Can the maquiladora industry act as a catalyst for industrial development in Nicaragua? Some thoughts based on the study of Nien Hsing Textile Co.

Nicaragua, the poorest country of Central American, gives shelter to many foreign owned plants in its free trade zones (export processing zones). In December 2006, some 80.000 persons worked in these industrial zones. The great majority of these plants belong to the clothing industry and most of them are of Asian capital. But, does this maquiladora industry - an assembly industry of imported intermediate goods that benefits from a preferential tax and tariff treatment - contribute to a genuine industrial development of Nicaragua? This paper tries to give some elements of answer to this question by studying the evolution of a Taiwanese maquiladora enterprise assembling jeans and casual wear in Nicaragua: Nien Hsing Textile Co. Our study casts doubts on the contribution of such a foreign enterprise to the development of a perennial local industrial structure: there are no backward linkages, the Nicaraguan employees are not qualified and realise manual and routine tasks, and management is mostly composed of expatriates. Moreover, our comparison between the situation in 2007 and the one in 1998 shows us that there have no been significant changes: the enterprise remains an economic enclave manufacturing a basic or standardized garment whose permanence in the country still depends on specific trade policy advantages (with an expiry date) enjoyed by Nicaragua.Postprint (published version

Effluent dissolved organic nitrogen and phosphorus removal by magnetic ion exchange

Outgoin

Effluent dissolved organic nitrogen and phosphorus removal by magnetic ion exchange

Outgoin

Can the maquiladora industry act as a catalyst for industrial development in Nicaragua? Some thoughts based on the study of Nien Hsing Textile Co.

Nicaragua, the poorest country of Central American, gives shelter to many foreign owned plants in its free trade zones (export processing zones). In December 2006, some 80.000 persons worked in these industrial zones. The great majority of these plants belong to the clothing industry and most of them are of Asian capital. But, does this maquiladora industry - an assembly industry of imported intermediate goods that benefits from a preferential tax and tariff treatment - contribute to a genuine industrial development of Nicaragua? This paper tries to give some elements of answer to this question by studying the evolution of a Taiwanese maquiladora enterprise assembling jeans and casual wear in Nicaragua: Nien Hsing Textile Co. Our study casts doubts on the contribution of such a foreign enterprise to the development of a perennial local industrial structure: there are no backward linkages, the Nicaraguan employees are not qualified and realise manual and routine tasks, and management is mostly composed of expatriates. Moreover, our comparison between the situation in 2007 and the one in 1998 shows us that there have no been significant changes: the enterprise remains an economic enclave manufacturing a basic or standardized garment whose permanence in the country still depends on specific trade policy advantages (with an expiry date) enjoyed by Nicaragua

A global database of soil nematode abundance and functional group composition

As the most abundant animals on earth, nematodes are a dominant component of the soil community. They play critical roles in regulating biogeochemical cycles and vegetation dynamics within and across landscapes and are an indicator of soil biological activity. Here, we present a comprehensive global dataset of soil nematode abundance and functional group composition. This dataset includes 6,825 georeferenced soil samples from all continents and biomes. For geospatial mapping purposes these samples are aggregated into 1,933 unique 1-km pixels, each of which is linked to 73 global environmental covariate data layers. Altogether, this dataset can help to gain insight into the spatial distribution patterns of soil nematode abundance and community composition, and the environmental drivers shaping these patterns.Peer reviewe

Soil nematode abundance and functional group composition at a global scale

Soil organisms are a crucial part of the terrestrial biosphere. Despite their importance for ecosystem functioning, few quantitative, spatially explicit models of the active belowground community currently exist. In particular, nematodes are the most abundant animals on Earth, filling all trophic levels in the soil food web. Here we use 6,759 georeferenced samples to generate a mechanistic understanding of the patterns of the global abundance of nematodes in the soil and the composition of their functional groups. The resulting maps show that 4.4 ± 0.64 × 1020 nematodes (with a total biomass of approximately 0.3 gigatonnes) inhabit surface soils across the world, with higher abundances in sub-Arctic regions (38% of total) than in temperate (24%) or tropical (21%) regions. Regional variations in these global trends also provide insights into local patterns of soil fertility and functioning. These high-resolution models provide the first steps towards representing soil ecological processes in global biogeochemical models and will enable the prediction of elemental cycling under current and future climate scenario

A global database of soil nematode abundance and functional group composition

This study uses direct measurements of soil nematode abundance from 6,825 georeferenced locations around the world, covering all continents and all terrestrial biomes. We describe the data sources, methodology and data processing steps to transform the data into a version that can be used for, for example, geospatial modeling. To do so, the samples were aggregated to the 1-km2 pixel level, each pixel is linked to 73 global covariate layers. These include on soil physiochemical properties, and vegetation, climate, and topographic, anthropogenic, and spectral reflectance information