Back to the forest: Exploring forest transitions in Candelaria Loxicha, Mexico

Declining proi tability of agriculture and/or higher prices of forest products and services typically drive an increase in forest cover. This article examines changes in forest cover in Candelaria Loxicha, Mexico. Forest cover increased in the area as a result of coffee cultivation in coffee forest-garden systems. Dependence on forest products and services, and not prices of forest products, drive the process in our study site. Low international coffee prices and high labor demand outside the community might pull farmers out of agriculture, but they do not completely abandon the lands. A diversii cation in income sources prevents land abandonment and contributes to maintaining rural populations and coffee forest garden

The emergence, persistence and current challenges of coffee forest gardens: A case study from Candelaria Loxicha, Oaxaca, Mexico

In many parts of Latin America coffee is produced in forest garden systems, which fulfill a variety of household needs, enhance food security, and conserve biodiversity. We investigate drivers in the emergence, persistence, and decline of coffee forest gardens, using a case study in southern Mexico and combining historical, socioeconomic, and institutional analysis. Social, cultural, and political benefits linked to forest gardens are important drivers of change. The analysis supports the hypothesis that forest gardens emerge in places where they complement broader land use systems, land tenure is relatively secure, and the local economy is a combination of cash- and subsistence-based activities. The article further illustrates how the international coffee agreement and social-welfare programs supported the emergence of forest gardens. Low coffee prices, changes in land tenure, and reduced availability of labor could result in the eventual abandonment of coffee forest gardens

Actors and landscape changes in tropical Latin America: challenges for REDD+ design and implementation

Five dominant trends are occurring in tropical Latin America with implications for land use change: (1) rapid growth of agribusiness, (2) expansion and modernisation of traditional cattle ranching, (3) slow growth of small-scale agriculture, (4) logging in production forest frontiers and (5) resurgence of traditional agro-extractive economies. These trends are driven by global markets and national policies, and have significant impacts on landscape change, with diverse associated trade-offs between agricultural development and forest conservation, and impacts on people’s livelihoods. Agribusiness expansion helps create economic growth but leads to deforestation and tends to concentrate incomes. Cattle ranching demands extensive land surface and creates few jobs, which also leads to forest conversion. Peasant agriculture creates jobs and local income but has diverse impacts on deforestation. Indigenous and community lands help to protect forests, but generate few opportunities for livelihoods improvement. Forest concessions do little damage to forests but concentrate incomes among a few people. These contrasting outcomes call for differentiated policy measures for agricultural development, forest conservation and poverty alleviation. There is a need to manage the expansion of large-scale agribusiness and ranching, whilst improving the economic options of smallholders, indigenous groups and other disadvantaged people. REDD+ schemes may help to reduce pressures on forests by compensating land users for foregone benefits. However, there is a need to balance efficiency in reducing emissions from deforestation and equity in the distribution of economic incentives. No ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to REDD+ could possibly deliver both cost-effectiveness and equity across such diverse landscapes and groups of actors. Whilst some REDD+ activities should target deforestation hotspots at the forest frontier, national strategies must remain inclusive and ensure that benefits and costs are shared among diverse stakeholder groups according to criteria of political fairness. REDD+ thus must go far beyond the compensation of land users’ opportunity costs in high-pressure areas. It will need to address some of the underlying structural reasons for resource overuse and underdevelopment in tropical forest area

Landscape Transformation in Tropical Latin America: Assessing Trends and Policy Implications for REDD+

Important transformations are underway in tropical landscapes in Latin America with implications for economic development and climate change. Landscape transformation is driven not only by national policies and markets, but also by global market dynamics associated with an increased role for transnational traders and investors. National and global trends affect a disparate number of social, political and economic interactions taking place at the local level, which ultimately shapes land-use and socio-economic change. This paper reviews five different trajectories of landscape change in tropical Latin America, and discusses their implications for development and conservation: (1) Market-driven growth of agribusiness; (2) expansion and modernization of traditional cattle ranching; (3) slow growth of peasant agriculture; (4) logging in production forest frontiers; and (5) resurgence of agro-extractive economies. Contrasting trade-offs between economic development and forest conservation emerge across these landscapes, calling for nuanced policy responses to manage them in the context of climate change. This discussion sets the background to assess how reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and enhancing carbon stocks (REDD+) aims should be better aligned with current landscape trajectories and associated actors to better address climate-change mitigation in forest landscapes with effective and equitable outcomes

Transformación de los paisajes tropicales en América Latina

En los paisajes tropicales de América Latina están teniendo lugar importantes transformaciones con consecuencias sobre el desarrollo económico y el cambio climático. Los cambios en los territorios ocurren no solo debido a las políticas y mercados nacionales sino también a las dinámicas de mercado globales vinculadas a un rol creciente de los comercializadores e inversionistas transnacionales. Las tendencias nacionales y globales afectan a un número diverso de interacciones sociales, políticas y económicas que tienen lugar a nivel local, las que en última instancia configuran el uso de la tierra y el cambio socio económico. Este artículo examina cinco trayectorias vinculadas a cambios en los paisajes tropicales de América Latina y discute sus consecuencias sobre el desarrollo y la conservación: 1. expansión del agronegocio impulsada por el mercado; 2. expansión y modernización de la ganadería tradicional; 3. crecimiento lento de la agricultura campesina; 4. extracción maderera en fronteras forestales de producción; y 5. resurgimiento de las economías agroextractivas. Cada uno de estos paisajes resulta en diferentes interacciones (trade-offs) entre desarrollo económico y conservación forestal, exigiendo respuestas diferenciadas de política para manejarlos en el contexto del cambio climático. Las reflexiones de este trabajo proporcionan un marco analítico para evaluar cómo se deben alinear los objetivos de reducción de emisiones de la deforestación y degradación de los bosques y el aumento de las reservas de carbono (REDD+) con las trayectorias actuales de los paisajes y sus respectivos actores con la finalidad de proporcionar opciones más efectivas para la mitigación del cambio climático en paisajes forestales tropicales