fell by one-third (Ibid.). Abandoned steep slopes
were left exposed to the effects of the weather and as a consequence became severely
eroded. In Dominica in the late nineteenth century, coffee was a major export crop accounting
for 32 per cent of the island's exports. In Puerto Rico, the crop was second to cane and the
main small-farmer crop until 1899 when most of the trees were destroyed by a hurricane.
In Cuba coffee had also been very important in the early nineteenth century (with 2,067
coffee haciendas in 1827), but labour and market prices reduced production and all but a
few had been abandoned by the end of the century, again leaving steep slopes that became
deeply eroded.
The abandonment of coffee estates on hill slopes due to erosion occurred in the
Leewards and Jamaica with the areas left bare and rapidly eroded or at least partially colonized
by secondary growth of bush. Deep erosion scars had already developed in Trinidad by the
1820s (Newson [1976]) and also in much of eastern and central Jamaica (Higman [1976]).
Coffee had a similar impact in Haiti, which effectively led to "the total decline of many of
the irrigation channels on former estate land, which had survived the revolution, and in so
doing helped indirectly to create the massive hill-land erosional forms which are present
there today" (Watts [1987] p. 512).
Cotton had been produced to varying extent in most Caribbean countries at
some time between 1833 and 1900, after which it became unprofitable due to competition
from US cotton. Unfortunately, wherever and whenever cotton was planted, severe sheet
erosion from the occasional storm or heavy rains would take place. Virtually all the topsoil
of Nevis and Montserrat was eroded as a consequence of cotton production.
Ginger was grown by small farmers in Jamaica, Nevis and Barbados but this crop
exhausted the soil severely. The fertility depletion that occurred as a consequence of growing
ginger required farmers to bring new land under cultivation every three years and this
typically left slopes denuded of soil or with soil of greatly diminished quality.
Banana was introduced as an export crop that became very important as sugar
receded in the British islands by the twentieth century. Although this was in most cases a
crop grown on the plains, the banana plant has poor soil binding qualities and the practice
of clean weeding that was typical of banana production led to much erosion. In Jamaica and
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the Windward Islands, it was invariably grown on slopes that became easily eroded. Further,
although bananas were initially grown on former sugar estate land, by 1901 production
had increased greatly and they were now grown on virgin land as well.
Peasant farming also contributed significantly to soil erosion and loss of soil fertility
partly on account of some of the crops grown as already indicated -for example, coffee and
ginger and also because of the practice of slash and burn/swidden agriculture. Although
leaving land fallow has its restorative qualities, it is also true that some land is left exposed
to erosion in times of heavy rain. Haiti represents the most stark of Caribbean cases in this
regard. The conditions of tenure also contribute considerably to the outcome of peasant
farming in terms of environmental impact. Where land is leased or squatted upon, the
degradation is very much worse than on land that is owned.
Some Caribbean territories were still covered by extensive forests at the
beginning of the century, notably Puerto Rico. In other territories, as for example, Antigua,
lands were severely eroded and under a process of vegetative colonization. Many weeds
had invaded and become pests, (for example, nut grass: Cyperus rotundus and Devil's
grass: Cynodon dactylon) becoming the most common weeds of the twentieth century
(Watts [1987]). The invasion of small animals took place as a result of habitat changes,
many later became agricultural pests (such as the agoutis in the Cayman Islands and the
green monkeys in Barbados).
Many island ecosystems were continuing to decline in quality and in the variety
of life they supported. "The old clash between the demands of economic well-being, and
environmental well-being, expressed so clearly and in such different ways throughout
the region's history, was emerging and becoming critical again, especially in the smaller
islands: and this was to be much more directly expressed in the century that was to follow"
(Ibid., p. 517).
THE IMPACT OF THE USE OF ENVIRONMENT AS RESOURCE
As cultivation had increased, so too had environmental degradation. At times
the scale of change or actual degradation had been vast as occurred through the clearing
of forest in Cuba in the first three decades of the century. In Oriente Province, Cuba, and in
much of lowland Puerto Rico that had previously been spared, vast expanses of forest were
cleared with enormous impact on habitat change. Severe soil erosion occurred. In Haiti,
ignorance of the factors leading to erosion (93-94 per cent of the population were illiterate)
led to badland dissection forms, a situation that occurred also in the Morant and Yallahs
valleys of Jamaica. Complex erosional features occurred including extensive gullying on
deeply weathered slopes in the central highlands of Puerto Rico (Cordillera Central) and in
Montserrat the cultivation of cotton stripped most of the top soil that still remained at the
beginning of the twentieth century. In the Scotland District of Barbados, sheep rearing too
had caused extensive erosion.
Few attempts to preserve soil quality were made until recently. The exception
was that of St. Vincent, where terracing was introduced for arrowroot and other crops.
Land rehabilitation programmes were also implemented in the Scotland District of Barbados
and in the Yallahs and Christiana areas of Jamaica. Some re-afforestation was undertaken
in Jamaica as a corrective of past erosion.
The irony of the situation was that despite sugar production, the economies did
not sustain growth and because of sugar and most of the other export crops of secondary
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importance, the environment was irrevocably altered and to a large extent degraded. By
mid-century, oil refining in the Netherlands Antilles, Trinidad and the US Virgin Islands had
started to give these islands an economic advantage over those that were still totally
dependent on agriculture.
THE IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS (1900-1960)
The region suffered from the repeated occurrence of the major hazards, hurricanes,
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In addition the region was affected by landslides, mudslides, flooding and drought. They all have had an impact, sometimes a major impact on
the economy and also on the nature of environmental change. But some of these hazards
have been caused, or their effects exacerbated, by the degradation of the environment in
the first place, thus establishing a cycle of cause and effect. This was particularly the case
with respect to the loss of forest cover and the attendant soil exposure.
At the turn of the century, Puerto Rico was still recovering from what was described
as the "enormous damage" caused in a hurricane in 1899. St. Vincent also had sustained
some damage from a hurricane the previous year. Puerto Rico then sustained damage from
two more hurricanes in 1918 and 1928. Between 1900 and 1960, Haiti experienced four
severe hurricanes (1909, 1915,1935, 1946). Over the same period Jamaica was hit by
three (1912, 1946, 1951) as was Cuba (1926, 1932, 1946) and the Dominican Republic by
two (1930, 1946) (Collymore [1993]).
The mainland countries of Belize, Guyana and Suriname were not in the usual
hurricane path, and the islands of the Eastern Caribbean were hardly affected by hurricanes
in the first half of the century. The exceptions were one each in Trinidad and Tobago (1946),
St. Vincent and Barbados (1955). The Bahamas, in the north was also affected by the hurricane
of 1946 (Ibid.). Overall, in the period 1910-1930, there were, on average, 3.5 North Atlantic
hurricanes per year, the frequency increasing to 6.0 per year between 1944 and 1960.
Although full data on the impact of disasters do not exist, there is sufficient information to
know that the economic costs were high, in addition to the disruption caused, and the
range of problems involved in recovery. Further, countries that did not actually experience
the hurricanes but were in close proximity to them, were usually affected by high winds
and heavy rains, causing flooding, landslides and mud-slides, all of which were associated
with varying degrees of human, economic and environmental damage or devastation.
Volcanic eruptions leading to major disaster occurred in St. Vincent and Martinique
in 1902. There was considerable damage sustained by the sugar industry amounting in the
case of St. Vincent to an economic cost equivalent to $2,000 million (at currency value for
the year 2000) (University of West Indies [2001]). In the case of Martinique, there were over
30,000 deaths and a cost estimated roughly at $1,000 million at current prices. Earthquakes
had caused destruction in many parts of the region, throughout the preceding centuries
(recorded since 1691), in which entire towns were destroyed (Collymore [1993]).
The reporting of earthquakes was done where there were major losses of life
and buildings. They were, therefore, in the territories where most urban development
had occurred, which was in the Greater Antilles and Martinique and Guadeloupe. There
were at least nine towns or cities destroyed as a result of earthquakes between the time
of European colonization and 1900. In the first half of the twentieth century a further
three devastating earthquakes occurred, in Jamaica (1907), Puerto Rico (1918) and the
Dominican Republic (1946). Other less notable events occurred that caused damage also,
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such as in St. Lucia (1906) and Trinidad (1918), when most masonry buildings in Port of
Spain were destroyed.
The data on the full impact of hazards on the economy are insufficient to quantify
the total cost and the opportunities that may have been foregone. Nevertheless, they do
provide enough information to show that in those Caribbean countries where environmental
disasters have been most frequent and/or intense, the impact upon economic levels has
been long lasting and direct and indirect effects on subsequent economic performance has
been profound.
III. THE ENVIRONMENT AND ECONOMY IN THE SECOND PART OF THE CENTURY
(1960-1999)
In the middle of the twentieth century (1950-1960) export-oriented agriculture
remained the main economic base throughout the region with a few exceptions. These
included Cayman, where the economy was still largely based on turtle products, Belize,
where forestry was the most important economic activity, and the Netherlands Antilles,
where oil refining was paramount in the economy. The variations in economic levels between
Caribbean territories at that time were still (with the exception of oil) based chiefly on the
differential fortunes of commercial agriculture (for export) and, in particular, sugar. In
addition, production continued variously throughout the region in all the traditional secondary
export crops, such as coffee, cacao, bananas, ginger, arrowroot, nutmeg and others.
With a few anomalies, the disparities of wealth within the Caribbean were
relatively minor up to 1960. Thereafter, this situation began to change and major differentials
between the richest and poorest countries in the region were evident by the end of the
twentieth century. In the second half of the century there were two noticeable trends in the
relationship between environment and the economy: one was the harnessing of new
environmental resources, especially minerals and coastal amenities for tourism; the other
was a departure from reliance on environmental resources altogether and the development
of a range of urban, tertiary activities mostly relating to banking and other financial services.
Economic levels in Puerto Rico, the French Antilles and Anguilla remained relatively high
not because of new developments in their economies, but because they continued to be
subsidized by their respective metropolitan centres -the United States, France and Britain.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES
The natural resource stock at mid-century showed agricultural land in the sugar
cane belt and in parts of the upland and mountainous areas extensively deforested and soil
fertility severely impaired. However, there were petroleum reserves yet to be exploited,
bauxite deposits that had only just been explored, and coastal zones in pristine condition as
a resource for tourism.
Despite the broadening of the environmental resource base and the increased
diversification of the economy, the problem was that the methods of production remained
essentially the same. The major activities were export oriented and primary production
dominated the export sector with most of the profit expatriated. This was widened somewhat
in most territories to include the development of a manufacturing industry producing food
and beverage products and timber. Small-farming and artisan fishing continued but the
levels of resource exploitation were great, causing environmental degradation and resource
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depletion in both sectors, but with only limited contribution made by these sectors to
economic development.
Tourism, based on coastal resources, thrived where the coastal zone was comprised
of the white sands of coral derivative that had become the marketing motif for tropical
tourism (as opposed to the black sand of volcanic source). The Bahamas, Cayman, the US
Virgin Islands, Barbados and Antigua utilized their coastal resources for tourism to significant
economic advantage and in each case it remained central to their economies at the end of
the century. Virtually all the island states in the region built up a tourism industry, focusing
upon those coastal locations, even tiny enclaves, within their territories that had beaches of
white sand. In many of the countries tourism became the most important contributor to
gross domestic product (GDP).
It was only in the 1990s that the countries with little or no white sand beaches,
such as the continental states of Belize, Guyana and Suriname and volcanic island states,
notably Dominica and St. Lucia, started to capitalize on the idea of 'eco-tourism' based on
their tropical forest ecosystems. Likewise, a number of other territories began to explore
possibilities of developing various types of eco-tourism and heritage tourism as well. As
yet, these activities have not made any major impact upon their respective economies.
Mineral resources, especially petroleum, were of major importance in the economic
development of Trinidad & Tobago in the second half of the twentieth century, with boom
years from 1973 to 1982. Thereafter, natural gas became increasingly important and
industries were developed in the 1980s to produce petrochemicals ("Trinidad and Tobago",
World Wide Web [2001]).
Bauxite was the mineral on which Jamaica, Guyana, Suriname and Haiti had
placed their hope of sustained economic growth in the second half of the twentieth century.
Bauxite has been principally exported as a primary product with only a small proportion
being processed to the alumina stage. Profits and value added effects have been largely
derived outside of the region (Girvan [1967]). Besides, as reserves of the ore were depleted
at one site, excavation took place in another and in some cases companies moved out of
the country and even out of the region altogether. As a non-renewable mineral resource,
the period of bauxite exploitation is finite and therefore the industry is not sustainable in
the long run. At the end of the century bauxite and alumina remained the basis of the
Suriname economy and a major sector in the Guyanese and Jamaican economies. Yet,
despite the considerable bauxite resources, not only had bauxite ceased to be profitable in
Haiti by the end of the century, but Jamaica, Guyana, Suriname and Haiti were at the
bottom of the Caribbean league in terms of economic levels.
Coastal tourism, more than any other natural resource based industry, had
undoubtedly provided Caribbean countries with the basis for gaining economic advantage
between 1960 and 1999. The question that remains to be addressed is what impact the
resource exploitation of the 1960-1999 period had upon the state of the environment. This
will be an indicator of the sustainability of future economic performance based on the
current environmental resource base.
THE IMPACT OF RESOURCE USE ON THE ENVIRONMENT (1960-1999)
Much land degradation had already taken place by 1960. The general pattern of
deforestation to open up new lands for the production of commercial crops continued in
those territories that were most dependent on the diversification of agriculture. For example,
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in Jamaica there was renewed coffee production in the 1980s for which mountain slopes
were cleared of trees and secondary bush. Coffee production for the export market was
extended on large and small farms alike by the clearing of land, much of which was in
secondary forest. This and poor land management practices increased the vulnerability of
slopes to flooding, erosion and the attendant landslides and mud slides that have become
a major hazard in Jamaica and many other parts of the region. While efforts were made on
the part of the authorities in many parts of the region to encourage land management to
reduce erosion, contouring was only systematically introduced in St. Vincent. Besides, the
use of chemical fertilizers was everywhere promoted to retain soil fertility, while chemical
pesticides also became a necessary consequence of monoculture. Artisan fishers, likewise,
have paid little or no attention to the conservation of marine resources and many areas
have become depleted of fish stocks and are now in serious need of protection.
Of all the natural resource based economic activities of the second half of the
twentieth century, none have caused as much deforestation and land clearance as that of
bauxite in the countries where mining has taken place. Surface mining of the ore made this
major intrusion into the interior limestone uplands of the respective countries an
environmentally destructive accompaniment of the industry. The large open scars that
remained after mining have been largely rehabilitated to pasture land. In those areas where
processing of the ore to alumina has taken place, vast volumes of mud effluent have been
deposited in surrounding land areas. Because of the porous nature of the limestone in
which the bauxite reserves are located, pollution of the underground aquifers has resulted.
In two locations in Jamaica, ponds in excess of 40 hectares of mud have accumulated in
karst limestone synclines. After evidence of caustic and sodium contamination were detected,
the use of non-porous liners at the base of new ponds was implemented, but the impact of
the previous situation to some extent still remained (Thomas-Hope [1996]).
Tourism, like urban developments, has made heavy demands on fresh water
resources and has contributed significantly to the generation of waste. Further, the
predominantly coastal nature of tourism and urban developments in the Caribbean has
invariably involved the clearance of mangrove forests, the filling in of wetlands for building
and recreational facilities, or the creation of other disturbances of coastal ecosystems.
The very environmental conditions that promoted the Caribbean tourist industry
and its image in the first place, namely beaches of limestone and coral sedimentary deposits,
have been the very features that related to the porosity of the rock structures and thus the
absence of surface water. The Bahamas, Cayman, Barbados and Antigua, as well as the
tourism enclaves of islands such as Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and others, are
all now suffering water shortages, in some cases severely so. The demand of water from
underground sources has exceeded the rate of replenishment in some parts of Antigua as a
result of extended periods of drought, thus causing the inflow of salt water from the sea
into aquifers. By the end of the century, some Caribbean tourism locations, notably those
mentioned above, were showing signs of increasing desertification.
The waste generated by the tourist industry as well as by urban and industrial
developments generally, have contributed to land pollution as also to high levels of water
pollution (BOD) of adjacent marine environments. Disturbances of ecosystems, including
the degradation of coral reefs, have resulted. In countries where industrial development
occurred, such as the petrochemical industries in Trinidad, and food and beverage industries
in most territories in the region, situations of serious contamination, of land and water bodies
have occurred (Bekele et al. [1998]).
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ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS (1960-1999)
Hurricanes, volcanoes and earthquakes continued to have a negative impact on
the economy of many territories within the region in the second half of the twentieth century.
Furthermore, their frequency and impact on human life and economic levels has increased.
The larger islands of the northern Caribbean continued to be in the path of most
of the hurricanes. Jamaica was struck twice (1980, 1988), and so were the Dominican
Republic (1979, 1988) and Haiti (1980, 1988), but the spatial extent of the occurrences
had increased to include two in Dominica (1979, 1989) one in St. Lucia and St. Vincent
(1980), Guadeloupe, Montserrat and St. Kitts and Nevis (1989).
The impact of these events has had severe repercussions on the economy in
many direct and indirect ways. Hurricane David struck Dominica in 1979, damaging 50 per
cent of the housing stock, much of which was completely destroyed (ECLAC, Annual Reports).
Schools, the hospital and other public buildings also required re-building or major repairs as
a result of hurricane damage. Agricultural production decreased dramatically in 1979 and
in the following year, and never fully recovered its former levels of production for at least a
decade. Hurricane Gilbert that struck Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Haiti in 1988,
caused damage amounting to some US$1,092 million. The economic recovery time extended
for many years and in all cases progress was impeded by later environmental and other
events. The severe hurricanes of 1995 that struck the US Virgin Islands, and again in 1998,
caused so much damage to the tourism infrastructure that the industry dipped in the following
year and unemployment rose sharply.
To those events were added the volcanic eruptions that occurred in St. Vincent in
1979 and in Montserrat in 1995. The latter demonstrated the irrevocable impact of such
environmental hazards, in some cases causing the downward plunge of the economy that
can last for an indefinite period.
The sudden fall in the GDP of Montserrat following the destruction of the capital,
Plymouth, and much of the rest of the island, and the fact that the environmental resource
base has been so fundamentally changed, means that economic recovery will only occur in
the very long term future. The processes of soil formation from the volcanic material will be
in a time frame well outside that of any economic cycle about which we may make predictions.
Other less dramatic incidents have more localized impacts, such as landslides,
flooding and droughts, but they produce recurrent periods of economic losses that prevent
sustained production levels. The ecosystem degradation and disturbance that they bring
about cause greater vulnerability to hazard, and these in turn lead to further economic
losses in a continuing cycle. This has happened in Haiti and less obviously in other parts
of the region. For example, flooding in Jamaica has become an almost endemic feature of
certain parts of the island. Droughts, such as those affecting St. Vincent in the 1970s and
Antigua in the 1980s, also have a severe impact, especially in economies heavily reliant
on agriculture.
While it may not be true to say that the differential in the incidence and severity
of environmental hazards provide an explanation for the disparities in economic levels within
the region, it cannot be denied that they have had a decisive negative impact on the economy
and even the viability of some territories for an indefinite period of time.
Undoubtedly, the relationship between the environment as a resource on the one
hand and as a source of hazard on the other is a complex one and a critical factor in many
of the negative economic trends in the region.
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IV. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INDICATORS OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVITIES
AND ECONOMIC LEVELS
The environmental indicators of activities to be evaluated for their contribution
to the divergence of economic levels in the Caribbean are as follows:
•
Agricultural production.
•
Arable land - hectares per head of population.
•
Arable land as a percentage of land area.
•
Irrigated land as a percentage of land area.
•
Fertilizer use. (This reflects the extent of chemical applications for the maintenance
of soil fertility).
•
Forest cover reflects the levels of nutrient storage as well as protection of
the land from weathering, thus both chemical change and physical
denudation.
•
Electricity consumption.
•
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission. (This gives an indication of the extent of fossil
fuel used for energy).
•
BOD -a measure of oxygen deficiency. (This is an indicator of biological pollution
of water).
The environmental indicators for the region as a whole were examined to identify
the existence of any regional trends for the period 1960-1998 (Table 1). Indicators of agricultural
activities included: agricultural production; two variables relating to land use, namely arable
land in hectares per person and arable land as a percentage of land area; irrigated land as a
percentage of land area; fertilizer consumption (in metric tons). There were also some data
for forest cover, but only for a limited number of years and for a few countries.
INDICATORS OF AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES
When average figures were computed for all countries for each decade, it was
evident that at the regional level agricultural production increased most between the
1960s and the 1970s and continued to rise steadily to the 1990s. There was an overall
increase in agricultural production over the period for the region as a whole. Although
agricultural production figures increased, the deviation of individual countries from the
regional average decreased, and in the 1990s even the countries with the lowest figures
were producing more than in previous decades. From an environmental perspective, an
important issue is the extent to which the increases in agricultural production could be
accounted for by an increase in land under cultivation or by factors such as an increase in
irrigation or fertilizer consumption.
In examining the increase in land under cultivation, it is evident that arable land,
measured both in terms of hectares per person and as a percentage of land area (see Table
1), declined slightly for the region as a whole over the four decades of the 1960s to the
1990s. This indicated that the increased agricultural production was not due to an increase
in land under cultivation. Percentage of land irrigated could not be evaluated for most
countries because of the absence of data, but on the basis of the statistics that are available
there appears to have been an increase in each decade. It would seem that irrigation may
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have contributed to the rise in agricultural production. An increase in cropland under irrigation
could have had a positive economic effect by increasing agricultural production; but at the
same time it could have had a negative environmental effect. Since the increased irrigation
was not based on an increase in the land under cultivation, it signals the occurrence of a
reduction in the available water for agriculture and suggests the possibility of rising stress
on water resources.
The signs of environmental stress in the agricultural sector were also suggested
by the figures for fertilizer consumption (see Table 1). The substantial increase in fertilizer
consumption in the 1980s reflected the likelihood that losses in soil fertility were being
compensated for in order to maintain and increase agricultural production figures. An
additional factor was the disproportionately high increase in fertilizer use as compared to
the increase in agricultural production and the percentage of arable land. The latter had
even declined over the same decade. There was considerably less fertilizer consumption in
the following decade of the 1990s. An explanation for this could be the declining reliance
on agricultural production in the region overall.
Data for land under forest were also not available for all countries, making
generalizations impossible for the region as a whole. The data that existed showed a stable
situation with regard to forest cover for the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and then an increase
in the 1990s.
INDICATORS OF INDUSTRIAL AND URBAN ACTIVITIES
The next group of environmental indicators reflected the occurrence of rising
industrial and urban activities, indicated by the recorded increases in carbon dioxide (CO 2)
emission, organic water pollutant (BOD) and electricity production (see Table 1). The data
showed that there was an enormous increase in electricity production between the 1960s
and the 1970s, and that thereafter there was a steady rise in each subsequent decade.
This would certainly have created an environmental stress factor since fossil fuel provided
the energy base. The variation in use of electricity within the region increased over the
first three decades and then the gap narrowed in the fourth decade. Given the increase in
electricity production that occurred, it is not surprising that CO2 emission also rose in
each decade.
With respect to organic pollution of water (BOD), however, there are no data for
the 1960s and 1970s, but BOD levels must have been worsening over those decades to
have reached the high levels recorded by the 1980s. The situation improved dramatically
by the 1990s, possibly indicating that improvements had taken place in organic waste
management in the region in the latter decade. This does not necessarily reflect the situation
with regard to other forms of waste, in particular the range of toxic residues and hazardous
industrial wastes produced and improperly disposed of within the environment.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ECONOMIC LEVELS AND ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS
CARIBBEAN
WITHIN THE
The regional figures showed the overall range and variability from the average in
the case of each environmental indicator. The pattern, with respect to the individual territories,
will be examined to assess relationships of these environmental activities with economic
levels. Although the environmental indicators for which the data were available cannot be
regarded as the only factors accounting for the economic disparities that occurred between
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countries over the four decades of the 1960s to the 1990s, they do signal some of the
processes associated simultaneously with both economic and environmental change.
GDP per capita was used as a surrogate for economic level. Taking the region as
a whole over the last four decades of the twentieth century, there were no significant
associations between GDP per capita and any of the environmental indicators (using
Spearman's Rho Correlation Coefficients and a 2-tailed significance test). The question was
whether there were significant associations at the level of the individual countries that may
have been masked by the average figures at the regional level.
The changes in GDP per capita from 1960 to 1998 were calculated for each
country for which the data were available (Table 2). These varied levels of change in GDP
per capita over the period were indicative of the divergence in economic levels that developed
across the region during the last four decades of the twentieth century.
Some countries did not change to a large extent and remained at a high level of
economic performance, whereas other countries did experience a large change in GDP per
head while remaining at a low level of performance in terms of the regional average.
Therefore, while GDP change was not the only measure of divergence, it was the measure
that best indicated the changes that occurred over the period 1960-1998 and that led to
the divergence in economic levels that existed at the end of the century.
To explore the nature of the relationships between GDP and the environmental
activities as reflected in the indicators selected, the countries that had an accelerated GDP
per head will be compared with those that experienced little or no increase. To aid
comparison, the countries will be examined in groups, based on the extent of change in
GDP per head experienced between 1960 and 1998.
Not all Caribbean countries could be included in the analysis of the relationship
between economic level and environmental activities because of the absence of environmental
data for many countries. The relevant data were available for eighteen countries (Table 3).
Countries with an increase in GDP per capita of more than $10,000
The three countries in the group with increases in GDP per head in excess of
$10,000 were the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands and Martinique (Table 2).
There were no available data of environmental indicators for any of these countries so that
no relationships could be examined statistically.
Countries with an increase in GDP per capita of $5,000-10,000
This group of countries (for which data for environmental activities were available)
was composed of Puerto Rico, Antigua and St. Kitts and Nevis.
Pearson correlation tests indicated that in the case of Puerto Rico (which had
experienced an increase in GDP per head of $8,921), there was no significant association
between GDP and the type of industrial activity or vehicular traffic that would lead to
increases in carbon dioxide emission. (There were no data for electricity production). Yet
there were significant inverse associations between the agricultural indicators, most strongly
inverse for arable land measured in hectares per person, but also inversely related to arable
land as a percentage of land area and to overall agricultural production. There was also a
less strong, but a significant, inverse relationship between GDP and fertilizer use. These
correlation figures show that as GDP increased, the indicators of environmental activities of
an agricultural nature declined, with the exception of land irrigated (Table 3).
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Like Puerto Rico, Antigua demonstrated no significant associations occurring
between changes in GDP and either tertiary or agricultural activity. The growth in GDP was
probably accounted for by growth in the tourist industry and unfortunately the lack of data
on BOD levels for Antigua prevented the evaluation of any possible environmental impacts
associated with tourism activity.
The increase of $5,314 in GDP for St. Kitts and Nevis is inversely correlated with
arable land measured both in terms of hectares per person and as a percentage of total land
area. This suggested that the increase in GDP occurred as agricultural activities declined.
Land under forest cover also declined as shown by the significant relationship with GDP.
Countries with an increase in GDP per capita of $2,000-5,000
The countries in the middle range of economic growth in the second half of the
twentieth century included Barbados, the Bahamas, Montserrat, St. Lucia, Trinidad and
Tobago, and Grenada.
In the case of Barbados there was a strong positive association of GDP and carbon
dioxide production. Economic performance was inversely correlated with both the agricultural
indicators of land use in hectares per person and fertilizer use. In the Bahamas, the association
between economic growth and agricultural production was also negative, but in this case
as compared with Barbados, there was no positive association with carbon dioxide emission.
In St. Lucia, GDP increase was also strongly and positively correlated with carbon
dioxide emission as well as fertilizer use and, at the same time, inversely correlated with
arable land in hectares per person and as a percentage of total land area. This shows a
reduction in arable land use, but an increase in fertilizer use and percentage of cropland
irrigated. A similar pattern occurs in the case of Grenada, where rising GDP was also
associated with declining forest cover.
Unlike the rest of the group, GDP per head increase in the case of Trinidad and
Tobago was positively correlated with both carbon dioxide emission (associated with urban
and industrial activities), as well as with increases in arable land as a percentage of land
area and irrigated land as a percentage of cropland. In Trinidad there was also a positive
correlation of GDP with electricity production, reflecting the rise in industrial development
associated with the natural gas industry.
Countries with an increase in GDP per capita of $1,000-2,000
A fourth group of countries was comprised of Dominica, Belize, the US Virgin
Islands, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Dominican Republic.
Although the US Virgin Islands fell within the group of countries that experienced
levels of only $1,000-2,000 increases in GDP between 1960 and 1998, the actual GDP per
head was among the highest in the Caribbean, both in 1960 and at the end of the century.
In relative terms this country shifted from first to third place in the rank order for the Caribbean,
thus being one of the most economically successful in the region. It is particularly noteworthy
that GDP per head was not associated with any of the environmental indicators that reflected
either urban and industrial or agricultural activities. This situation was similar to the case of
Puerto Rico and the Bahamas, both of which had a GDP of over $12,000 in 1998.
All other countries that experienced GDP increases of $1,000-2,000 -Dominica,
Belize, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Dominican Republic- showed strong positive
correlations between GDP per head and carbon dioxide emission. Also, in all of them there
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were significant inverse correlations with arable land per hectare. With the exception of
Belize, GDP was also inversely correlated with arable land as a percentage of land area and
irrigated land. Belize demonstrated a positive correlation between GDP and these two aspects
of agricultural activity. In both Dominica and Belize there was a positive correlation between
GDP and fertilizer use and, in the case of Belize, with forest cover.
Figures for the Dominican Republic showed that there were strong positive
correlations between GDP per head and carbon dioxide emission as well as with all indicators
of agricultural activities with the exception of arable land in hectares per person.
Countries with an increase in GDP per capita of less than $1,000
Countries in the next lowest band in terms of changes in GDP per capita in the
second half of the twentieth century were Cuba, Jamaica, the Netherlands Antilles, Guyana
and Suriname.
The Netherlands Antilles was the anomaly in this group as its absolute figure for
GDP per capita was already very high in 1960, but it did not increase by much in the following
decades. There were no environmental data for these islands, so no associations with
environmental activities could be calculated.
The other countries that experienced low levels of increase were also those
recording low absolute figures for GDP per head relative to the rest of the region. In the case
of Cuba, there was a positive correlation between GDP per capita and all the environmental
indicators of both agricultural and industrial activities. For Jamaica, the strongest correlation
was between GDP and oxygen deficiency in water (BOD) as well as carbon dioxide emission.
These variables reflected the association between an increase in economic activity and
urban growth that had given rise to the increased generation of organic waste matter, as
well as an increase in vehicular traffic. Suriname and Guyana also showed a positive
relationship between GDP increase and carbon dioxide emission. At the same time, GDP
was also positively correlated with agricultural production and in Suriname, with irrigated
land as a percentage of cropland.
Country with a Decrease in GDP per capita 1960-1998
Haiti's GDP per head declined from $547 in 1960, to $370 in 1998. As GDP declined
over these four decades, so agricultural production and arable land in hectares per person
increased. The use of fertilizers as well as the percentage of cropland irrigated declined over
the same period. BOD also increased, indicating urban growth and the commensurate increase
in the volume of organic waste generated and inadequately disposed of in bodies of water.
GDP was positively correlated with increased agricultural production based on
an increase in the arable land per person, and with an inverse relationship between GDP
and both fertilizer use and irrigated land as a percentage of cropland. This meant that as
GDP went down, fertilizer use and irrigated land went up. The amount of cultivated land
per person and as a percentage of land area both declined. Haiti was therefore moving one
stage further to continue the same pattern of environmental degradation that had occurred
in the past, thus prolonging and intensifying the vicious cycle.
V. CONCLUSION
Over the period 1960-1998, the changes that took place in the environmental
activities for which data were available demonstrated a trend of increased agricultural
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production with little increase in land use, but a heavier dependence upon fertilizer use and
irrigation. This reflected an agricultural sector that was maintaining itself but in ways that
signal increasing stress on the environment. In the non-agricultural sectors, the vast increase
in the demand for electricity reflected the tremendous growth that had taken place in the
tourism and urban service sectors.
In summary, most of the countries with the highest levels of GDP per head at the
end of the twentieth century and those that had experienced the largest growth in GDP per
head after 1960, were those that did not rely on agriculture as their main economic base
but rather had a well-developed tourism industry and financial sector. The countries with
the lowest GDP per head growth and the lowest GDP levels in 1998 were those that showed
the strongest association with the environmental indicators. The success of the tourism and
urban service and financial sectors, rather than continued dependence on agriculture,
accounted for the growth in economic levels to be sure, and these factors largely explained
the gaps in economic levels that had occurred within the region by the end of the century.
The factor that must be highlighted in this regard, however, is the heavy environmental
stress associated with the economic successes.
The countries in the middle range in terms of growth in GDP per head still
combined a heavy reliance on primary production (whether agriculture and/or industry)
with some developments in manufacturing and tourism as well. Only Cuba and Belize
showed a significant positive association between rising GDP per head and increase in
forest cover, suggesting that all the other countries lost forest cover, whether they
experienced growth in agricultural or industrial activities.
Haiti, the country with the lowest GDP levels in the Caribbean throughout the
period under review, not only demonstrated a downward cycle of environmental and economic
trends, but also the role of governance in the generation and reinforcement of the relationship
between the options available in the environmental resource base and the economic decisions.
The characteristics of governance have impacted upon the interrelationship of environment
and economy at all levels of scale, from the household to national government, with intervening
factors involving access to markets, issues of resource ownership, and the capacity to effectively
manage both human and environmental resources.
The economic disparities within the Caribbean at the end of the twentieth
century did not reflect a simple relationship with the pattern of resource distribution
throughout the region, nor territorial size, nor even the length of the period of dependence
on sugar. External economic support from metropolitan countries to their dependent
states or departments facilitated the respective Caribbean territories at different times
throughout the twentieth century, whereas the economic sanctions, for example on Cuba
and Haiti, were major setbacks to those counties but did not explain the disparities in
income. All Caribbean countries were affected by the external effects of the global market
and have responded variously to them. Within this general context of the Caribbean
experience, there evolved significant differences in the ways in which environmental
resources could be, and were, managed and used to economic advantage. The evidence
of rising carbon dioxide levels, of desertification and various forms of pollution, show
that some of the development strategies adopted by the economically successful Caribbean
states could be leading to damaging environmental impacts. If these are not carefully
managed, they will render the environmental resources on which they currently depend,
unsustainable in the future.
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Table 1
ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
Mean
Lowest
88,469.60
2.40
2,400.00
100.00
466,700.00
100.00
Mean / Median
Fertilizer Consumption (metric tons)
1960-1969
36,520.80
1970-1979
39,590.70
90,957.60
2.30
4,233.00
2,100.00
464,400.00
300.00
9.40
1980-1989
51,325.30
143,896.70
2.80
3,992.50
1,300.00
663,200.00
400.00
12.90
G
Highest
E
Mode
T
Median
N
Coef. Variation
I
Std. Deviation
1990-1998
32,885.70
77,865.90
2.40
5,000.00
1,300.00
580,000.00
100.00
6.60
15.20
R
Organic Water Pollutant (BOD)
A
T
I
O
1960-1969
No Data
No Data
No Data
No Data
No Data
No Data
No Data
No Data
1970-1979
No Data
No Data
No Data
No Data
No Data
No Data
No Data
No Data
1980-1989
28,990.90
48,449.80
1.70
7,541.40
N/A
172,972.70
640.20
3.80
1990-1998
7,529.40
7,791.70
1.00
1,871.40
N/A
19,081.60
241.40
4.00
N
Agricultural Production
&
1960-1969
81.35
27.11
0.30
79.86
39.90
140.25
37.35
1.00
1970-1979
92.40
25.06
0.30
98.85
100.40
129.94
4.43
0.90
1980-1989
97.65
30.44
0.30
101.56
100.00
142.84
8.70
1.00
125.84
77.80
1.00
0.60
37.40
1.40
1990-1998
98.85
0.10
99.12
0.13
0.90
0.09
N/A
T
12.51
N/A
R
Arable Land (hectares per person)
A
1960-1969
0.14
D
1970-1979
0.13
0.12
1.00
0.07
0.10
0.60
4.40
1.70
E
1980-1989
0.13
0.14
1.10
0.06
0.30
0.60
8.70
2.00
1990-1998
0.12
0.14
1.10
0.06
0.00
0.60
77.80
2.00
over...
(continued)
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ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
N
Mean
Coef. Variation
Median
Mode
Highest
Lowest
Mean / Median
8.95
0.70
21.81
14.70
37.20
0.00
1.40
T
Std. Deviation
E
Arable Land (% of land area)
G
1960-1969
12.66
R
A
1970-1979
12.94
9.15
0.70
12.82
14.70
37.20
0.00
1.70
1980-1989
12.64
9.22
0.70
10.53
37.20
37.20
0.00
2.00
1990-1998
12.62
9.80
0.80
10.53
37.20
37.20
0.00
2.00
T
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CO2 Emissions Industrial (kt)
O
1960-1969
2,348.01
4,510.59
1.92
342.58
11.00
24,127.40
0.20
1.00
N
1970-1979
4,843.65
6,827.17
1.41
1,124.85
29.30
30,876.50
0.00
1.00
1980-1989
4,940.25
8,291.40
1.68
941.65
66.00
35,321.00
0.00
1.20
1990-1998
5,203.03
7,779.43
1.50
1,077.22
161.20
31,818.20
0.10
1.20
&
Land Use (Irrigated Land as a % of Land Area)
T
R
A
1960-1969
17.93
14.60
0.81
11.11
5.90
71.10
5.20
0.20
1970-1979
19.80
20.37
1.03
11.43
5.90
88.90
2.00
0.10
1980-1989
21.16
21.39
1.01
15.00
5.90
90.60
1.90
0.20
15.03
5.90
89.60
2.90
0.20
12,514.00
5.40
1990-1998
22.49
22.77
1.01
D
Electricity Production (kwh)
E
1960-1969
15,834,201.63
24,887,057.16
1.57
2,934,541.00
N/A
86,722,000.00
1970-1979
1,267,476,631.08 2,025,697,317.14
1.60
245,000,000.00
198,000,000.00
9,402,999,808.00
54,941.00
5.17
1980-1989
2,062,875,236.93 3,561,090,111.07
1.73
520,000,000.00
289,244,000.00 15,239,999,488.00
112,597.00
3.97
1990-1998
2,784,737,946.05 3,902,437,523.66
1.40
859,000,000.00 1,017,000,000.00 15,025,000,448.00
268,100.00
3.24
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Source: World Bank [2000].
Table 2
CHANGE IN GDP PER CAPITA, 1960-1998
Country
Difference in GDP in US$
Cayman Islands
17,022
British Virgin Islands
10,972
Martinique
10,164
Puerto Rico
8,921
Guadeloupe
8,499
French Guyane
7,675
Aruba
6,702
Turks and Caicos Islands
6,362
Anguilla
5,536
Antigua
5,504
St. Kitts and Nevis
5,314
Barbados
4,966
Bahamas
4,773
Montserrat
3,332
St. Lucia
2,736
Trinidad and Tobago
2,727
Grenada
2,273
Dominica
1,754
Belize
1,748
US Virgin Islands
1,620
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
1,499
Dominican Republic
1,117
Cuba
386
Jamaica
267
Netherlands Antilles
203
Guyana
149
Suriname
146
Haiti
-177
Note: See Statistical Appendix to article by Victor Bulmer-Thomas in this collection.
102
I
N
T
E
G
R
A
T
I
O
N
&
T
R
A
D
E
Table 3
CORRELATION COEFFICIENT FOR GDP PER CAPITA WITH ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS
I
N
Puerto
Rico
Agri Prod
-0.75182
-0.13289
-0.38635
0.97000
0.84022
0.28973
0.59088
0.78584
0.54692
0.00000
0.53591
0.06861
0.00000
0.00000
0.16967
0.00299
0.00001
0.00692
33
24
23
23
23
24
23
24
23
T
Environmantal Indicators
E
Sig. (2-tailed)
G
N
R
Land Use, Arable Land (hect. per person)
Sig. (2-tailed)
A
N
T
Land Use, Arable Land (% land area)
I
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Antigua
St. Kitts
Barbados Bahamas St. Lucia
Trinidad
Grenada Dominica
US Virgin
St.
Dominica
Islands
Vincent Republic
Belize
Cuba
Jamaica
Guyana Suriname
Haiti
-0.93873
-0.24500
-0.55457
-0.92490
-0.52783
-0.87306
-0.21954
-0.88680
-0.91832
-0.83322
0.16264
-0.84456
-0.84374
0.43396
-0.03767
-0.34965
0.09299
0.63437
0.00000
0.14388
0.00037
0.00000
0.00079
0.00000
0.19169
0.00000
0.00000
0.00000
0.33617
0.00000
0.00000
0.00729
0.82482
0.03389
0.58409
0.00002
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
-0.59885
0.25338
-0.71902
0.35995
-0.42455
0.87555
-0.86923
-0.94847
0.92287
0.11818
-0.81120
0.91693
0.51393
0.11350
-0.19466
0.16265
-0.24063
0.00009
0.13024
0.00000
0.02865
0.00882
0.00000
0.00000
0.00000
0.00000
0.48602
0.00000
0.00000
0.00114
0.50358
0.24830
0.33613
0.15138
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
O
Land Use, Irrigaed Land (% crop land)
0.61991
0.83691
0.88602
0.62937
-0.74400
0.78373
0.88378
0.07796
0.32092
0.69156
-0.49932
N
Sig. (2-tailed)
0.00004
0.00000
0.00000
0.00033
0.00000
0.00000
0.00000
0.64652
0.05279
0.00000
0.00165
37
37
37
28
33
37
37
37
37
37
37
N
Fertiliser consumption (metric tons)
&
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
-0.86664
-0.16565
-0.77574
-0.68358
0.77010
-0.10813
0.13546
0.78064
0.02071
0.18296
0.84709
0.81686
0.35567
-0.15045
0.21688
-0.50659
0.00000
0.32717
0.00000
0.00002
0.00000
0.52412
0.54779
0.00000
0.90317
0.27843
0.00000
0.00000
0.03074
0.37410
0.19727
0.00138
34
37
37
32
37
37
22
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
-0.83151
-0.40210
-0.74439
0.74413
-0.58712
-0.43498
0.89257
-0.36468
-0.29194
0.63348
0.18527
Sig. (2-tailed)
0.13200
0.00043
0.13733
0.00352
0.00147
0.03489
0.13742
0.00004
0.18140
0.29106
0.01123
0.50857
13
13
15
13
15
13
13
13
15
15
15
Electricity production (kwh)
0.56777
0.89636
0.65791
-0.36468
-0.39738
Sig. (2-tailed)
0.00201
0.00000
0.00019
0.18140
0.04012
27
27
27
15
A
N
R
0.44000
T
Forest Cover (in '000 hectares)
N
15
27
D
CO2 industrial (kt)
0.31554
-0.12790
0.92252
-0.33793
0.92712
0.92600
0.94955
0.92162
0.96546
-0.24471
0.94808
0.94256
0.89321
0.55896
0.64610
0.82355
-0.07252
E
Sig. (2-tailed)
0.05712
0.45063
0.00000
0.04080
0.00000
0.00000
0.00000
0.00000
0.00000
0.14437
0.00000
0.00000
0.00000
0.00032
0.00002
0.00000
0.66969
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
37
N
BOD
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
-0.69057
0.04863
-0.49135
0.76438
0.91952
0.81704
-0.46982
-0.87444
0.00437
0.85295
0.05325
0.23562
0.00017
0.00036
0.09005
0.00204
15
17
16
4
10
14
14
9
Note: The countries are ordered according to the magnitude of the increase in GDP per head over the 1960-1998 period.
Source: Based on data from World Bank [2000].
103
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