Indigenous Livelihoods, Slash-And-Burn Agriculture, and Carbon Stocks in Eastern Panama
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ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS 60 (2007) 807– 820 available at www.sciencedirect.com www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon ANALYSIS Indigenous livelihoods, slash-and-burn agriculture, and carbon stocks in Eastern Panama Petra Tschakert a,⁎, Oliver T. Coomes b, Catherine Potvin c a Department of Geography/Alliance for Earth Sciences, Engineering, and Development in Africa (AESEDA), Pennsylvania State University, 315 Walker Building, University Park, PA 16802-5011, USA b Department of Geography, McGill University, 805 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Canada, QC H3A 2K6 c Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205 Dr. Penfield, Montreal, Canada, QC H3A 1B1 ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Improved crop–fallow systems in the humid tropics can simultaneously sequester Received 28 March 2005 atmospheric carbon emissions and contribute to sustainable livelihoods of rural Received in revised form populations. A study with an indigenous community in eastern Panama revealed a 22 December 2005 considerable biophysical potential for carbon offsets in small-scale slash-and-burn Accepted 2 February 2006 agriculture through longer fallow periods, improved fallow management, secondary forest Available online 3 April 2006 development, and agricultural intensification. Based on soil and biomass carbon − − measurements, estimated annual sequestration rates amount to 0.3−3.7 t C ha 1 yr 1. Keywords: Despite such potential, the economic benefits of initiatives aimed at sequestration of carbon Indigenous smallholders in the community are likely to be rather unequally distributed within the community. Livelihood diversification Heterogeneity in livelihood strategies and uneven asset endowments among households – Crop–fallow systems factors often overlooked in the ongoing carbon and sustainable development debate – are Soil and biomass carbon expected to strongly affect household participation. Indeed, only the better-endowed Panama households that have also managed to diversify into more lucrative farm and non-farm activities are likely to be able to participate in and thus benefit from improved crop–fallow systems that capture carbon. Economic, ethical, institutional, and technical concerns need to be taken into account when designing community carbon management and investment plans. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Annual carbon (C) sequestration rates in tropical forest fallow are estimated to account for 25–90% of C losses due to biomass Secondary forests – a key feature in forest landscapes and slash- burning in forests (Hughes et al., 1999; Lugo and Brown, 1992; and-burn agriculture of small-scale farmers in the tropics – are Naughton-Treves, 2004). In addition to global environmental not only increasing in extent worldwide but also receiving services such as C storage and biodiversity conservation, growing attention with respect to their potential ecosystem secondary forests and forest fallows contribute to improved services and contributions to sustainable livelihoods. Defined as local ecological conditions, including erosion control and woody vegetation on agricultural land or other lands where watershed protection (Smith and Scherr, 2003). previous forest cover has been eliminated (de Jong et al., 2001; However, gains from secondary forest expansion are Smith et al., 1997), secondary forests covered 165 million ha in perceived to be evanescent due to the agricultural practices 1990 in Latin America alone (de Jong et al., 2001; FAO, 1996). of shifting cultivators. Shifting cultivation, also referred to as ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 814 863 9399; fax: +1 814 863 7943. E-mail address: [email protected] (P. Tschakert). 0921-8009/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2006.02.001 808 ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS 60 (2007) 807– 820 slash-and-burn or swidden–fallow agriculture, is practiced by points to the potential importance for uneven distribution of smallholders who clear forest lands for the purpose of crop benefits/costs and attendant ethical concerns regarding poten- production. The productivity of the system relies on the tial losers and winners of improved management and land use temporary increase in nutrient availability of the soil, the options (Brown et al., 2004, 2003a; Coomes et al., 2002). buffering capacity of ash, and the regenerative capacity of This paper seeks to bridge the empirical gap between land fallow periods (Fujisaka et al., 2000). After cropping, land is use/management behavior of indigenous smallholders and often converted to pasture and agroforests are left in fallow in actual options for carbon sequestration in tropical swidden– anticipation of future cultivation. In Panama, shifting cultiva- fallow systems. The focus of our study is the Tierra Colectiva of tion, which has been practiced regionally since 5000 BC, is Ipetí–Emberá in eastern Panama. The paper is divided into two responsible for much of the country’s current deforestation, major parts. The first part assesses the role of household having reached an annual rate of 51,000 ha in 1990 (Fischer characteristics in shaping agricultural practices and forest and Vasseur, 2000). Once regarded as a singularly destructive fallow management. In the second part, we estimate current and unsustainable practice, swidden–fallow agriculture is now and potential future carbon stocks of cropped and fallowed considered to be a key element of peasant farming portfolios fields. Specifically, we answer the following questions: (1) with the potential for sustainable development and enhanced What are the main household characteristics and livelihood livelihoods among the rural poor (Abizaid and Coomes, 2004; diversification strategies? (2) What are the main cropping and Coomes et al., 2000; Toledo et al., 2003; Vosti and Witcover, fallowing practices and who uses them? (3) What are current 1996). As such, improved swidden–fallow systems could not soil and biomass C stocks for different crop types and fallow only reduce rural poverty, but also contribute to societal goals fields of different ages? (4) What C gains can be expected from of the Kyoto Protocol. In tropical agriculture, the key to improved secondary forest fallow development? (5) Which realizing local and global benefits is seen to lie in agricultural groups of farmers are most likely to participate in improved intensification and improved fallow management; reduction land use management programs? in the area in cropland while intensification of agricultural production; adoption of agroforestry; expansion of the extent of fallow land or delaying of forest conversion; lengthening of 2. Research area and methods fallows and enhancement of forest species composition; and raising the value of secondary forests through diversification 2.1. Site description of forest products as well as the commercialization of environmental services (Albrecht and Kandji, 2003; Coomes The study was conducted in the indigenous Tierra Colectiva et al., 2000; Montagnini and Nair, 2004; Place and Dewees, of Ipetí–Emberá in eastern Panama (78°30′–78°34′ W, 8°55′– 1999; Scatena et al., 1996; Smith et al., 1999). 9°00′ N). The community is located directly adjacent to the Researchers are recognizing increasingly that initiatives Pan-American Highway and holds collectively a total of focusing on appropriate or improved management in slash- 3168 ha of land (Fig. 1) with elevation ranging from 50 to 300 m and-burn agriculture are unlikely to succeed without a fuller above sea level. The Emberá, one of three indigenous groups in understanding of the socio-economic context and logic that eastern Panama, migrated from Colombia to the Bayano region underlies peasant farmers' land use decisions (de Jong et al., in the 1950s, today a watershed for a major hydro-electrical 2001; Smith et al., 1999; Tomich et al., 1998; Vosti and dam roughly 25 km north of Ipetí. In the early 1960s, the first Witcover, 1996). Land use and management decisions are Emberá settled in what is today the Tierra Colectiva, followed in typically made at the household level, according to the the 1970s and 1980s by those displaced due to the construction constraints these households face, their assets, and the of the dam (Dalle and Potvin, 2004). In 2004, Ipetí–Emberá objectives they set. How households manage their productive comprised of 71 households (about 550 individuals). assets, including different types of physical, financial, and The climate in this region of Panama is of the Am type cultural capital (Bebbington, 1999), clearly shapes economic (Köppen classification) with average daily temperature and environmental outcomes. Despite this recognition, factors between 24 and 26 °C and annual precipitation of 2000– that drive forest fallowing behavior among smallholders in the 2500 mm (ANAM, 1999). From January to April there is a tropics remain poorly understood, particularly among tradition- distinct dry season with only sporadic rainfall. According to al and indigenous farmers (Gleave, 1996; Scatena et al., 1996; the Holdridge life-zones, the most prevalent vegetation type Coomes et al., 2000; Abizaid and Coomes, 2004). Critical aspects in the study area is tropical wet or, more specifically, such as differences in access to agricultural land, burning seasonal yet evergreen tropical rain forest (Holdridge et al., frequencies, labor availability, urgent food needs, and benefits 1971). The dominant soils are mainly ultisols and alfisols from secondary forests are too often overlooked in existing with average