"THE SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS OF BANANA PLANTATIONS IN COSTA RICA"

by Gerardo Vargas, Director of the Social Pastorate of the Diocese of Limon and Coordinator of the Foro Emaus.

In national institutions and in different international fora, the Foro Emaus and the banana workers unions in Costa Rica have denounced the violations of workers’ rights that continue to be perpetrated on the banana plantations. However, despite some superficial legal reforms, the banana plantation management disregards these, to employs pressure tactics by means of pro-management workers associations, and by laying off independent workers who claim their rights. After the la-ying off of union leaders, many workers, men and women, tend to become fearful. We also find that "black-listing" continues to be a common practice used to persecute those who fight for their rights. These workers are sent to carry out the most undesirable duties, or are laid off on the spot. In addition, for already almost two decades banana plantation management has employed the strategy of requiring workers to join the Solidarista Associations, these negotiate working conditions that favor the interests of management, and completely limit the independence of workers. According to the Pastoral Letter of the Bishop and Priests of the Apostolic Vicariate of Limon dated the 25th of December of 1989: "The freedom of workers to organize, besides being a right, is the only means they have to demand the implementation of justice and to search for better employment alternatives. However, we find that Solidarista Association are tending to eliminate the other forms of worker organizations." Another problem in the banana plantations is the exploitation and the discrimination of women. In most cases, they receive lower salaries, carry out long working days, and do not have adequate protection for the manipulation of pesticides. Generally, these women are single mothers who rent homes, and are exposed to continual sexual harassment on the part of foremen and at times, on the part of their own working partners. They must leave their small children in precarious conditions, where they are exposed to abuse by adults. This occurs constantly, according to the reports of the Clinics for Adolescents of the Social Security Program. In addition, most of these women fear joining unions, as this results in almost certain umemployment home. In addition, despite denunciatons before public auditories, in almost all the banana plantations, under-age workers are hired for dangerous jobs, in this way violating national and international laws, . As a result some minors have died due to pesticide intoxication, as the National Ombudsman (Defensoría de los Habitantes) and the National Institute of Infant Care (PANI) reveal in their reports. The banana industry, especially during this recent period of expansion, attracted thousands of foreign migrant workers, mostly from Nicaragua, to the banana plantations. The majority, because of their condition as illegal migrants, are subject to demeaning working conditions: they receive low salaries, they, live crowded in poor housing conditions, they suffer high exposure to pesticides, have a deficient diet, and are subject to immigration police black-mail. In like manner, although in smaller numbers, the same situation occurs with the Guaymi Indians on the plantations in Sixaola near the border with Panama. In this context, the enormous pressure for land in the Atlantic Zone has even generated violence on the part of large land owners, especially in the zones of Sarapiqui and in the county of Pococi. In the Caribbean region are negatively offected by the banana industry important indigenous populations, Cabecar land , Bribri peoples are seriously threatened by the environmental impacts of the banana industry with the contamination of their rivers, pressure on their lands, the low lands in particular, as well as the negative effect on their cultural values when their youth become salaried workers on the plantations. The demands of European and North American consumers, who divide in almost equa-lly parts nearly 100 million cases of bananas a year (1996: 105 million, according to official fi-gures), induce the banana companies to serve a cosmetically perfect product on their breakfast tables:bananas that are big, yellow and without blemishes. This requires the use of large amounts and varieties of pesticides and fertilizers in. Because the market is dominated by these transnational companies, the bananas that do not comply with these characteristics are thrown out as waste that contaminates areas around the same banana plantations. The banana industry utilizes 35 percent of all the pesticides imported to Costa Rica every year. This represents, incidently, almost 30 percent of the final cost of production of export bananas. Generally, the pesticides used form part of what are known worldwide as the "Dirty Dozen". With respect to deforestation, 30 percent of the current banana plantations were covered with forests when they were bought by the banana companies. The intense process of deforestation has affected the existence of species such as the howler monkeys, protected bird species, sloths and species like the manatees, as well as an enormous variety of insects. The banana companies, in their quest for profit, have broken the laws and have defores-ted the edges of rivers in order to plant bananas. They have not even fully used the felled trees, for many were cut down and burned or left to rot, despite the fact that much of it was precious wood. The consequences of this indiscriminate deforestation appeared later on in river overflows and floods, resulting in eroded and contaminated soils. The waters of the canals made in the banana plantations, carried toxic chemicals and plastic bags to rivers and then to the sea, resulting in the death and destruction of fish and coral reefs. To have an idea of the magnitude of the solid wastes abandoned on the banana plantations themselves, for every kilogram of bananas exported, 2.5 kilograms of waste are produced in the form of plastic bags, reject bananas, empty recipients of pesticides, and plastic cords. With this level of contamination, it is logical that the productivity per area is adverity. The result is that every 15 years the banana companies search for new lands and slowly abandon the lands they have contaminated, as occurred in the Southern Zone, with lands saturated with copper sulfate. The amounts of pesticides used on the banana plantations and their high toxi-city, are directly related to the system of intensive monoculture production which provokes the multiplication and resistance of natural pests. Since the european market of Costa Rican bananas is regulated by licenses and quotas, and on the other hand, is free in the United States and other countries that are not members of the European Union, a battle between private enterprise and governments has been waged in recent years with the European Union in order to open the field for a dollarized banana, a matter that is still in conflict with the interests of the ex-colonies of Europe. Finally, it appears that only new production was threatened, This was able to be placed in other markets, including in Europe, once the exports from other Latin American countries were restricted. Let us recall that Costa Rica is the second largest exporter of bananas in the world, second only to Ecuador, who doubles our yearly exports. Almost all the large transnational companies are of US capital, I a minority of cases, they are associated with national banana entrepreneurs, or they are independent, modacen,nevertheles these must sell their fruit to transnational commercial houses who control the market. The panorama of the transnational companies can be summarized thus: Bandeco commercializes under the brand name Del Monte; Standard Fruit Co., under the brand name of Dole; Cobal, Banacol and Uniban sell by way of Chiquita; and the Geest Caribbean Co. has its own commercial brand. Geest Caribbean is now Costa Rican-Panamanian, and Del Monte was recently bought by Chilean capital. The current norms are for the most part unknown, contradictory and difficult to apply, since there is no political will to enforce them. The excuses are a lack of budget support, or administrative slowness that escapes the competence of the entities in charge. These justifications are employed both in terms of the environment and working conditions. In addition, one can say that in practical terms, the law of the jungle, or survival of the strongest, is the law of banana plantations, ignoring the national and international norms for the banana industry. Because of their silence, both dominant political parties (PUSC and PLN) are also responsible, as they have not manifested any concern form the violation of environmental and human rights that occur on the banana plantations. In fact, there are cases where some politicians are also banana entrepreneurs. This makes their silence and their efforts to improve their own interests understandable. The complaints of consumers in organizations favoring fair trade and healthy food have forced companies to reassess their publicity strategies. The goal was to convince consumers that in their plantations in Costa Rica important changes were being realized to improve environmental conditions. The same could not be said regarding working conditions, since virtually nothing has changed since 1990 regarding union rights. New brands were then created such as "Friendly Bananas", without chan-ging their pesticide components, but simply with ecological makeup. The greatest audacity came later, when they were able to get a Costa Rican environmentalist foundation to certify with unverifyable criteria that the banana plantations could receive an ecological seal, created by themselves, called "Eco-OK". The problem is that all the plantations that belong to Chiquita Brands carry the seal of environmental respect, when the truth is that very few changes have occurred, cheating European consumers. This situation presents a great challenge to European solidarity organizations and to the Foro Emaus, who is forced to unmask this lie that affects the struggles of workers in general, and the possibility that small producers of real organic bananas to have priority in the markets of Europe and the United States.