Bulmer-Thomas V., Coatsworth J., Cortes-Conde R. The Cambridge Economic History of Latin America: Volume 2, The Long Twentieth Century

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332 Otto T. Solbrig

the environmental impact of human activities is of universal concern. There

is fear that it may affect the very survival of human societies or, as is more

likely in the short term, that it may have a very negative economic impact.

Latin America and the Caribbean are an agglomeration of different coun-

tries, landscapes, and ecosystems. They share a common cultural tradition

that justiﬁes our consideration of the environmental impact of people in

this region. The diversity of landscapes and physical settings, nonetheless,

means that there will be a great diversity of human impacts that will have

to be considered independently.

The imprint of humans on the environment in Latin America is of

ancient origin. Early hunter-gatherers who invaded the continent thirty

thousand years ago were responsible for the disappearance of many animal

species, such as woolly mammoths and giant sloths, and the modiﬁcation

of local landscapes. The environmental impact was considerably increased

with the advent of native agriculture six thousand years ago. A further

impact was the introduction of the plow, livestock, and intensive mining

by Europeans after Columbus’s voyages; and once again in the nineteenth

century with the introduction of new methodologies for resource extraction

as a result of the development of the Atlantic economy following European

industrialization. Finally, the intensiﬁcation of agriculture and extractive

activities in the last ﬁfty years brought a further increase in the rate of

environmental modiﬁcation.

The use of natural resources by people and their effect on the environ-

ment are predominantly a function of human density, the level of economic

activity, and the technologies employed. Environmental impact is also a

function of the physical and biological characteristics of an area. The neg-

ative consequences of a given activity such as mining or agriculture, under

similar conditions, will be much greater in a mountainous area than in a ﬂat

region; greater in the tropics or the arctic than in temperate regions, and so

on. In discussing the history of the environment, great attention has to be

paid to geographical characteristics. In the debates regarding environmental

impact, there is a tendency to emphasize one or the other (geography, pop-

ulation, culture) factor. Yet all three are intimately connected and cannot

be easily separated.

The environmental impact can also be considered as a question of land

use (Figure 9.1). Every human activity affects land use. The social, cul-

tural, political, demographic, and economic characteristics of each society

H. E. Daly, Beyond Growth (Boston, 1996).

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Economic Growth and Environmental Change 333

Capital

Resources

Labor

Military Pressure

Economic

Pressure

ldeology

Natural System

OUTSIDE FORCES

Physical

Aspects

Life

Sciences

Socio-Economic

Economic

Consider-

ations

Demogra-

Cultural

Aspects

phic

factors

Political

Aspects

Land Use

Figure 9.1.Determinants of land use.

Note: To the right are the principal social determinants and, to the left, the natural con-

straints. Above are some external forces that increasingly affect land use.

condition its impact on land use. In turn, the kind and intensity of land

use govern the degree to which the natural ecosystem is modiﬁed. Yet, as

these modiﬁcations affect the characteristics of the ecosystem, they in turn

feed back on land use and eventually on human society. Human commu-

nities, in turn, are not isolated but interact with other nations through

commerce, capital and technological ﬂows, ideological exchanges, and mil-

itary and power relations. Those interactions affect how a given society

uses its land and treats its environment. Increasingly, land use depends on

decisions taken to meet the needs of the global economy, with local needs

playing a minor role. This often leads to land degradation, the costs of

which are borne mostly at the local level.

Most writing regarding environmental impacts tends to focus on only

certain aspects, be they the impact of economic growth on the natural envi-

ronment, the cost of extraction of goods from the land, or the inﬂuence of

exterior forces on society. Seldom do investigations take all aspects into con-

sideration. Yet environmental problems are intimately connected with food

and ﬁber production, wealth creation, demographic control, and income

distribution, and cannot be fully understood if each force impacting the

environment is taken in isolation.

In this chapter, I am primarily concerned with the environmental impact

of economic activities and land use on the Latin American environment. I

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334 Otto T. Solbrig

ﬁrst brieﬂy describe the Latin American geography because this knowledge

is necessary to understand the diversity of landscapes and their susceptibility

to human impact. I then describe three selected land uses: henequen, coffee,

and cattle, which exemplify the commercial and development patterns that

evolved early in the long twentieth century and would determine the way

land was used in Latin America for the rest of the century. I follow this

with an evaluation of the current principal types of land use and economic

activities, and their impact on the landscape. I try to include demographic,

economic, political, and ideological aspects where possible. I emphasize the

changes that took place in the last ﬁfty years. I conclude with a personal

assessment of this history.

An important technical problem is how to measure the environmental

impact of people in Latin America. Ideally we would like to have a precise

quantitative measure of ecosystem service modiﬁcation. Such measures do

not exist. Instead, we have isolated measures such as soil erosion, nutrient

ﬂows, changes in hydrology, and climate change, from which modiﬁcation

of ecosystem services can be inferred. But even these measures tend to be

plagued by technical problems.

INTRODUCTION AND CLASSIFICATION OF

THE PRINCIPAL ENVIRONMENTAL

CHARACTERISTICS OF LATIN AMERICA

AND THE CARIBBEAN

Any ecosystem can be divided into two subsystems: the natural subsystem

consisting of an assemblage of physical components (geology, hydrology,

climate) and biological components, and a human subsystem (Figure 9.1).

The two subsystems are connected through land use. The natural subsystem

processes the energy that comes from the sun through both the physical

assemblage (atmosphere, geology, climate) and the biological subsystem

(primary producers, consumers, decomposers). There exists a dynamic bal-

ance between these two natural subassemblages. Natural events of a physical

nature such as earthquakes, landslides, devastating ﬂoods, hurricanes, tor-

nadoes, and destructive storms denude an area of vegetation and soil cover

and increase the fragility of the landscape by removing the soil cover and

increasing erosion. Materials are removed from high laying areas and moved

to lower plains or into the sea. On the other hand, through the slow process

of biological succession, vegetation consolidates the ground, creates soil,

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Economic Growth and Environmental Change 335

accumulates nutrients, and increases the resilience of an area to erosion.

The meteorological conditions and the topographical characteristics of an

area tilt the balance toward stability and resilience (e.g., forests) or toward

instability and fragility (e.g., steep slopes that denude land of vegetation).

Humans, through their economic activities, increase instability by

removing vegetation and plowing in agriculture, changing drainage pat-

terns through road construction and other infrastructure, affecting slopes

when mining, and in general acting as the equivalent of another source

of physical disturbance. Humans do not degrade the landscape as much

as they create situations that favor the action of degrading natural physi-

cal forces. Lately, modern technology has added an entirely new source of

environmental degradation – chemical degradation – through the use of

agro-chemicals and production of industrial wastes.

To use the land for economic gain while avoiding or at least mitigating

some of the negative consequences of human use requires the expenditure of

energy and materials. Terraces can be built on mountain slopes to reduce

the effects of water erosion; roads can be built respecting contour lines

rather than cutting across drainage patterns; barriers can be built to keep

sediments from silting rivers and lakes; fertilizer can be applied to reduce the

loss of soil nutrients; factories can be designed so as to reduce or eliminate

waste. However, these works will increase costs in the short term, while

prolonging the useful life of the economic operations. The impacts of

economic activities on the land and the cost of their mitigation depend on

the geographical characteristics of a region. Therefore, to understand the

environmental impact of economic activities, we must ﬁrst ascertain the

geological history and the geographical features of the American continent

and determine the distribution of its natural resources.

The North and South American landmasses have been separate for most

of the geological history of the Earth. Only recently – in geological terms –

have they become connected. South America, with a surface of about 18

million square kilometers, is about twice the size of Europe, but is smaller

than Asia, Africa, or North America.

It has roughly a triangular shape,

with a southern apex and its widest point close to the equator at latitude

ﬁve degrees south.

One hundred eighty million years ago, during the Jurassic period, South

America, together with Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and India, formed part

of a southern continent known as Gondwanaland. This landmass broke

Jorge Morello, Perﬁl ecol

ogico de Sudam

erica (Madrid, 1984).

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336 Otto T. Solbrig

apart during the late Jurassic period and each section drifted in different

directions until they reached their present position.

These movements

are still continuing. As South America drifted westward, a series of par-

allel mountain chains in a north-south direction formed in its western

border. The Andean chain is the latest manifestation of this ongoing pro-

cess, whereas the Sierras Pampeanas (e.g., Aconquija, Ambato, Sierras de

Comechingones) in Argentina are older evidences of the process of moun-

tain building. In geological terms, the eastern part of South America con-

tains the oldest rocks and the western part, the newest. The natural ecosys-

tems of South America took shape during the last rising of the Andean

Cordillera some ﬁve million years ago.

Three geomorphologic features characterize the continent. On its west-

ern ﬂank we ﬁnd the huge massif of the Cordillera of the Andes, the second

largest mountain range in the world, and the only one that is continuous

from the northern to the southern hemisphere. This area is narrowest in

Ecuador (100 kilometers) and widest in Bolivia (700 kilometers). On the

eastern bulge of the continent, we ﬁnd the oldest rocks, the Guyana and

Brazilian shields of Precambrian origin. These have been highly weathered

and eroded. Finally, between them and extending also from the northern

to the southern hemisphere, sediments eroded from the Cordillera de los

Andes by wind and water form a very large sedimentary basin (Figure 9.2).

This sedimentary area can be subdivided into three very large river basins:

the Orinoco River basin in the north, the Amazonas River basin in the

center, and the La Plata River basin in the south. All three basins are con-

nected, and an adventurous person could paddle in a shallow canoe from

the mouth of the Orinoco River to the mouth of the La Plata River.

The Cordillera de los Andes is the controlling element in the geography

of South America. It divides the subcontinent into a narrow Paciﬁc water-

shed, and a much more extensive Atlantic one. The rivers in the Paciﬁc

basin are short and ﬂow rapidly; those on the Atlantic watershed are long

and lazy. They are among the largest and with the greatest ﬂow of water

in the world. The Cordillera also is a determinant of the climate of the

region.

All along the Paciﬁc coast, from Chile to Colombia, the horizontal dis-

tance between the ocean and permanent snowﬁelds is only forty to ﬁfty

R. S. Dietz and J. C. Holden, “The Breakup of Pangaea,” in Continents Adrift (San Francisco, 1971),

102–13.

Morello, Perﬁl ecol

ogico de Sudam

erica.

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Economic Growth and Environmental Change 337

80° 70°

10°

0°

Figure 9.2.Map of South America.

Notes: Principal ecological areas of South America: 1.Brazilian shield, 2.Guyana shield,

3.Patagonia, 4.Sierras Pampeanas, 5. Andean Cordillera, 6. The sedimentary basin extending

from Venezuela to the Argentine pampas.

Source: Jorge Morello, Perﬁl ecol

ogico de Sudam

erica (Madrid, 1984).

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338 Otto T. Solbrig

kilometers, though it entails a vertical distance of around ﬁve to six kilo-

meters, crossing in many cases lowland tropical evergreen forest, montane

forests, and p

aramo vegetation. The enormous variety of microclimates,

attributable to differences in altitude and exposure, condition also an enor-

mous array of agro-ecological situations. Cacao might be grown at the foot

of the mountain, coffee in middle elevations, and corn and wheat at higher

altitudes.

On the eastern ﬂank of the continent, a diversity of eco-climatic regimes

is also found, determined by latitude and rainfall, from evergreen moist

forest, such as the Serra do Mar in Brazil, to semideserts in Patagonia.

However, here the areas occupied by a given ecoregion

are much greater

in extent than in the western ﬂank or the mountain areas.

Soils in the Andean regions are high in nutrients, whereas lowland trop-

ical soils are weathered, acid, and infertile. Temperate soils in the southern

temperate region are among the best in the world. Much of South America

is either very dry or very wet. This affects the vegetation. In certain areas –

the Amazon basin, the coastal areas of Brazil, the Guyanas, the Choc

oregion

of western Colombia, and the region of southern Chile and southwestern

Argentina ﬂanking the Andes – the land was originally covered with mag-

niﬁcent forests very rich in species. Other regions – the northern Venezuela

coast in Falc

on state, the coastal regions of Peru and northern Chile, interior

Argentina and Patagonia, and much of the Bolivian altiplano – are deserts

or semideserts where only scattered xerophytic shrubs and succulents grow

(Figure 9.2).

From an ecological viewpoint, the Andean mountain slopes are the most

fragile because of the steepness of the slopes. They are followed by the

tropical Amazonas River basin, and other tropical rainforest regions such

as the Choc

oinColombia or the Guyanas area, because of the effect of

torrential tropical rains on the soil. Most resilient are temperate grasslands

such as the pampas.

During the Cretaceous period, some 200 million years ago, when South

America was separating from Africa and initiating its westward march that

would create the South Atlantic Ocean, North America existed as two iso-

lated islands, separated by a broad but shallow sea, called the Bearpaw Sea.

The westernmost of these extended southward to include Baja California

E. Dinnerstein et al., “Conservation Assessment of the Terrestrial Ecoregions of Latin America and

the Caribbean” (Washington, DC, 1995).

T. F lannery, The Eternal Frontier (New York, 2001).

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Economic Growth and Environmental Change 339

and most of northern Mexico. This period also marks the beginning of

the formation of the great mountain chains of the northern continent, the

Sierra Madre in Mexico, the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada and

coastal mountains of California in North America, and the Antillean Arc

in the Caribbean. Their growth was gradual, with the appearance of ﬁrst

isolated chains that nevertheless had a strong impact on the climate. During

the Upper Tertiary, approximately 20 million years ago, these mountains

acquired their present dimensions.

The geological conﬁguration of Mexico, Central America, and the

Caribbean is more complex than that of South America.

The Sierra Madre

in Mexico encloses between its two chains a series of plateaus where some of

the original inhabitants settled and established their cultures. Between the

nineteenth and twentieth degrees of latitude, a sequence of large volcanoes

unites the two chains of the Sierra Madre. South of there, we ﬁnd a series

of older volcanoes and, on the eastern ﬂank, the coastal plain that extends

to Guatemala and Honduras. The Antillean Arc is the result of continental

drift of the Antillean plate and volcanic activity, particularly in the larger

and western islands, and marine activity in the eastern islands.

Latin America can be divided into four principal ecological regions: the

lowland tropics, the mountain areas, the temperate zone, and the desert

areas. Each shows distinct climate, soil, vegetation, and ecological char-

acteristics. Each region shows unique agricultural potentials and different

degrees of fragility, and each of them has a different history of land use and

abuse.

In the ﬁrst place, we ﬁnd the lowland humid tropics, the domain of

tropical forests and savannas. This is a very fragile area ecologically and the

one that presents the most daunting environmental problems. It extends

from southern Mexico to Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, and southern Brazil

(Figure 9.2). During the ﬁrst half of the twentieth century, it was thinly

occupied by Europeans and their descendants, and then primarily along

river courses. Today, however, whenever access is granted to this region

through the construction of roads, thousands of landless peasants and min-

ers stream to occupy it. This is what has been happening in the Amazon

basin, the Choc

oregion of Colombia, Central America, and southern

Mexico. The resulting impacts – deforestation followed by erosion and soil

J. Aubouin et al., “Esquisse pal

eo- g

eographique et structurale des Andes m

eridionales,” Revue de

eographie Physique et G

eologie Dynamique 15 (1973): 11–72.

C. W. Stearn, R. L. Carroll, and T. H. Clark, Geological Evolution of North America, 3rd ed. (New

York, 1979), 566.

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340 Otto T. Solbrig

degradation, and mercury poisoning and silting of streams by gold miners –

are of great concern.

The tropical savannas have been areas of low human density dedicated,

until recently, mostly to extensive cattle raising. This is now changing,

especially in Brazil. But the advance of the agricultural frontier in the

savannas is not driven primarily by peasants in search of land, as it is

in the rainforest regions, but is the result of a process of well-ﬁnanced

modernization, supported and encouraged by government policies aimed

at increasing agricultural exports. The environmental impact of agricultural

intensiﬁcation in the savannas has depended on the technologies employed

but has generally been negative, resulting in increased soil erosion and loss

of biodiversity.

The mountain regions are very heterogeneous and – depending on expo-

sure, latitude, and altitude – can have very different characteristics. The

eastern slope of the northern Andes (Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru)

was originally the home of subtropical forests of a different character and

speciﬁc composition than the lowland jungles. Here, since the last century,

aprocess of human occupation based on the growing of coffee (and, in

some regions, cacao) has prevailed. Lately, this area has seen an agricultural

frontier of sorts, based on the illegal growing of coca, with all the negative

environmental impacts associated with it.

The high plateau of Peru and Bolivia known as the Puna conﬁgures still

another tropical mountain landscape, one of ancient occupation. Mining

has been an activity of great local environmental impact in this region,

whereas agriculture has been conﬁned to local valleys. Aside from the impact

of mining, environmental impact has been limited because of the nature

of traditional agriculture that prevails.

The temperate and subtropical regions found in central and northern

Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and southern Brazil present a diver-

sity of landscapes and vegetation types, including conifer and broadleaved

forests, shrub-lands, and grasslands. This was where Europeans ﬁrst settled,

and these were the regions they ﬁrst impacted. They are the most produc-

tive and ecologically most resilient of the Latin American landscapes. The

original vegetation such as the Araucaria forests in Brazil or the grasslands

of southern Brazil, Uruguay, and the pampas region of Argentina have been

almost completely eradicated and replaced by ﬁelds and pastures.

The last major landscape type is the deserts and semideserts, both north

and south: the northern subdeserts of Mexico, primarily in the states of

Sonora and Chihuahua; the extreme deserts of coastal northern Chile and

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Economic Growth and Environmental Change 341

southern Peru; the interior semideserts known as the Monte and Patagonia

in Argentina; the coastal regions of the state of Falc

on in Venezuela; and

the area of northeastern Brazil known as the Caatinga. These are fragile

systems, and although human activity tends to be low except in mining

enclaves, human impact on the environment has been generally severe.

Each of these regions has a unique environmental history and present

land use that, together with their innate characteristics, determines the

impact that humans are having on the environment.

EVOLUTION OF RESOURCE EXTRACTION

AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS

DURING THE LONG TWENTIETH CENTURY

The principal uses to which land can be put are for food and ﬁber pro-

duction, grazing of domestic animals, growing of trees, mining, housing,

and urban services, industry, infrastructure, or recreation. In this chap-

ter, I consider four categories of land use: arable land, which is used in

agriculture; pastures, land used to grow domestic animals; forests, both nat-

ural and human made; and nonagricultural land, which includes all other

uses.

The nonagricultural use of land (urban, infrastructure, industry) has the

greatest impact on the environment, but it occupies only about 3 percent

of the land surface worldwide.

Arable land is the second most important

source of environmental modiﬁcation. Its importance is far greater than

urban use, given that agriculture accounted for some 7.4 percent of the land

surface of Latin America in 1990 (12.7%inMexico, Central America, and

the Caribbean; 6.5%inSouth America).

Pastures can involve a great deal

of alteration when they are sown pastures, or they may involve minimum

change in the case of lightly grazed natural pastures. They occupy about

28.7 percent of the land of the region (31.7%inCentral America and the

Caribbean, 28.2%inSouth America). Forests, both plantation and natural

forest, occupy about 43.5 percent of the land surface (21.2%inCentral

America and the Caribbean, 47.3%inSouth America). Natural forests are

among the least modiﬁed landscapes. The remaining 20 percent of the land

surface of Latin America and the Caribbean is presently nonusable: high

M. G. Wolman and F. G. A. Fournier, Land Transformation in Agriculture (Chichester, 1987).

World Bank, WorldDevelopment Indicators 2001.