INTRODUCTION
Trade is one of the engines of economic growth which in the 19th century propelled the development of the now economically advanced nations. As a stimulant, trade encourages countries to specialise in areas of their comparative advantage in order to increase productivity. It also enables countries to have access to world markets for increased profitability, and access to foreign exchange, and the technology and skills which usually accompany it. However, most of the economic activities that were provoked by trade benefits took place with little care on the environment.
Based on the above concerns, the core thesis of this essay is to discuss how international trade contributes to environmental degradation and to show how multinational corporations (MNCs) have also contributed to the effect using Zambia as a case study.
MAIN BODY
Advantaged with natural resources and favourable climate for agricultural activities, Zambia engaged in international trade at different levels. The country utilised its raw materials like copper, timber and or \ cash crops and others in smaller quantities to penetrate the international market. Under the auspices of arable farming, the growing of tobacco and sugar cane in Choma and Mazabuka respectively became part of income injectors into the domestic economy. Pastoral farming also supplied the market with different animal products, let alone the aspect of value addition for more returns. Many MNCs such as Anglo American Corporation got attracted to Zambia’s comparative advantage in minerals and they invested heavily in the mining sector.
The desire by the MNCs to increase the rate of extracting raw materials from Zambia to meet their high demand by industries in their host countries led to un-precautious exploitation of natural resources at the expense of the environment. Worse still, Zambia embraced most of the investment activities in any nature as a way of alleviating extreme poverty. According to Ellis (2000: 118), “in the 21st century, poverty and environmental degradation are intimately connected, and poverty is seen as a cause and an effect of natural resource depletion in a downward spiral of complicated in-built potential for escalation.” Such negligence in Zambia’s Copperbelt area led increased biodiversity loss, ozone depletion, and the destruction of fauna and flora.
According to Singh (1994: 234), “Zambia accommodated MNCs’ investments in any form as these conglomerates are the key agents of international trade, controlling about 70% of it while investing more than US$40 billion in FI.” And proponents of MNCs investment argued that such FDIs better-off host countries’ economic stature through jobs, tax-base expansion, new technologies, and diverse ancillary businesses like banking or insurance, among others. Additionally, MNCs are considered to offer training and education to employees in R&D, thus creating a higher skilled workforce, and the skills that can be transferred to other areas of the host economy for better management of resources.
Paradoxically, MNCs are merely driven by the profit motive, rather than developing host economies. And LDCs have been the destination of MNCs’ investment because they are: a source of cheap labour and raw materials; have low taxation rates; and have relaxed labour and environmental laws. Due to their financial and political influence, MNCs dominate market possessions, manipulate prices and profits, and or\ generally strict the entry of potential competition by means of their dominating influences over new technologies, special skills and product differentiation, (ibid).
Taking advantage of the weak environmental laws in Zambia, these conglomerates have caused devastating or irreversible environmental problems in the country. People have been displaced to marginal lands, water reserviours have been polluted, soils are eroded, floods have been enhanced, droughts are common due to disturbed rainfall patterns, and some towns like Kabwe are declared the most polluted in the sub-region. Some examples of environmental problems caused by some MNCs activities are given below:
Trade is one of the engines of economic growth which in the 19th century propelled the development of the now economically advanced nations. As a stimulant, trade encourages countries to specialise in areas of their comparative advantage in order to increase productivity. It also enables countries to have access to world markets for increased profitability, and access to foreign exchange, and the technology and skills which usually accompany it. However, most of the economic activities that were provoked by trade benefits took place with little care on the environment.
Based on the above concerns, the core thesis of this essay is to discuss how international trade contributes to environmental degradation and to show how multinational corporations (MNCs) have also contributed to the effect using Zambia as a case study.
MAIN BODY
Advantaged with natural resources and favourable climate for agricultural activities, Zambia engaged in international trade at different levels. The country utilised its raw materials like copper, timber and or \ cash crops and others in smaller quantities to penetrate the international market. Under the auspices of arable farming, the growing of tobacco and sugar cane in Choma and Mazabuka respectively became part of income injectors into the domestic economy. Pastoral farming also supplied the market with different animal products, let alone the aspect of value addition for more returns. Many MNCs such as Anglo American Corporation got attracted to Zambia’s comparative advantage in minerals and they invested heavily in the mining sector.
The desire by the MNCs to increase the rate of extracting raw materials from Zambia to meet their high demand by industries in their host countries led to un-precautious exploitation of natural resources at the expense of the environment. Worse still, Zambia embraced most of the investment activities in any nature as a way of alleviating extreme poverty. According to Ellis (2000: 118), “in the 21st century, poverty and environmental degradation are intimately connected, and poverty is seen as a cause and an effect of natural resource depletion in a downward spiral of complicated in-built potential for escalation.” Such negligence in Zambia’s Copperbelt area led increased biodiversity loss, ozone depletion, and the destruction of fauna and flora.
According to Singh (1994: 234), “Zambia accommodated MNCs’ investments in any form as these conglomerates are the key agents of international trade, controlling about 70% of it while investing more than US$40 billion in FI.” And proponents of MNCs investment argued that such FDIs better-off host countries’ economic stature through jobs, tax-base expansion, new technologies, and diverse ancillary businesses like banking or insurance, among others. Additionally, MNCs are considered to offer training and education to employees in R&D, thus creating a higher skilled workforce, and the skills that can be transferred to other areas of the host economy for better management of resources.
Paradoxically, MNCs are merely driven by the profit motive, rather than developing host economies. And LDCs have been the destination of MNCs’ investment because they are: a source of cheap labour and raw materials; have low taxation rates; and have relaxed labour and environmental laws. Due to their financial and political influence, MNCs dominate market possessions, manipulate prices and profits, and or\ generally strict the entry of potential competition by means of their dominating influences over new technologies, special skills and product differentiation, (ibid).
Taking advantage of the weak environmental laws in Zambia, these conglomerates have caused devastating or irreversible environmental problems in the country. People have been displaced to marginal lands, water reserviours have been polluted, soils are eroded, floods have been enhanced, droughts are common due to disturbed rainfall patterns, and some towns like Kabwe are declared the most polluted in the sub-region. Some examples of environmental problems caused by some MNCs activities are given below:
EXAMPLES OF CAUSES OF ENVIROMNEMNTAL DEGRADATION OR PROBLEMS IN ZAMBIA
Mining
Although mining on the Copperbelt has been the mainstay of the Zambian economy for years, it has complex environmental impacts which include water pollution, air pollution and dust, siltation and sedimentation. Geographically, it has led to landscape disfigurement and displacement of existing land users particularly in agriculture and human settlements. A clear example of this is the land degradation in Chingola due to open pit mining. According to CSO Report (2004: 87), “all the mining companies cause environmental damage of one form or the other, for instance KCM admitted that it is facing environmental challenges due to the cumulative effect of mining and smelting for over 70 years.” The report indicates that KCM mining activities have primarily impacted on water by discharging high suspended solids into the Kafue river” (ibid).
Apart from the problem of siltation and sedimentation in the Kafue river, this has also increased costs of water supply and sanitation as supplying companies spend huge amounts of money on water treatment to control the turbidity and be able to supply clear and palatable water that conforms to the WHO specifications. According to the NWASCO (2006: 34), “the water on the Copperbelt is not conducive for human consumption due to high levels of affluent into the Kafue river by the mining and other industries, which have also disturbed the growth of vegetation.” Mining companies, for example KCM has failed to meet the ECZ statutory standards regarding sulphur dioxide pollution from its Smeltaco plant in Kitwe. ECZ recommended the use of converter modified technology, which enables the capture of more sulphur dioxide that can in turn be used to manufacture sulphuric acid for mineral processing. This is in line with the environmental concept of cleaner production, which promotes the continuous use of industrial processes and products in order to reduce pollution and thus minimise the risks to humans and the environment.
Secondly, Spirit of the River Company Ltd in Western Province is the recent example of a profit driven company which exposed the aquatic life in the Zambezi river to danger. According to Chakwe (2006:03), “the company polluted the water in the river by using a poisonous chemical to kill a large number of fish for the extraction of diamond and other precious minerals that they swallow from their bellies.” A lot of fish and other forms of life that live in water died in the river and government have since banned the consumption of the fish from the river.
The third example under mining could be the opening of Abidon Mine in Mazabuka which has seen the displacement of local people from their land to far flung areas. The people were settled on smaller plots of land that may not produce them enough food. The area may have poor water system or poor soil fertility as compared to where they were displaced thus perpetual hunger. According to Mukosa (2007: 01), “the ECZ had rejected the application by the company to set a plant there on the basis that it would be dangerous to human life.” This entails that the company did not meet the EIA standards. The argument by ECZ was that the company’s laboratory was not up to standard in handling the uranium and nickel it was embarking on digging.
Agriculture
In the agriculture sector, much of the land in the country has been acquired and cleared for commercial production. Tobacco farming in Choma in Southern province can be a vivid example. Huge areas of land have been cleared to increase the number of fields to meet the market demand, which is mainly international. Heavy duty machinery like the caterpillar is used in the clearing of the land to quicken the process. The machinery grinds the soil with its metallic wheel system, thus destroying the soil. The net effect of this is soil erosion. To improve the legume’s growth rate and quality, high technology is applied such as the use of hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Chemicals like fertilizer produce nitrate oxide, which is well known for causing acidification.
Worse still, processing tobacco requires a lot of fire wood. This has led to large scale cutting of trees to supply tobacco growers with the much needed fuel wood. People in the nearby villages are often contracted to supply fire wood to these profit-motivated agro-businesses. This has both disturbed the rain patterns and caused desertification. Specialised humid tropical ecosystems in nutrient recycling are destroyed in the process. Local communities have also lost their farming lands that they depended on for survival. This worsens poverty levels in the country as these communities cannot access basic needs of life. They also fail to take their children to school as the land they are pushed to cannot provide them with enough produce to meet their needs after selling the surplus.
Secondly, the expansion of Nakambala Sugar Estate in Mazabuka has also seen the displacement of local people around the area to the marginal lands. The people have equally lost the farming land. They are also cut off from certain services like education and medical due to long distances. Additionally, there was no EIA which was done to approve the project. The chemicals used to enhance the plants’ growth rate have serious environmental impacts. Further more, the expansion will add on the emission of smoke to the air from the production plant, hence more carbon monoxide (CO) in the air. The combination of CO and nitrate oxide (from the chemical fertilizers used to plant) forms smog. The net effects of this are eye problems, risks of asthma and poor distribution of oxygen in the red blood cells.
Farmers are also requested to rent out their fields to the company for increased sugar cane growing. The net effect of this will be perpetual hunger in the area as the peasants spend more of their time growing the cane sugars at the expense food production. Government will be then forced to ask for food assistance in times of poor harvests to off-set the shortfall. Food aid, especially genetically modified foods (GMOs) which are unfriendly to the environment due to the chemicals used in their growth may come in the country. The GMOs often disturb the pollination system of local crops due to the chemicals applied to them when preserving them.
Timber processing
The large-scale forest clearance for timber production for export for example in areas like Mwekela or Dora Hill in Copperbelt has led to the destabilization of the humid tropical ecosystems that are specialised in nutrient recycling. The destruction of these forests therefore results in loss of the important biodiversity and disturbs stable ecological cycles. According to Lungu and Silengo (1997: 56), “the indiscriminate logging also leads to deforestation, which further leads to siltation of reserviours, damaging to hydro-electric plants, increase in floods, which consequently damage property, crops and animals.” And that coupled with mining emissions has worsened the environmental destruction in the area to the extent that vegetables and other greens do not grow to normal texture and taste in most towns in Copperbelt.
These conglomerates however do not contribute much to the Zambian economy in terms of revenue as they enter into logging concessions. And during the signing of these concessions, there are either no clauses of law on the protection of the forestry or MNCs disobey them deliberately. When these laws are abrogated, they often use corrupt officials to escape it.
Conclusion
Although free international trade is said to have a crucial role in national development, its domain greatly contradicts that of the environment. This is because most practices of free global trade tend to be incompatible with environmental conservation. In many instances, this trade has been built on unacceptable levels of resource exploitation, which destroys the environment often with no regard to future generations. This has mainly exerted greater threat to the health and well being of the environment in LDCs, whose major foreign exchange source is the export of raw materials like timber, minerals, fish and cash crops. The timber trade demonstrates the pit-falls of natural resource-based exports as it is among the factors underlying deforestation in many LDCs. This is because the need for foreign exchange encourages LDCs to cut timber faster than forests can be regenerated. And the over-cutting has both caused the depletion of the resources that underpins the timber trade and loss of forest based livelihoods, soil erosion and down-stream flooding.
Mining
Although mining on the Copperbelt has been the mainstay of the Zambian economy for years, it has complex environmental impacts which include water pollution, air pollution and dust, siltation and sedimentation. Geographically, it has led to landscape disfigurement and displacement of existing land users particularly in agriculture and human settlements. A clear example of this is the land degradation in Chingola due to open pit mining. According to CSO Report (2004: 87), “all the mining companies cause environmental damage of one form or the other, for instance KCM admitted that it is facing environmental challenges due to the cumulative effect of mining and smelting for over 70 years.” The report indicates that KCM mining activities have primarily impacted on water by discharging high suspended solids into the Kafue river” (ibid).
Apart from the problem of siltation and sedimentation in the Kafue river, this has also increased costs of water supply and sanitation as supplying companies spend huge amounts of money on water treatment to control the turbidity and be able to supply clear and palatable water that conforms to the WHO specifications. According to the NWASCO (2006: 34), “the water on the Copperbelt is not conducive for human consumption due to high levels of affluent into the Kafue river by the mining and other industries, which have also disturbed the growth of vegetation.” Mining companies, for example KCM has failed to meet the ECZ statutory standards regarding sulphur dioxide pollution from its Smeltaco plant in Kitwe. ECZ recommended the use of converter modified technology, which enables the capture of more sulphur dioxide that can in turn be used to manufacture sulphuric acid for mineral processing. This is in line with the environmental concept of cleaner production, which promotes the continuous use of industrial processes and products in order to reduce pollution and thus minimise the risks to humans and the environment.
Secondly, Spirit of the River Company Ltd in Western Province is the recent example of a profit driven company which exposed the aquatic life in the Zambezi river to danger. According to Chakwe (2006:03), “the company polluted the water in the river by using a poisonous chemical to kill a large number of fish for the extraction of diamond and other precious minerals that they swallow from their bellies.” A lot of fish and other forms of life that live in water died in the river and government have since banned the consumption of the fish from the river.
The third example under mining could be the opening of Abidon Mine in Mazabuka which has seen the displacement of local people from their land to far flung areas. The people were settled on smaller plots of land that may not produce them enough food. The area may have poor water system or poor soil fertility as compared to where they were displaced thus perpetual hunger. According to Mukosa (2007: 01), “the ECZ had rejected the application by the company to set a plant there on the basis that it would be dangerous to human life.” This entails that the company did not meet the EIA standards. The argument by ECZ was that the company’s laboratory was not up to standard in handling the uranium and nickel it was embarking on digging.
Agriculture
In the agriculture sector, much of the land in the country has been acquired and cleared for commercial production. Tobacco farming in Choma in Southern province can be a vivid example. Huge areas of land have been cleared to increase the number of fields to meet the market demand, which is mainly international. Heavy duty machinery like the caterpillar is used in the clearing of the land to quicken the process. The machinery grinds the soil with its metallic wheel system, thus destroying the soil. The net effect of this is soil erosion. To improve the legume’s growth rate and quality, high technology is applied such as the use of hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Chemicals like fertilizer produce nitrate oxide, which is well known for causing acidification.
Worse still, processing tobacco requires a lot of fire wood. This has led to large scale cutting of trees to supply tobacco growers with the much needed fuel wood. People in the nearby villages are often contracted to supply fire wood to these profit-motivated agro-businesses. This has both disturbed the rain patterns and caused desertification. Specialised humid tropical ecosystems in nutrient recycling are destroyed in the process. Local communities have also lost their farming lands that they depended on for survival. This worsens poverty levels in the country as these communities cannot access basic needs of life. They also fail to take their children to school as the land they are pushed to cannot provide them with enough produce to meet their needs after selling the surplus.
Secondly, the expansion of Nakambala Sugar Estate in Mazabuka has also seen the displacement of local people around the area to the marginal lands. The people have equally lost the farming land. They are also cut off from certain services like education and medical due to long distances. Additionally, there was no EIA which was done to approve the project. The chemicals used to enhance the plants’ growth rate have serious environmental impacts. Further more, the expansion will add on the emission of smoke to the air from the production plant, hence more carbon monoxide (CO) in the air. The combination of CO and nitrate oxide (from the chemical fertilizers used to plant) forms smog. The net effects of this are eye problems, risks of asthma and poor distribution of oxygen in the red blood cells.
Farmers are also requested to rent out their fields to the company for increased sugar cane growing. The net effect of this will be perpetual hunger in the area as the peasants spend more of their time growing the cane sugars at the expense food production. Government will be then forced to ask for food assistance in times of poor harvests to off-set the shortfall. Food aid, especially genetically modified foods (GMOs) which are unfriendly to the environment due to the chemicals used in their growth may come in the country. The GMOs often disturb the pollination system of local crops due to the chemicals applied to them when preserving them.
Timber processing
The large-scale forest clearance for timber production for export for example in areas like Mwekela or Dora Hill in Copperbelt has led to the destabilization of the humid tropical ecosystems that are specialised in nutrient recycling. The destruction of these forests therefore results in loss of the important biodiversity and disturbs stable ecological cycles. According to Lungu and Silengo (1997: 56), “the indiscriminate logging also leads to deforestation, which further leads to siltation of reserviours, damaging to hydro-electric plants, increase in floods, which consequently damage property, crops and animals.” And that coupled with mining emissions has worsened the environmental destruction in the area to the extent that vegetables and other greens do not grow to normal texture and taste in most towns in Copperbelt.
These conglomerates however do not contribute much to the Zambian economy in terms of revenue as they enter into logging concessions. And during the signing of these concessions, there are either no clauses of law on the protection of the forestry or MNCs disobey them deliberately. When these laws are abrogated, they often use corrupt officials to escape it.
Conclusion
Although free international trade is said to have a crucial role in national development, its domain greatly contradicts that of the environment. This is because most practices of free global trade tend to be incompatible with environmental conservation. In many instances, this trade has been built on unacceptable levels of resource exploitation, which destroys the environment often with no regard to future generations. This has mainly exerted greater threat to the health and well being of the environment in LDCs, whose major foreign exchange source is the export of raw materials like timber, minerals, fish and cash crops. The timber trade demonstrates the pit-falls of natural resource-based exports as it is among the factors underlying deforestation in many LDCs. This is because the need for foreign exchange encourages LDCs to cut timber faster than forests can be regenerated. And the over-cutting has both caused the depletion of the resources that underpins the timber trade and loss of forest based livelihoods, soil erosion and down-stream flooding.
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