Local Vibrancy in a Globalizing World:Evidence from Dominica, Eastern Caribbean

by

Swetha Peteru, Seann Regan, and Thomas KlakPhotographs by the authors

The Local within the Global

Globalization is often described as aprocess that increasingly encompassesworld regions, countries, products, ser-vices, and people. Blouet (2001 p.7), forexample, states that ‘‘[g]lobalizationremoves obstructions to movement andcreates conditions in which internationaltrade in goods and services can expand.’’This process of increased movement ofgoods and services has grown steadily,aided by technological advances. Whilemuch of the world’s economic activitiesmove toward free trade and globalization,at the same time there are local areas thatremain to a significant extent autonomousand vibrant. The relationship between thelocal and the global has received muchattention in recent years in social sciencesand the humanities (Kearney 1995). Localactivities intermingle with the global influ-ences; local and global are not distinct andseparately analyzable (Porter 2000).

This essay centers on locally-focusedaspects of the economy, culture, and soci-ety, and the people behind them, drawingon the case study of the Eastern Caribbeanisland nation of Dominica. Primary prod-ucts, and those that are involved in andbenefit from their production, weave intothe complexity of the globalized worldwhile at the same time continuing to belocally sustainable.

We use marine and forest resources asexamples to show how people on thisremote Eastern Caribbean island continueto utilize and manage these resources sus-tainably and how these local producerscomplement the globalized trade flowsand supply chains for these resources.Dominica illustrates how local actors con-tinue to have a sizable role in generatingemployment and satisfying daily needs,despite the growing outside pressurestoward a globalized Western lifestyle. Bydocumenting the continued vibrancy ofcertain natural resource sectors in an

island economy that is otherwise increas-ingly permeated by imports, this essay fur-thers our understanding of the status ofthe local amidst the global.

The Regional and Local Context ofDominica

The Commonwealth of Dominica isan Eastern Caribbean country with a pop-ulation of about 70,000. The CaribbeanIslands, or West Indies, are divided intothe Lesser Antilles and the Greater Antil-les and cover about 230,000 km2 of landarea (Figure 1). Of the islands, Cuba, His-paniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti),Jamaica, and Puerto Rico (comprising theGreater Antilles) make up about 90% ofthe land area, but smaller islands amongthe Lesser Antilles such as Dominica haveconsiderable biological endemism (Barker2004). Taken together, the varied physicalconditions, marine environments, andmicro-climates of the Greater and LesserAntilles comprise a hotspot for global bio-logical diversity (Conservation Interna-tional 2009). Dominica lies near themiddle of the Lesser Antilles and is thenorthernmost of the Windward Islands.Dominica has about 750 km2 of land sur-face and nine active volcanoes, giving itthe distinction as the country with theworld’s highest volcano density (Lindsayet al. 2004).

Most of the Dominican populationlives along narrow coastal plains in vil-lages or in the capital of Roseau. Given theisland’s coastal settlement pattern, and itsotherwise steep terrain (Figure 2) andheavy rainfall, most of the interior is com-prised of remnants of undisturbed primaryforests. Throughout history, the island’sresidents – first indigenous peoples includ-ing the Kalinago (also known as Caribs),subsequently African slaves brought bycolonial powers, and now their descen-dents – have had close ties to the land(Honychurch 1995). This tie to the land

continues today through the prevailinglivelihoods of subsistence and commercialfarming, fishing, and forestry. Dominicans’tie to the land is captured in the nationalmotto, expressed in French Creole as:‘‘Apres Bondie, C’est La Ter’’ or ‘‘After Godis the Earth.’’

Dominica’s historical tie to the landwas rooted in the fact that the island’soccupants over the centuries have neededto develop highly localized means of sus-tenance and livelihood. This is partlybecause, until the 1950s, there were nopaved roads connecting separate parts ofthe island. Remote parts remaineddetached until the late 1990s (Honychurch2009). The distance ‘‘as the crow flies’’ isoften not more than a few kilometersbetween any two villages; however, giventhe mountainous terrain and lack of roads,villages in Dominica were historically iso-lated. For most of the island’s history, thequickest route between any two villages,and between any two parts of the island,was by water.

The mountainous topography, limitedinfrastructure, and a tumultuous history ofcolonization have led people to createlocalized knowledge systems and practiceswith considerable local self-sufficiency(Honychurch 1995). The local isolationencouraged subsistence lifestyles focusedon extracting nearby resources. Traditionalknowledge of local trees and other plantsand their value as food, medicine, andother functional uses is still widespread.History connects Dominican culturedirectly to the forests to fill a range ofneeds, to the land and the soil for crops,and to the sea for fish.

How does Dominica’s local self-sufficiency mesh with our increasinglyinter-connected world? We argue in thisessay that Dominica sits on the cusp ofglobalization and balances betweenbeing internationally connected and beingautonomous. We use two of Dominica’smost important primary product sectors –

F O G E 0 1 5 B Dispatch: 13.10.10 Journal: FOGE CE: Blackwell

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timber and fisheries – to illustrate how thecountry can be both internationally con-nected yet relatively autonomous andlocally vibrant at the same time. These twoprimary products, from the island’s stillample forests and its vast territorialwaters, are quintessentially Dominican(Figure 1).

Marine Resources

Fishing and the harvesting of marineresources have been a crucial part of theDominican and the wider Caribbean dietand culture for millennia (Watts 1987).While the diet of the Amerindian peoplein pre-Columbian times relied primarilyon farming (cassava, tubers, etc), marineresources were also crucial. For example,the Arawaks, one of the early groups tosettle in Dominica are known to havefished in nearby coastal waters where theyharvested crabs, lobster, conch, othershellfish and turtles (Honychurch 1995).Arawaks consumed marine products bothas sustenance and as a part of folkloreculture. This combination is illustrated by‘‘jack soup,’’ a concoction made to this daywith a variety of local herbs and jack fish,a common Caribbean fish that is believedto be an aphrodisiac. Carib Indians, a tribefrom South America, followed the Araw-aks northward up the island chain. Thewar-like and more seaworthy Carib Indi-ans successfully conquered the Arawaksthroughout the West Indies. The Caribsinnovation of substantial dugout canoesmade from local gommier trees allowedthem to fish many miles further offshorethan the Arawaks for larger catches ofgrouper, dorado, and barracuda. Fish wasthe Caribs main staple food in the pre-Columbian era (Parry and Sherlock 1956).Caribs developed and mastered fish pres-ervation. The process included gutting,cleaning, salting, and drying fish in thesun for several days. The result called ‘‘saltfish’’ is still a staple ingredient in manyDominican and wider Caribbean dishestoday (Figure 3). For Dominicans, fish pro-tein represents 13% of diet, a far greatershare than both the Caribbean and worldaverages of 7% and 6%, respectively(World Resources Institute 2007).

Most Dominican fishermen haveadopted some modern fishing technolo-gies, such as outboard motors, and theoccasional use of artificial bait and newlydeveloped lures. However, the typicalDominican still fishes in a small-scale sus-tainable way, as he has for centuries. Theentire country has only three officially

Figure 1: 1Map of the Caribbean and Dominica highlighting places mentioned in this essay.

Figure 2: 2The main port and capital city of Roseau is dwarfed behind large off-shore vesselsbringing goods to the island. Several typical Dominican open-air fishing boats appear tiny in theforeground. The island’s rugged landscape can be seen in the background.

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registered decked fishing vessels whichhave refrigeration, trawling equipment, orfish processing capabilities on-board. Themajority of Dominican fishing is done insmall open-air boats (Figure 4). While fish-ing generally uses little in the way of tech-nological advancements, it remains centralto Dominican culture employing thou-sands of fishermen and supplying succes-sive generations with sustained economicpossibilities (World Resources Institute2007).

A typical day of fishing in Dominicastill consists of rising before the sun andnavigating to the fishing areas in the ste-reotypical brightly colored wooden orfiberglass boat by humble outboard motor(Figure 4). These boats are produced in vil-lages around the island, representing asmall-scale local economic activity for gen-erations of artisans. The relationshipbetween fishermen and secondary indus-tries such as boat building adds not onlyto local jobs, but also serves to create feel-ings of national pride and ownership withrespect to local fishing. Here we noteDominica’s consistency with the ideas ofE.F. Schumacher, who in his 1973 book,Small is Beautiful: Economics as if PeopleMattered, argued for an economy based onlocal labor, community, and ecological val-ues, rather than global imperatives. Today,Schumacher’s ideas are gaining traction inthe form of back-to-the-land movements inthe Global North (E.F. Schumacher Society2010), which have similarities to a wayof life Dominicans have practiced forcenturies.

Small-scale fishing in the Caribbeanregion is generally pursued under fourcategories: subsistence – aimed at personaland other local consumption; recreational– generally foreign fishermen for pleasure;commercial – for sale on the open market;and industrial – fishing also for sale onthe open market, but with new high-yieldtechnologies (World Resources Institute2007). Of these four categories, fishingfor local consumption (subsistence) andlocal livelihoods (commercial) are theprimary ones pursued in Dominica. Thereis very little industrial-scale fishing.Dominica exports almost none of itscommercial fish or fish products, butincreasingly imports foreign-caught fish(Figure 5).

A few of the primary fishing zoneshave been made into multi-use areas,encompassing the needs of fishermen,and also the needs of tourists, and thoseconcerned with marine conservation. TheSoufriere-Scotts Head Marine Reserve(SSMR), in the southwest part of theisland (Figure 1) was established in1998 and is a fine example of how amarine-centered community can balanceand manage the demands of local produc-tion with fishing zones, global interestswith SCUBA and snorkeling zones fortourists, and sustainability with marinenursery zones. Local producers continueto utilize local resources in conjunctionwith activities related to globalization,including the demands for exotic recrea-tion and international conservation. How-ever, this arrangement is not always

harmonious as conflicts sometimes arise(SIDSNET 2009).

Most Dominican fishermen still use tra-ditional methods, such as simple hooks,fresh-caught baitfish, and line, often with-out reel (Figure 6). They sometimes weargloves to protect their hands from lineburn. The typical fishing boat in Dominicawill have two to three individuals, one todrive, and the others to fish and to prepareand gut caught fish. Dominica’s method offishing is labor-intensive, but is also sus-tainable both to the environment and to thelabor force. This method of fishing allowsfish populations to rejuvenate and maintaina healthy level of biodiversity, but resultsin a more expensive product at the market-place compared to industrial fishing tech-niques. As global pressures towards freetrade have increased and local people havebeen attracted to purchase more foreigngoods, the importation of fish products has

Figure 3: Dried salt fish is relatively inexpensive (price is in EC dol-lars; EC$2.6 = US$1) and widely available in Dominican supermarkets.Salt fish is regularly harvested in Dominican waters, but also representsthe largest subset of imported fish to the island.

Figure 4: Typical Dominican fisherman with an open-air boat, outboardmotor, and simple fishing equipment.

Figure 5: 3Graph depicts fish imports versusexports from 1975 to 2006 in 1000s of US dol-lars. Fish imports have grown considerablysince the 1980s, while exports have remainedvirtually nil.

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grown steadily (Figure 7). Dominica’s fishimports rose from hundreds of thousandsto around two million U.S. dollars over theperiod from 1980 to 2000 (Figure 5).

Small-scale Caribbean fishing differsfrom most of the world’s informal eco-nomic activity. Worldwide, somewherebetween 60–80% of informal workers arefemale (Hays-Mitchell 2006: 255). Andunlike many other informal economicactivities in the Caribbean region, such asfood vending, in which women arestrongly represented, the Caribbean andDominican fishing trade employs almostexclusively males (Sookram and Watson2008). Women often help in the prepara-tions of fish stew, soup etc., and in thesalting of fish, but this is done only afterthe catch is brought in.

The complex hierarchy that governsrelationships among fishermen and theirfishing areas requires analysis all its own.What is notable here is that fishing areas,and the catches from these areas, arethought of as vital resources and theknowledge of these places and the associ-ated fishing techniques are held closely byelder fishermen. The knowledge base offishing is passed down to new generations,and there is a sense that respect should bepaid to the older generation of fishermen.Dominica’s small scale fishing sector oper-

ates and relies heavily on communityinvolvement, with villagers helping tobring in fish, haul boats on shore, andwatch over fishing equipment when leftunattended (Figure 8). The communal nat-ure of fishing in villages such as Scotts

Head has allowed those who were previ-ously unable to purchase fishing equip-ment on their own to engage in fishingactivities. Often several fishermen will fishfrom the same boat while contributingtowards gasoline and supplies (Figure 9).

Figure 6: Freshly caught bait fish fill the hullof a brightly colored Dominican boat. Thesefish were caught with a net. The black snorkelat the front of the photo are used when spearfishing for larger species.

Figure 7: Some trends in the fish industry can be gleaned from a supermarket visit. This frozenfood section in Dominica’s largest food store displays some fish on the right side that likely arecaught locally (herring, flying fish, flounder), and other brightly packaged fish on the left side thatare part of the country’s growing import bill (bangamary, salmon, tuna, trout, tilapia). RainforestSeafoods is a major fish exporter out of Jamaica. Prices in EC dollars (EC$2.6 = US$1) documentthat frozen fish is expensive for the average Dominican (per capita income = US$8,300 in 2008PPP (Purchasing Power Parity); PRB, 2009).

Figure 8: 4Children and men help to bring in a fishing boat in the vibrant fishing communityof Scotts Head. Although you can see one female looking on (center white shirt), females do nottypically participate in fishing activities in Dominica.

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Fishing officially contributes about2.5% to Dominica’s GDP, but this under-values its contribution. About 1,150 metrictons of fish are taken annually fromDominican waters, and the industry pro-vides some 2,000 registered fishermen withincomes. This does not include peoplewho are not registered with their localfisheries office nor the many involved inancillary activities. The contribution offishing to GDP also does not include muchof the fish that is exchanged in the infor-mal economy. Throughout the Caribbeanregion, the informal trade that occurs off-the-books is a crucial component of thedaily lives of people (FAO 2000). To sum-marize, statistical tools used by the macro-scale policymakers do not incorporatemuch of Dominica’s micro-scale informalsector, illustrated here by fishing, fishingboats, and off-the-books exchanges. Localfishermen still operate much as they havefor generations, making a sustainable liv-ing off the resources available aroundthem.

Forest Resources

As noted earlier, Conservation Interna-tional (2009) identifies the Caribbeanregion as a biodiversity hotspot and aninternational conservation priority. Itsmany varied physical and marine environ-ments support high levels of flora andfauna diversity and endemism. The Carib-

bean has about 13,000 species of plants, ascompared to around 14,000 in all of NorthAmerica. That makes the Caribbean fivetimes more biodiverse as the equivalentarea of North America (Barker 2004).Among Caribbean plant species, about6,550 are single island endemics. Dominicais home to approximately 1,250 speciesof plants, some of which are Caribbeanendemics. There are 11 plants endemiconly to Dominica. Currently, about 13% ofCaribbean land is protected, but the com-parable figure for Dominica is 20%. Over16,000 hectares (about 40,000 acres) ofDominican land is designated as eithernational parks or forest reserves (Figure 1;Commonwealth of Dominica 2001).Beyond these public lands are significanttracts of privately owned forested land.Overall, about 51,770 hectares (127, 900acres) or 65% of the Dominican landscapeis forested. The forested landscapes makeDominica unique in the Caribbean – it hasthe most intact forest cover in the region(Commonwealth of Dominica 2001, Con-servation International 2009).

Given the large amount of forest inDominica, a considerable amount of woodharvesting can still take place in the forestreserves and on private land, while theforests in the national parks are left intact.For many years, local people have beenharvesting trees sustainably. Before har-vesting any tree in the forest reserves, aharvester must obtain a permit and

approval from Dominica’s Forestry,Wildlife and Parks Division. The ForestryDivision charges a nominal fee for thepermit and the tree. The Division todayhas a broader mandate to ensure sustain-able use of the island’s forests comparedwith its role as a regulatory body when itwas created in 1949 (Forestry, Wildlifeand Parks Division 2006a). In 2003, theDivision issued 28 permits for the removalof forest produce from state lands. Thatyear saw the harvesting and sale of 24individual trees from public lands(Forestry, Wildlife and Parks Division2006b). Occasionally there are cases ofillegal harvesting of forest products, butthis is rare.

Though Forestry Division permits arerelatively inexpensive, the process of har-vesting the tree presents great challengesto most of the local chainsaw men andharvesters, particularly because of inacces-sibility. This makes Dominica differentfrom other Caribbean islands and mosttropical islands, where forests have beenmore severely exploited. The ForestryDivision divides the island into fourranges in which Dominicans can selectand harvest trees. The difficult terrain is amajor reason for inaccessibility, as is thelocation of areas allowed for harvestingwithin the four ranges. The locations areoften farther away from roads than har-vesters would like. Every few years theForest Division assesses the areas whereharvesting is allowed and designates newareas where sustainable harvesting canoccur.

In most other parts of the world, woodharvesting generally takes the form of clearcutting or strip cutting, especially whenlarge logging companies are involved. Thisform of harvesting is known to have detri-mental effects on the environment andlocal biodiversity (Mason and Putz 2001).This type of large-scale forest exploitationhas been attempted several times in Domi-nica’s history, but the rugged topographyhas always caused it to fail (Honychurch1995). Today in Dominica, single-tree fell-ing is used by harvesters as opposed to theother two larger scale methods. The pro-cess involves the selection of one or twotrees to be harvested from an area and itcauses minimal disturbance in the forestcompared to clear cutting or strip cutting(Mason and Putz 2001).

After a person has selected a specifictree to harvest and the tree has beeninspected and approved by the ForestryDivision, a couple of men (most are hiredby the harvester or are neighbors and

Figure 9: Local fishermen in the village of Scotts Head organize nets, and clean and de-scalebaitfish. Residents of Dominican fishing villages often work cooperatively to bring in boats, storefishing equipment, and organize the catch after a successful day out.

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friends) go into the forest to cut down thetree. The mountainous terrain makes itdifficult to carry out the entire cut tree, sotrees are cut into planks where they arefelled. The chainsaw men make thestraight planks with surprising accuracyusing only string and a chainsaw (Figures10 and 11). The advantages of making theplanks in the forest itself are two-fold, onefor the harvesters and the other for theecology. Firstly, the entire tree does notneed to be carried out of the forest on thedifficult terrain and secondly, it causesthe harvesters to leave behind much of thetree in the form of smaller branches bark,leaves, etc. This is environmentally benefi-cial since it returns nutrients to the forestand contributes to forest regrowth. Tropi-cal forests have most of the nutrientsstored in the very top layer of the soil,the detritus, and in the trees themselves.When entire trees are taken out of the for-est, so are all of the nutrients.

Many species of local trees have valu-able wood. Some of the more well-known

and widely used include the gommier(Dacryodes excelsa), balat (Pouteria multifl-ora), bwa blan (Simarouba amara), bois dia-ble (Licania ternatensis), almond (Terminaliacattapa), and apricot (Mammea americana).The gommier continues to be used by theCaribs people and others to make ocean-worthy canoes. Houses in Dominica werefor centuries also made out of wood, butin recent decades there has been a shift tomainly concrete houses. While some peo-ple still use local wood in construction ofhouses, most of the local wood harvestedtoday is made into furniture.

While cinder blocks are the preferredhousing construction material today, peo-ple do continue to use wood for featuresof and additions to their houses. Thiswood is cut not only in the Forestry Divi-sion’s reserves but more often on pri-vately-owned land. Observations lead usto assert that most of the wooden housingbuilt today is for ecolodges. An exampleof an ecotourism house is located near thestart of Victoria Falls trail in Delices (see

Figure 1). People living in and around De-lices constructed the house as a place theycan rent out to backpackers travellingthrough the island. Many of the woodsused in the construction of this house canbe seen in Figure 12.

Local wood is also used to make sou-venirs for tourists. These crafts are usuallysold near the start of trails or at the BayFront area in Roseau where stalls andshops are devoted to tourists disembark-ing from the cruise ship dock. Local logsand wood are also used in creating stepson trails. The trunks of tree ferns are pre-ferred for the steps of the island’s growingnumber of hiking trails. Tree ferns providegrip and are rot resistant, even under hotand humid conditions (Figure 13). Anotheron-going use of local wood relates to thefact that Dominicans often have a woodstove outside their home, in addition tothe gas stove in the kitchen. The woodused for these stoves are small branchescollected from public lands (but notnational parks) and private forested areas.

Figure 11: Planks cut from a hardwood tree (gom-mier) by marking a log with a string and cuttingwith a chainsaw.

Figure 10: Local chainsaw man on his way to cuttimber into planks for construction.

Figure 12: Custom home near Victoria Falls, Delices built from four local hardwoods: bread-fruit (windows and stairs), sisserou (siding), bois riviere (rafters) and bois blan (flooring butseen leaning against the siding).

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The amount of wood harvested locallyis small, especially compared to the num-ber of available permits from the ForestryDivision. All of the factors mentionedabove have kept the forests in Dominicaintact. Most of the locally harvested woodis also used within Dominica rather thanexported. There is, however, plenty ofimported wood, especially from Guyanaand Trinidad. Wood is imported to serve arange of uses including the local furnitureindustry, housing, and telephone poles(Figure 14).

Conclusions

There are some notable connectionsbetween this empirical study of Domi-nica’s fishing and forestry industries andthree wider issues: development policy,globalization, and the relationship betweenthe local and the global.

Out of a series of consultations withthe World Bank and the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF), a key developmentpolicy document called Medium-termGrowth and Social Protection Strategy wascreated to provide an economic assessmentand a set of development priorities forDominica (Commonwealth of Dominica2006). The document flatly states that‘‘Dominica is not internationally competi-tive; and internally there is a lack of dyna-mism in the economy’’ (p. 3). Theeconomic activities and social networkingdescribed in this essay are largelyexcluded from this development policyanalysis. Domestic fishing and forestryactivities function under the radar fromthe development assessment and recom-mendations of the World Bank and the

IMF. However, these activities, as illus-trated in this essay, have deep culturalroots and much artisanal vibrancy, arelargely sustainable, and provide substan-tial employment and consumption value.Analysis of development in the GlobalSouth based on global free-trade typicallydoes not fully incorporate these productsand services. Without recognizing the levelof informal trade between vendors andconsumers, GDP statistics fail to capturethe true scale of economic activitiesassociated with primary products, and themany people who produce and consumethem.

A similar comment can be made withrespect to globalization. Though globaliza-tion processes now connect much of theworld through trade flows and informa-tion exchanges, they are not as all-encom-passing and homogenizing as they aresometimes portrayed (Friedman 2005;Blouet 2001). Certain activities within ourotherwise highly globalized world, espe-cially those in small economically periph-eral countries, continue to flourish. Localactivities, products and producers oftenfunction somewhat autonomously, andwhile influenced by globalization, they arenot reliant upon nor subdued by it.

Further, the expansion of globalizationhas led to an unsustainable scale ofresource exploitation, with the distributionof benefits highly uneven in terms ofregions and people. Globalized supplychains and trade are now responsible for ahost of everyday products in many parts ofthe world. From 1970 to 2002, the value ofmerchandise and services exported world-wide rose from US $316 to US $8025 billion(UNCTAD 2004). Many primary products

originate in one country, are processed inanother, and are consumed in a third.Driven by efficiency and price, supplychains have begun to expand and integrateeven the most remote of places, often bring-ing its members into new markets withnew opportunities. However, this integra-tion is not even and often places dire stressupon ecosystems and small-scale produc-ers. While paying attention to the intercon-nected nature of primary products, thisessay has focused on the people behindtwo of these primary products, how theyare connected, but also how they remainlocally vibrant. As Scholte (2000 p.8) putsit, ‘‘Although globalization has touchedalmost every person and locale in today’sworld, the trend has spread unevenly,being most concentrated among propertiedand professional classes, in the north, intowns, and among younger generations’’.

A vast literature in economic geogra-phy examining industries and regions coa-lesces around the idea of ‘‘[t]he continuingsignificance of ‘the local within the global;’the notion that the forces of globalizationnot only do not obliterate local distinctive-ness but that, seemingly paradoxically,local qualities become more, not less, signif-icant in a globalizing world economy’’(Dicken 2000 p.438). Much related work inpolitical economy continues to draw atten-tion to the significance of the geographicalscale of ‘‘the national.’’ That is, there is stillconsiderable economic activity framed bythe territoriality and powers associatedwith the nation state. It is also important toappreciate ways that local activities meshwith the global influences, rather than tothink of the local and global as distinct, andseparately analyzable (Porter 2000).

Figure 13: The durable and slip-resistant trunks of tree ferns makeDominica’s steep hiking trails more navigable.

Figure 14: Wallaba wood imported from Guyana to be installed as telephonepoles.

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These global-local connections andissues of sustainability play out in fascinat-ing ways in Dominica. Many practices inthe Global North that would be labeled asexamples of sustainability, Dominicansconceptualize in different ways, often dri-ven by pragmatism. In the coastal marinezones, Dominican fishermen understandthe essential relationship between harvest-ing and replenishment. Wary of legalreprisal, Dominican fisherman generallyadhere to catch quotas, seasonal fishingregulations, and restrictions on fishing inprotected marine nursery zones. More fun-damentally, however, fishermen have forlong adhered to their own unwritten regu-lations that limit the take of females andjuveniles, and express a no-nonsense atti-tude that this increases future fishing pos-sibilities.

Similarly, what appears to the outsideras sustainable forestry, for Dominican treefellers is the age-old practice of balancingthe level of tree extraction with the level ofseedling replenishment. Further, tree fell-ers do not leave the leaf and branch litterin the forest to decompose in the pursuitof sustainability. Instead, the practice isdriven primarily by convenience. Thesteep terrain and great distances to motor-able roads make it nearly impossible toremove entire trees. Cutting them intoboards where the tree is felled, and in theprocess, leaving behind considerable detri-tus, is therefore standard practice.

There is deep national pride in thework of Dominicans that supply fish, har-vest trees, and craft products out of wood.There is appreciation of local skills, hardwork, connections to the land, and thequality of Dominican products. Practitio-ners of these crafts have pride and appre-ciation for their workmanship. Fishermeneloquently and passionately describe themarine world and its products, and treefellers do the same with wood and theresulting crafts. Tree fellers often speak ofinnate beauty, describing the ‘‘built-indesigns’’ in the grain and color of thewood they work with, especially praisingwood that does not need an application ofcolored varnish. Some tree fellers will goeven beyond that to state the superiorquality of the island’s wood (and its result-ing products) compared to imported alter-natives. The pride and appreciation carriesbeyond just the practitioners, as Domini-cans that consume the fresh local foodsand use the artisanal products from localhardwoods recognize their distinct value.

At the same time, globalization isshifting more and more attention abroad,

and this is particularly apparent in theform of a demographic divide, as Scholte(2000) has noted is occurring throughoutthe world. Most of the young people areless connected to the land and sea thanprevious generations. Many Dominicansand especially younger ones yearn forgreater connections to the globalizingworld and are less content practicing tradi-tional lifestyles. They desire more externalconnections than already present throughimported products, satellite TV, and theDominican Diaspora. We call for futureresearch that looks more directly at rela-tionships between the local and the out-side world, as the impacts of globalizationcontinue to grow in relatively remote andlocally vibrant places such as Dominica.

This essay has focused on two pre-globalization economic and cultural lega-cies that have continued to flourish inDominica. These two legacies are not glob-ally isolated and do interact with the out-side world, especially when they deploycertain outside technologies, such as chainsaws for forestry, and motors and syn-thetic nets for fishing. However, they eachhave their own local logic, distinctive localfeatures, and significant autonomy fromglobalization processes. Thus they cancontinue to function separately from theglobal trade flows, unlike so many otheractivities in the global economic periphery.Dominica’s fishing and forestry sectorsillustrate a local dynamism that can con-tinue to flourish, independent of the manyaspects of globalization that increasinglyconnect distant places and peoples in theworld to each other.

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