RESUMEN
In the study of shifting cultivation systems, fallow duration is seen as the key determinant of vegetation and soil dynamics: long fallows renew soil fertility, biomass, and biodiversity. However, long fallow systems are increasingly replaced around the world with short-medium fallow systems, and awareness is growing of the need to look across multiple (not just single) crop-fallow cycles to accurately understand observed soil and vegetation patterns. In a study from Peru that builds on 50+ years of field-level land-use histories, we found that, over multiple crop-fallow cycles, farmers' cropping practices mattered more than fallow duration for biodiversity and soil fertility. After initial clearing of primary forest, a precipitous decline occurred in tree species richness of fallows (>50%) with gradual but continued loss thereafter (~0.5 species/yr), which resulted in shifts in species composition over time. For soils, the decline in fertility was more gradual with each additional cycle of cropping resulting in lowered soil organic matter, available phosphorus, and exchangeable sodium levels, even in fields with long fallow durations. In the most intensively used sites, soils experienced a 16% decline of soil organic matter over 4+ cycles. In contrast to previous studies, biomass accumulation and carbon stocks were not related to cropping history or to the number and duration of cycles observed. This suggests that biodiversity-soils-biomass dynamics may not necessarily "move together" in these systems. These results point to the importance of the number of crop-fallow cycles over fallow duration in driving soil fertility and vegetation dynamics under shifting cultivation in the Peruvian Amazon. Overtime shifting cultivation may erode soil fertility and biodiversity levels even if long fallows persist. As the decline in soils appears slow, it may be possible to address this effect with the use of amendments, however biodiversity declines and species compositional changes may be much harder to reverse.
Asunto(s)
Agricultura/métodos , Bosques , Suelo/química , Árboles , Biodiversidad , Biomasa , PerúRESUMEN
Community-based tropical forest restoration projects, often promoted as a win-win solution for local communities and the environment, have increased dramatically in number in the past decade. Many such projects are underway in Andean cloud forests, which, given their extremely high biodiversity and history of extensive clearing, are understudied. This study investigates the efficacy of community-based tree-planting projects to accelerate cloud forest recovery, as compared to unassisted natural regeneration. This study takes place in northwest Andean Ecuador, where the majority of the original, highly diverse cloud forests have been cleared, in five communities that initiated tree-planting projects to restore forests in 2003. In 2011, we identified tree species along transects in planted forests (n = 5), naturally regenerating forests (n = 5), and primary forests (n = 5). We also surveyed 120 households about their restoration methods, tree preferences, and forest uses. We found that tree diversity was higher in planted than in unplanted secondary forest, but both were less diverse than primary forests. Ordination analysis showed that all three forests had distinct species compositions, although planted forests shared more species with primary forests than did unplanted forests. Planted forests also contained more animal-dispersed species in both the planted canopy and in the unplanted, regenerating understory than unplanted forests, and contained the highest proportion of species with use value for local people. While restoring forest increased biodiversity and accelerated forest recovery, restored forests may also represent novel ecosystems that are distinct from the region's previous ecosystems and, given their usefulness to people, are likely to be more common in the future.
Asunto(s)
Altitud , Biodiversidad , Restauración y Remediación Ambiental , Bosques , Productos Agrícolas , Ecuador , Humanos , Suelo , Tiempo , Factores de Tiempo , Árboles/clasificaciónRESUMEN
In this article we illustrate how fine-grained longitudinal analyses of land holding and land use among forest peasant households in an Amazonian village can enrich our understanding of the poverty/land cover nexus. We examine the dynamic links in shifting cultivation systems among asset poverty, land use, and land cover in a community where poverty is persistent and primary forests have been replaced over time--with community enclosure--by secondary forests (i.e., fallows), orchards, and crop land. Land cover change is assessed using aerial photographs/satellite imagery from 1965 to 2007. Household and plot level data are used to track land holding, portfolios, and use as well as land cover over the past 30 y, with particular attention to forest status (type and age). Our analyses find evidence for two important types of "land-use" poverty traps--a "subsistence crop" trap and a "short fallow" trap--and indicate that the initial conditions of land holding by forest peasants have long-term effects on future forest cover and household welfare. These findings suggest a new mechanism driving poverty traps: insufficient initial land holdings induce land use patterns that trap households in low agricultural productivity. Path dependency in the evolution of household land portfolios and land use strategies strongly influences not only the wellbeing of forest people but also the dynamics of tropical deforestation and secondary forest regrowth.