Threats posed by external regulation on Economic Development and Environmentalism on subsistence patterns and indigenous people’s way of life.

Threats posed by external regulation on Economic Development and Environmentalism on subsistence patterns and indigenous people’s way of life.

World system integration is becoming a common phenomenon as nations realign to benefit from military, technological, trade and diplomatic ties. This paradigm shift has led to the formation of trade blocs which in turn has come with external regulations. This essay explores threats posed by external regulation of economic development and environmentalism on subsistence and indigenous peoples’ way of life.

External regulation of Economic development on culture and subsistence patterns

Globalization has led to Trade and tariff agreements that have been significant economic development drivers since world war 2. Globalization has seen countries open their borders for free flow of capital, labour and technology through the formation of economic blocs. Creation trade blocs came with numerous advantages, e.g. importation of affordable goods, investment opportunities and technology. A member of an economic bloc had to adhere with the international regulations binding the bloc in exchange for trade opportunities for economic development, e.g. removal of tariffs for goods imported from fellow member countries (Foster, G. K. 2011)

The native people in the southern part of the world that is Africa and Latin America are at crossroads on globalization. This is because of the fundamental assumptions of the world becoming a global village and slipping world culture into consumerism. It is true that southern nations have benefited from capital flow from northern countries. However, all the wealth created by foreign investment is repatriated back to the lands of the north, that is Europe and Northern America. Foreign investments in the native southern countries have stifled creativity and invention by the natives leaving them to overly depend on the foreigner posing a significant threat to the economic stability of the southern nations. The Earth Summit of 1992 by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development was not able to agree on the transfer of wealth from North to South for equitable global development. ( Seavoy, R. E. 2000)

External regulations leading to opening up of borders has threatened indigenous culture by having aboriginal people coming in to dilute natural way of life.  Television networks for aboriginal people have been set up airing programmes that do not auger well with indigenous culture leading to its erosion.

In addition, the porous borders have allowed infiltration of illegal substandard products as the developed economies dump them to the southern nations. It is possible to sneak in illicit weapons into the native economy. The developed northern have been reluctant to share first-class technology with the south on the defence of intellectual property rights. This has held the south at the mercy of the north, e.g. The United Nations that is mostly controlled by the northern nations some of which have veto power in International Criminal Court has been unable to stabilize civil war in countries like Somalia. Nuclear Energy technology and facility set up has strictly controlled is as well controlled by the northern nations(Jenkins, L., & Romanzo, C.1998)

Environmentalism threat to indigenous subsistence system and culture.

Only a few nations recognize native people’s land rights. Mostly influence of foreigners in such country lead to leasing out indigenous land in those nations violating the environmental right of such people to own and control their land. A most substantial proportion of ecological pollution today is as a result of industrial processes in the developed nations. However, these nations are not willing to pay for the pollution, and indigenous lands are ones on the receiving end (Lu, F.,2010).

Large scale mining and construction of dams in the indigenous environment have to lead to the displacement of indigenous communities from their land, posing a threat to social unrest as the subsistence pattern is disrupted. Promotion of the use of fertilizers and pesticides have caused aboriginal land degradation disrupting a self-balancing ecosystem(Scheiber, H. N. 1998). This has destabilised many indigenous communities forcing the to go resettling in other areas.

References

Foster, G. K. (2011). Foreign investment and indigenous peoples: options for promoting equilibrium between economic development and indigenous rights. Mich. J. Int’l L., 33, 627.

Seavoy, R. E. (2000). Subsistence and economic development. Greenwood Publishing Group.

Jenkins, L., & Romanzo, C. (1998). Makah whaling: aboriginal subsistence or a stepping stone to undermining the commercial whaling moratorium. Colo. J. Int’l Envtl. L. & Pol’y, 9, 71.

Lu, F. (2010). The Conservation Catch-22: Indigenous Peoples and Cultural Change. In Human Ecology (pp. 79-87). Springer, Boston, MA.

Scheiber, H. N. (1998). Historical memory, cultural claims, and environmental ethics in the jurisprudence of whaling regulation. Ocean & coastal management, 38(1), 5-40.