Environmentalism in the Periphery: Institutional Embeddedness and Deforestation among Fifteen Palm Oil Producers, 1990 – 2012
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2017.699Keywords:
Environment, Unequal Ecological Exchange, Institutionalism, Palm OilAbstract
Environmental sociologists highlight the exploitative nature of the global capitalist economy where resource extraction from nations in the periphery tends to disproportionately benefit those of the core. From the Brazilian Amazon to mineral-rich Sub-Saharan Africa, the practice of “unequal ecological exchange” persists. Simultaneously, a “global environmental regime” has coalesced as a prominent feature of the contemporary world system. In the post-World War II era, legitimate nation-states must take steps to protect the natural environment and prevent its degradation even at their own economic expense. Stronger national ties to global institutions, particularly international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) consistently yield more positive environmental outcomes. However, previous work suggests that normative expectations for improved environmental practice will be weak or nonexistent in the periphery. We use the case of palm oil production and its relationship to deforestation to provide a more nuanced analysis of the relationship between material and institutional forces in the periphery. Using unbalanced panels of fifteen palm oil producing countries from 1990 to 2012, we find that stronger national ties to world society via citizen memberships in INGOs result in greater primary forest area among palm oil producers. However, this effect is strongest where production is lowest and weakens as production increases. Even in the cases of Indonesia and Malaysia, where palm oil production is substantially higher than any other producer, ties to global institutions are significantly related to reduced forest loss. These results indicate the variable importance of national embeddedness into global institutions within the periphery of the world system.References
References
Austin, Kelly. 2010. “The ‘Hamburger Connection’ as Ecologically Unequal Exchange: A Cross-National Investigation of Beef Exports and Deforestation in Less-Developed Countries.” Rural Sociology 75(2):270–99.
Austin, Kelly. 2012. “Coffee Exports as Ecological, Social, and Physical Unequal Exchange: A Cross-National Investigation of the Java Trade.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology 53(3):155–80.
Becketti, Sean. 2013. Introduction to Time Series Using Stata. College Station, TX: Stata Press.
Boli, John and George M. Thomas. 1997. “World Culture in the World Polity: A Century of International Non-Governmental Organization.” American Sociological Review 62(2):171-90.
Boli, John and George M.Thomas, eds. 1999. Constructing World Culture: International Nongovernmental Organizations Since 1875. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Burns, Thomas J., Edward L. Kick, and Byron L. Davis. 2003. “Theorizing and Rethinking Linkages between the Natural Environment and the Modern World-System: Deforestation in the Late 20th Century.” Journal of World-Systems Research 9(2):357–92.
Bunker, Stephen G. 1985. Underdeveloping the Amazon: Extraction, Unequal Exchange, and the Failure of the Modern State. Chicago, Il: University of Chicago Press.
Brambor, Thomas, William Roberts Clark, and Matt Golder. 2006. “Understanding Interaction Models: Improving Empirical Analyses.” Political Analysis 14(1):63–82.
Chase-Dunn, Christopher. 1989. Global Formation: Structures of the World Economy. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Clark, Brett and Richard York. 2005. “Carbon Metabolism: Global Capitalism, Climate Change, and the Biospheric Rift.” Theory and Society 34(4):391-428.
Colchester, Marcus and Sophie Chao (eds.) 2011. Oil Palm Expansion in South East Asia: Trends and Implications for Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples. Forest Peoples Programme.
DeFries Ruth S., Thomas Rudel, Maria Uriarte and Matthew Hansen. 2010. “Deforestation Drive by Urban Population Growth and Agricultural Trade in the Twenty-first Century.” Nature Geoscience 3:178–81.
Diener, E. D. 1995. “A Value Based Index for Measuring National Quality of Life.” Social Indicators Research 36(2):107-27.
Emmanuel, Arghiri. 1972. Unequal Exchange: A Study of the Imperialism of Trade. New York: Monthly Review Press.
FAO 2010. “Small-scale Palm Oil Processing in Africa.” FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin. Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Finnemore, Martha. 1996. National Interests in International Society. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Fourcade‐Gourinchas, Marion and Sarah L. Babb. 2002. “The Rebirth of the Liberal Creed: Paths to Neoliberalism in Four Countries.” American Journal of Sociology 108(3):533–79.
Frank, David John, Ann Hironaka, and Evan Schofer. 2000. “The Nation-State and the Natural Environment over the Twentieth Century.” American Sociological Review 65(1):96-116.
Frey, R. Scott. 2003. “The Transfer of Core-Based Hazardous Production Processes to the Export Processing Zones of the Periphery: The Maquiladora Centers of Northern Mexico.” Journal of World-Systems Research 9(2):317–54.
Garrett, Rachael D., Kimberley M. Carlson, Ximena Rueda, and Praveen Noojipady. 2016. “Assessing the Potential Additionality of Certification by the Roundtable on Responsible Soybeans and the Roundtable on Sustainable
Palm Oil.” Environmental Research Letters 11(4).
Gellert, Paul K. 2015. “Palm Oil Expansion in Indonesia: Land Grabbing as Accumulation by Dispossession.” Pp. 65–99 in States and Citizens: Accommodation, Facilitation and Resistance to Globalization, vol. 34, Current Perspectives in Social Theory, edited by J. Shefner. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Hafner-Burton, Emilie M. and Kiyoteru Tsutsui. 2005. “Human Rights in a Globalizing World: The Paradox of Empty promises.” American Journal of Sociology 110(5):1373–1411.
Hansen, Sune Balle, Stig Irving Olsen, and Zaini Ujang. 2014. “Carbon Balance Impacts of Land Use Changes Related to the Life Cycle of Malaysian Palm Oil-Derived Biodiesel.” International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 19(3):558-66.
Henisz, Witold J., Bennet A. Zelner, and Mauro F. Guillén. 2005. “The Worldwide Diffusion of Market-Oriented Infrastructure Reform, 1977–1999.” American Sociological Review 70(6):871–97.
Hironaka, Ann. 2015. Greening the Globe: World Society and Environmental Change. Oxford University Press.
Hornborg, Alf. 1998. “Ecosystems and World Systems: Accumulation as an Ecological Process.” Journal of World-Systems Research 4(2):169–77.
______. 2001. The Power of the Machine: Global Inequalities of Economy, Technology, and Environment. Walnut Creek, CA: Rowman Altamira.
ILO. 2004. “International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour Safety and Health Fact Sheet: Hazardous Child Labour in Agriculture: Oil Palm.” International Labor Organization.
Jorgenson, Andrew K. 2006. “Unequal Ecological Exchange and Environmental Degradation: A Theoretical Proposition and Cross-National Study of Deforestation, 1990–2000.” Rural Sociology 71(4):685–712.
______. 2007. “Does Foreign Investment Harm the Air We Breath and the Water We Drink? A Cross-National Study of Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Organic Water Pollution in Less-Developed Countries, 1975-2000.” Organization & Environment 20(2):137–56.
______. 2008. “Structural Integration and the Trees: An Analysis of Deforestation in Less-Developed Countries, 1990–2005.” The Sociological Quarterly 49(3):503–27.
______. 2012. “The Sociology of Ecologically Unequal Exchange and Carbon Dioxide Emissions, 1960–2005.” Social Science Research 41(2):242–52.
Jorgenson, Andrew K. and Thomas J. Burns. 2007. “Effects of Rural and Urban Population Dynamics and National Development on Deforestation in Less-Developed Countries, 1990–2000.” Sociological Inquiry 77(3):460–82.
Jorgenson, Andrew and Brett Clark. 2012. “Are the Economy and the Environment Decoupling? A Comparative International Study, 1960 – 2005.” American Journal of Sociology 118(1):1-44.
Jorgenson, Andrew K., Christopher Dick, and John Shandra. 2011. “World Economy, World Society, and Environmental Harms in Less-Developed Countries.” Sociological Inquiry 81(1):53-87.
Jorgenson, Andrew K. and Jennifer E. Givens. 2014. “Economic Globalization and Environmental Concern: A Multilevel Analysis of Individuals within 37 Nations. Environment & Behavior 46(7):848-871.
Laurance, William F., D. Carolina Useche, Julio Rendeiro, Margareta Kalka, et al. 2012. “Averting Biodiversity Collapse in Tropical Forest Protected Areas.” Nature 489:290–94.
Magdoff, Fred, John Bellamy Foster, and Frederick H. Buttel, eds. 2000. Hungry for Profit: The Agribusiness Threat to Farmers, Food, and the Environment. New York: NYU Press.
Mahutga, Matthew C. 2006. “The Persistence of Structural Inequality? A Network Analysis of International Trade, 1965 – 2000.” Social Forces 84(4):1863-89.
Meyer, John W. 2004. “The Nation-State as Babbitt: Global Models and National Conformity.” Contexts 3(3): 42 – 47.
Meyer, John W., John Boli, George M. Thomas, and Francisco O. Ramirez. 1997. “World Society and the Nation-State.” American Journal of Sociology 103(1):144-81.
Nellemann Christian, Lera Miles, Bjorn P. Kaltenborn, Melanie Virture, and Hugo Ahlenius, eds. 2007. The Last Stand of the Orangutan – State of Emergency: Illegal Logging, Fire and Palm Oil in Indonesia’s National Parks. United Nations Environment Programme.
Pimentel, David, Michael McNair, Louise Duck, Marcia Pimentel, et al. 1997. “The Value of Forests to World Food Security.” Human Ecology 25(1):91-120.
Prais, S. J. and C. B. Winsten. 1954. “Trend Estimators and Serial Correlation.” Working paper 383, Cowles Commission.
Raffer, Kunibert. 1987. Unequal Exchange and the Evolution of the World System: Reconsidering the Impact of Trade on North-South Relations. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Reijnders, L. and M. A. J. Huijbregts. 2008. “Palm Oil and the Emission of Carbon-Based Greenhouse Gases.” Journal of Cleaner Production 16(4): 477-82.
Rice, James. 2007. “Ecological Unequal Exchange: International Trade and Uneven Utilization of Environmental Space in the World System.” Social Forces 85(3):1369–92.
Rosa, Eugene A., Thomas K. Rudel, Richard York, Andrew K Jorgenson, et al. 2015. “The Human (Anthropogenic) Driving Forces of Global Climate Change.” Pp. 32-60 in Climate Change and Society: Sociological Perspectives edited by R. E. Dunlap and R. J. Brulle. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rudel, Thomas K. 1998. “Is There a Forest Transition? Deforestation, Reforestation, and Development.” Rural Sociology 63(4): 533 – 552.
Schofer, Evan and Ann Hironaka. 2005. “The Effects of World Society on Environmental Protection Outcomes.” Social Forces 84(1): 25-47.
Schofer, Evan, Ann Hironaka, David John Frank, and Wesley Longhofer. 2012. “Sociological Institutionalism and World Society.” Pp. 57-68 in The New Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology edited by E. Amenta, K. Nash, and A. Scott. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
Shandra, John M., Christopher Leckband, Luara A. McKinney, and Bruce London. 2009. “Ecologically Unequal Exchange, World Polity, and Biodiversity Loss: A Cross-National Analysis of Threatened Mammals.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology 50(3-4):285–310.
______. 2010. “Debt, Structural Adjustment, and Biodiversity Loss: A Cross-National Analysis of Threatened Mammals and Birds.” Human Ecology Review 17(1):18–33.
Shandra, John M., Eric Shircliff, and Bruce London. 2011a. “The International Finance Corporation and Forest Loss: A Cross-National Analysis.” Journal of World-Systems Research 17(2):328-52.
______. 2011b. “World Bank Lending and Deforestation: A Cross-National Analysis.” International Sociology 26(3):292-314.
Shorette, Kristen. 2012. “Outcomes of Global Environmentalism: Longitudinal and Cross-National Trends in Chemical Fertilizer and Pesticide Use.” Social Forces 91(1):299-325.
Smith, David A. and Douglas R. White. 1992. “Structure and Dynamics of the Global Economy: Network Analysis of International Trade 1965–1980.” Social Forces 70(4):857–93.
Stampe, Jeanne and Benjamin McCarron. 2015. Sustainable Finance in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia: A Review of Financiers’ ESG Practices, Disclosure Standards and Regulations. World Wildlife Fund for Nature: Gland, Switzerland.
Thiollay, Jean-Marc. 1995. “The Role of Traditional Agroforests in the Conservation of Rain Forest Bird Diversity in Sumatra.” Conservation Biology 9(2):335–53.
UNEP 2011. “Oil Palm Plantations: Threats and Opportunities for Tropical Ecosystems.” UNEP Global Environmental Alert Service. United Nations Environment Programme.
Wallerstein, Immanuel. 1974. The Modern World-System I: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century. New York: Academic Press.
Wooldridge, Jeffrey M. 2010. Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
York, Richard, Eugene A. Rosa, and Thomas Dietz. 2003. “Footprints on the Earth: The Environmental Consequences of Modernity.” American Sociological Review 68(2):279–300.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
- Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
- The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
- Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
- The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
- Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
- The Author represents and warrants that:
- the Work is the Author’s original work;
- the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
- the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
- the Work has not previously been published;
- the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
- the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
- The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.
Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.
