Land Cover Change in Mixed Agroforestry: Shade Coffee in El Salvador

Little is known about land cover change in mixed agroforestry systems, which often supply valuable ecological services. We use a spatial regression model to analyze clearing in El Salvador’s shade coffee–growing regions during the 1990s. Our findings buttress previous research suggesting the relationship between proximity to cities and clearing in mixed agroforestry systems is the opposite of that in natural forests. But this result, and several others, depends critically on the characteristics of the growing area, particularly the dominant cleared land use. These findings imply that policies aimed at retaining mixed agroforestry need to be carefully targeted and tailored.agroforestry, shade coffee, land cover, El Salvador, spatial econometrics

Tree Cover Loss in El Salvador's Shade Coffee Areas

Shade coffee farms in Central America provide important ecological services. But because international coffee prices have fallen since 1990, many have been cleared to make way for more remunerative land uses. This problem is of particular concern in heavily deforested El Salvador, where a large share of the remaining tree cover is associated with shade coffee. We use satellite images, stakeholder interviews, and secondary data to analyze the magnitude, characteristics, and drivers of clearing in El Salvador’s shade coffee areas during the 1990s. We find that 13 percent of these areas was cleared, mostly in middle- and high-altitude regions. Falling coffee prices were not the only drivers of this phenomenon, however: a downward spiral of on-farm investment and yields, debt, poverty, urbanization, migration, and weak land use regulation also contributed. Our findings suggest that stricter enforcement of land use and land cover regulations is urgently needed to prevent further clearing.shade coffee, land use, land cover, deforestation, El Salvador

Shade-Grown Coffee: Simulation and Policy Analysis for Coastal Oaxaca, Mexico

Shade-grown coffee provides a livelihood to many farmers, protects biodiversity, and creates environmental services. Many shade-coffee farmers have abandoned production in recent years, however, in response to declines in international coffee prices. This paper builds a farmer decision model under price uncertainty and uses simulation analysis of that model to examine the likely impact of various policies on abandonment of shade-coffee plantations. Using information from coastal Oaxaca, Mexico, this paper examines the role of various constraints in abandonment decisions, reveals the importance of the timing of policies, and characterizes the current situation in the study region.coffee farming, decision analysis, numerical modeling, Monte Carlo, price variability

Land Cover in a Managed Forest Ecosystem: Mexican Shade Coffee

Managed forest ecosystems—agroforestry systems in which crops such as coffee and bananas are planted side-by-side with woody perennials—are being touted as a means of safeguarding forests along with the ecological services they provide. Yet we know little about the determinants of land cover in such systems, information needed to design effective forest conservation policies. This paper presents a spatial regression analysis of land cover in a managed forest ecosystem—a shade coffee region of coastal Mexico. Using high-resolution land cover data derived from aerial photographs along with data on the geophysical and institutional characteristics of the study area, we find that plots in close proximity to urban centers are less likely to be cleared, all other things equal. This result contrasts sharply with the literature on natural forests. In addition, we find that membership in coffee-marketing cooperatives, farm size, and certain soil types are associated with forest cover, while proximity to small town centers is associated with forest clearing.deforestation, managed forest ecosystem, agroforestry, shade-grown coffee, Mexico, spatial econometrics, land cover

Case Study #9-7 of the Program: ''Food Policy For Developing Countries: The Role Of Government In The Global Food System''

13 pp.©Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. All rights reserved. This case study may be reproduced for educational purposes without express permission but must include acknowledgment to Cornell University. No commercial use is permitted without permission.The fact that poor people will resort to violence to change the political and economic system that they believe is responsible for their poverty is not new. The link between poverty, violence, and instability has started to figure prominently in the agenda of strategic discussions in global fora and national governments, sparked by the increased sense of threat from terrorism felt by societies in developed countries. Analysts seem to agree that poverty, combined with a long list of factors, including ethnic disparities, social and economic inequalities, and resource disputes, can prepare the ground for conflict. Although poverty itself does not cause violent conflict, it does provide a basis for it. This case study is about the probable link between poverty and violent social uprisings in rural Mexico. It illustrates how the sudden exacerbation of poverty and exclusion, provoked largely by the implementation of market liberalization policies, may have been the trigger that led thousands of people to turn to violent rebellion against the rule of law, with immense and far-reaching social, economic, and political costs. In the early 1990s, coffee-producing populations in southern Mexico, already living in poverty and in generally marginal conditions, suddenly and simultaneously experienced a precipitous reversal of cash flows and an alteration in their usual paths of economic exchange. These changes resulted partly from an institutional change that happened too fast. The 1989 collapse of the International Coffee Agreement and the 1990 dismantling of the Mexican Coffee Institute triggered a sudden drop in coffee prices and disarray in domestic coffee markets that destabilized the economies of thousands of coffee-producing households. This case study argues that the suddenness and magnitude of the so-called coffee crisis that ensued may help explain when, how, and why two paramilitary armies with strong backing from the local population made their first public and violent appearance in the Mexican countryside in the mid- 1990s. Through this real-life example, this case study aims to stimulate thinking about what went wrong with policy and discussion on what can be done, or done better, by stakeholder groups to achieve both poverty and stability goals. The assignment is to identify key lessons learned for the design and implementation of government action in situations similar to the one described in this case.Cornell University Division of Nutritional Science