Browsing by Author "Hector, Michael"

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    Toxic trade: E-waste disposal and environmental governance in West Africa
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12) Hector, Michael; Lambrechts, Derica; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Political Science.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The following research aims to approach the illicit e-waste trade from a transnational environmental crime perspective. The study of environmental crime is one that is defined in various ways. This study defines environmental crime as a crime which violates existing national and international law, has identifiable negative consequences (health and environmental); and that the consequences are a result of human action(s). This study also makes use of the concept of Environmental Governance, which is defined as being regulatory processes, organizations, rules, laws and international state and non-state organizations whose political and economic actions influence the environment and the global environmental regime. Here focus is placed on multinational environmental agreements (MEAs), with attention being paid to international regulations (in the form of the Basel Convention) and national regulations (in the form of e-waste specific legislation) in both Ghana and Nigeria. This study also pays attention to the relationship between the global North (developed) and the global South (developing) using the concept of Global Political Economy (GPE). It is argued that the trade in hazardous waste and more specifically e-waste is more complex than the notion that the global North is dumping hazardous wastes in the global South. This study is likewise focused on the position that the global South occupies within the international environmental regime and how this regime has provided the global South with a platform to challenge Northern dominance. This thesis is particularly concerned with the actors involved in the illicit e-waste trade in West Africa. The research question is thus: Who are the main actors in facilitating the illicit e-waste trade to and within West Africa? The mapping of the actors involved in this illicit trade is done using a waste cycle presented by Massari & Monzini (2004). West Africa was chosen as a case study and sites within Ghana and Nigeria act as focus areas due to the prominence and noticeable effects of e-waste disposal within these West African states. Here it is argued that these states act as facilitators in the illicit e-waste trade due to the ease with which international and national regulations are exploited for personal gain and due to the absence of political will, financial and human capital, and enforcement capacity. This analysis allows for the research question to be answered. The mapping of the actors involved in the illicit e-waste trade likewise provides information to suggest that the trade in illicit e-waste is one that requires increased attention and that the dumping of hazardous wastes is an issue that is more complex than the notion that the global South is being exploited by the global North, but that the global South is party to its own victimization.