The Ecological Crisis in Central America

Abstract

Daniel Faber's Environment Under Fire is the product of substantial research and analysis on how the market economy and the imperialist forces of production created the ecological crisis in Central America. Faber's Marxist ecological view underlines the need for new and independent productive forces to stop the destruction of the environment. The book shows how political and economic contradictions have contributed to the exploitation of the peasantry and the working class and the degradation of the environment. Central America has often been described as a potential paradise. Its 193,050 square miles of tropical forest, plateaus, valleys, lakes, and high volcanoes provide the Central American isthmus with soil considered among the most fertile on earth, and its location between the Pacific and the Caribbean has long fired the imaginations of powerful nations with the idea of an interoceanic route. Central America has been considered a region in which people could easily satisfy their needs and still generate a surplus for export. In spite of this, it has become one of the most underdeveloped areas of the world. How can this be explained? The causes of Central America's underdevelopment are much more complex than any single analysis can suggest. No matter how the peoples of Central America have tried to improve the quality of their lives, the systematic penetration of aggressive foreign capital in concert with the interests of the national ruling classes has been the greatest obstacle to social transformation. Environment Under Fire examines the ecological transformations that Central America has experienced since colonial times, beginning with the violent attack on the region's environment by the Spaniards. The first chapter provides a historical analysis based on the legacy of ecological imperialism that identifies three interrelated dimensions of the colonization of nature. The appropriation of the means of production and the extraction of natural and cultural resources represented a first level of transformation experienced by the indigenous people. Equally important was the use of power to subjugate and exploit the native population. Faber illustrates here with examples of how the destruction of disruption of traditional agricultural practices took place.