Understanding extractivism in border regions. Monoculture and dispossession in Costa Rica’s borderlands

Abstract

Central American border regions are marked by the presence of massive extraction industries such as mining and oil as well as pineapple, banana, citric and palm oil monocultures. This article seeks to analyze the link between border regions and the presence of extraction industries for two case studies: the canton of Talamanca on the River Sixaola basin onthe border between Costa Rica and Panamá) and the North Zone of Costa Rica on the border with Nicaragua. The article analyzes the historical and political factors that facilitated the establishment of extraction industries and identifies the main public and private actors that interfere in the pineapple and banana extraction processes. The growth of this kind of monocultures is depicted as a means of plundering and amassing land that causes high financial costs, and ecological and social damage in the study regions.