April 20th, 2010 at 10:31 pm

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April 12th, 2010 at 3:26 pm

In my last post I described a Panamanian friend's move to the city, and how it demonstrated a larger shift from subsistence to industrial deforestation. A side effect of this is regeneration of secondary forests in the tropics. Secondary forests are those which have regrown after a major disturbance like logging or fire. For our purposes it is the regrowth of forest on agricultural land or cattle pasture. 

Among smallholders in Panama, secondary forest is usually regarded as transitional - already logged of its useful timber, but not yet suitable for cattle pasture. Recently these forests have gained more attention from biologists and conservationists for their potential role in slowing global warming. A 2009 article in the NY Times spotlighted a Panamanian woman's property that has regrown after being used for raising livestock. A CNN piece discussed the regrowth of secondary forests from more of a social perspective, relating it to the ongoing struggle between indigenous livelihoods and forest conversion. These articles bring up a few questions:

 

What is the true value of the rainforest?

Worldwide, regrowth of secondary forest is outpacing deforestation. In Panama for instance, forest cover was lost at 1.3% in 1990, but regeneration of degraded land increased by 4%. The renewed forest cover could substantially offset the carbon deficit from deforestation, but biologists argue that secondary forests don't compare to primary forests in terms of the amount of wildlife they contain. They suggest that secondary forest could serve as corridors between areas of primary jungle, but they should not be seen as a replacement. 

 

Does focusing too much on rainforest conservation prevent smallholders from making a living?

In the NY Times piece, Joe Wright, a senior scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute suggests that trying to conserve rainforest too tightly prevents smallholders from making a living from it. Kuna tribesman Toniel Edman - interviewed for the CNN article - states that it is easy to get loans for cattle breeding, but that's about it. Some of the funding for rainforest conservation could go towards increasing access to financing for forestry and sustainable agriculture. Planting Empowerment is currently managing a small UNDP-GEF funded project with its partner community of Arimae. Part of the project includes intercropping cash crops between rows of planted trees. The goal is to subsidize the long term care of the trees with the earnings from these crops. We think this could be very effective not only in regenerating degraded land, but also in preventing deforestation of primary rainforest.

 

Population growth and shifts?

As we explored in the previous post, deforestation is increasingly driven by consumer demand. As more people move into cities and a gain better quality of life, businesses cater to their needs. People migrating into the city also leave behind their agricultural plots and cattle pasture. So, one would think that these businesses' need for land could be satisfied by the plots their now-consumers have left behind in the countryside. What prevents industry from utilizing this already converted land? To make their products cost effective, industry requires large swaths of contiguous land. Separating production into disjointed plots doesn't make economic sense. Also, until primary forest is valuated for more than its conversion value, it is the cheapest way for industry to gain land. Rainforest needs to be worth more standing than felled, or this will continue.

Although industry is now the main driver of deforestation, there is still the need to work with small landowners. Maximizing the return from their land and diversifying the income sources from it is very important. The problem we're seeing now is that smallholders are selling their land to industrial Teak enterprises because of reduced yields from subsistence agriculture/cattle and the need for short term income. The windfall incentivizes the smallholder to encroach and clear primary forest in the indigenous reservation. Solutions such as monthly payments and profit sharing of timber sales to small landowners provide the income they need while keeping them on their land.

Each country is different and has its own unique situation, so we only speak from Panama's perspective. The economic potential of secondary forests to smallholders and indigenous communities is constantly growing. Our work creates income streams from these secondary forests through tree planting and agroforestry. You can be part of this by owning trees planted on our partners' deforested land.

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April 7th, 2010 at 10:52 am

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