The assumed determinism of the banana plantation region of Osa in the southern zone of Costa Rica

Abstract

This paper seeks to demonstrate the causes of the low levels of socioeconomic development of the Costa Rican region called Osa, the principal indicators of which are the negative rate of population growth and the low Índice de Desarrollo Social (Social Development Index) measured as of the volume of Necesidades Básicas Insatisfechas -NBI- (Unmet Basic Needs). The so-called Banana Enclave System, present in the south of Costa Rica between 1941 and 1984, has been uniquely and recurringly attributed with the responsibility for the economic underdevelopment of the region. We wish to add to it two further explanations, related to the original and also inherent to the territory, the one, and foreign to the territory, the other. On the one hand, we find ourselves before a region the agrarian structure of which has severe productivity limitations (agricultural usage, land-holding and capacity) and, on the other, the state interventions in the region have been scarce and ineffective.