Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment in the Humid Tropics (1993) / Chapter Skim
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Mexico
Mexico
Pages 483-548
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From page 483... ...
This profile briefly reviews the social and economic contexts in which deforestation occurs and discusses land use patterns, forest resources and rates of deforestation, and sustainable resource management. Arturo Gomez-Pompa is a professor of botany and plant sciences at the University of Califomia, Riverside, California, and is director of the University of California Institute of Mexico and United States; Andrea Kaus is codirector of Groundworks International, Inc., Riverside, California; Juan Jimenez-Osomio is a professor of ecology and coordinator of the Tropical Natural Resources Management and Conservation Program at the Autonomous University of Yucatan, Mexico; David Bainbridge is restoration ecologist in the Biology Department at San Diego State University, San Diego, California; and Veronique M
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From page 484... ...
Diseases and war had reduced the population to a fraction of its former size. The depopulation of Mexico after conquest by the Europeans was followed by the introduction of large-scale agricultural activities in the tropical forests.
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From page 485... ...
Loss of the cultural diversity once found in the tropical forests means a loss of the opportunity to understand and learn from the experiences of others who live and work in tropical regions (Bennett, 1975~. The value of traditional land use practices for agricultural development and conservation efforts under current socioeconomic conditions is often underestimated because of two principal myths: (1)
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From page 486... ...
Cal, 40 o a) 20 SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE IN THE HUMID TROPICS Urban Population Rural Population l R ~ ~ I 1940 1 950 1960 1970 1980 2000 Year FIGURE 1 The urban and rural populations of Mexico, from 1940 to 2000 as estimated.
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From page 487... ...
An inadequate food supply in Mexico is not a matter of inadequate food production. It is related to unequal income distributions and flawed food distribution policies.
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From page 488... ...
More than half (5.2 million ha) of this total is in the humid tropics and would require drainage and irrigation for agricultural use.
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From page 489... ...
have shown increased productivity from local farmers' fields through the use of simple technologies and techniques such as alley cropping, terracing, intercropping, and in situ postharvest seed conservation. Past efforts for improved production in Mexico have not considered the various production components of Mexican small farms.
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From page 490... ...
Mexico, D.F.: Secretary of Agriculture and Hydraulic Resources. gap in present and past efforts to alleviate problems of low levels of agricultural production and poverty in the Mexican tropics.
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From page 491... ...
It relies primarily on household labor. Within the peasant agricultural sector, infrasubsistence farmers make up 45 percent of the agricultural producers in tropical Mexico.
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From page 493... ...
For the development of sustainable agricultural systems that integrate the concepts of agroecology with available information on alternative cropping systems, an agricultural model based on smallscale farmers who farm small parcels of land would have excellent potential. Small-scale producers already play an important role in export crop production in the Mexican humid tropics.
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From page 494... ...
Most small-scale farmers are more concerned about short-term production practices with the means available to them than about investing capital or labor in unpredictable and uncertain high-yield, technology-intensive practices. Sustainable agricultural systems need to be designed so that the small-scale farmers of Mexico can be included in the efforts to halt tropical deforestation.
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From page 495... ...
Farmers often apply for rural credit from banks or aid from government programs, increasing the risk of the agricultural venture for the household while transferring control to the bank or the government. Control over land use by small-scale farmers is further complicated by the nature of land tenure in Mexico.
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From page 496... ...
The vegetation types in the lowlands range from low thorny tropical forests (less than 10 m high) to the tall evergreen rain forests (more than 30 m high)
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From page 497... ...
In this discussion two tropical forest types are relevant: the tall evergreen forests (evergreen forests taller than 30 m) and the tall or medium-height semideciduous forests (forests with some deciduous species taller than 15 m)
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From page 498... ...
The most important remnants of high tropical evergreen forests are found in the Lacandon forest of Chiapas, including the region of Marquez de las Comillas on the border with Guatemala, where a battle to save the remaining forests is being fought. At present, the winners are cattle ranching and secondary vegetation (Table 11~.
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From page 499... ...
The concern is more for the known and potential roles that forest ecosystems play in soil conservation, provision of forest products, and the earth's carbon dioxide balance than for the roles they play in conserving biodiversity. This second type of deforestation is usually less important in the humid tropics, since it can be reversed in many cases.
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soo ~ o x · ~ as" ¢ Ed .~= ~ Alp id A)
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501 unforested lands, that is, the degree of forest cover. The process is also complicated by the rapid succession rate that is possible in the humid tropics.
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The best-known source to date has been a report of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)
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There are, however, different estimates of the forested area and the deforestation rate in Mexico, as follows: · Rzedowski (1978) estimated that 90 percent of the forests in the lowland humid tropics of Mexico were eliminated by the 1970s.
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From page 505... ...
The other 3.3 million ha has an ecologic rather than an economic value and includes parks, reserves, and other protected areas. No reliable figures for the forests in the Mexican humid tropics can be found, but combining the values of humid and subhumid forests from Table 12, more than 26 million ha of tropical forests existed in 1981, nearly half of the forested land in Mexico at that time.
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From page 506... ...
The predominant factors, which are described in detail below, include cattle ranching, colonization projects, forest fires, disputes over tree ownership and land tenure, national security, local farming and intensive commercial agriculture, timber exploitation, and road building and other engineering works. CArrLE RANCHING Cattle ranching has been the most important cause of deforestation (Table 13)
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From page 507... ...
· A long cultural tradition—with roots in Spain and Portugalidentifies cattle ranchers as persons of status and respect, regardless of their actual production and profit. COLONIZATION PROJECTS The perception of tropical forested areas as agricultural frontiers has strongly influenced development policies in Mexico (Department of Agriculture and Hydraulic Resources, 1987; Parsons, 1976; Partridge, 1984~.
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. FOREST FIRES Natural and anthropogenic forest fires also contribute to deforestation in the Mexican humid tropics.
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From page 509... ...
Tree species planted by government offices are unlikely to have a high survival rate on private or community land. Home gardens, consisting of tropical forest trees, are often the only forested areas left.
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From page 510... ...
However, it should not be assumed that shifting agriculture is a cause in deforestation; rather, it should be considered a silvicultural technique when it is practiced under the appropriate conditions (for details see Gomez-Pompa et al., 1991; Ramakrishnan, 1984~. Shifting cultivators who have ample knowledge of local conditions and species, skilled labor, and a commitment to long-term maintenance of their families and communities may also play a key role in the implementation of sustainable resource management practices.
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From page 511... ...
Protected Areas The protected areas of Mexico did not include tropical forest areas until the late 1970s. At present, the total area of protected closed forests has been estimated to be 360,000 ha (World Resources Institute, 1990~.
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From page 512... ...
This can provide farm families and communities with the incomes they need to survive and provide the stability needed to improve rural serviceseducation, health care, transportation, utilities, and water. Sustainable resource management can be achieved with existing equipment and facilities, conventional crops, and traditional markets.
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From page 513... ...
Many small-scale solutions will eventually combine to contribute to global agricultural sustainability. Sustainable Resource Management Practices in the Mexican Humid Tropics An evaluation of sustainability can be made for virtually any resource management practice in the humid tropics of Mexico, from extensive cattle ranching on cleared forestlands to cattle production in feediots, or from the manual labor of shifting agriculture to equipment-intensive timber production (Table 14~.
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From page 514... ...
Propuesta pare la Conservacidn y el Desarrollo de las Selvas del Sureste. M(,c~co, D.F.: Secretary of Me Agrarian Reform, Secretary of Agriculture and Hydraulic Resources, and Secretary of Urban Development and Ecology.
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From page 515... ...
The reports and programs are essential, but they must be linked and related more directly to market incentives and factors that influence individual decision making at the most basic level of the smallest farm and family plot. Lessons from Traditional Resource Management There are already many traditional resource management approaches that can help in the search for sustainable agricultural production in Mexico (Altieri, 1987; Wilken, 1987~.
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From page 516... ...
In addition, more research is needed to explore the wide range of potential products that can be extracted from the tropical forests of Mexico. One of the most striking features that has emerged from research in the humid tropics of Mexico is the importance of human intervention and management in the development of the forests in that region, which were previously considered untouched, pristine, and certainly unmanaged (Gomez-Pompa and Kaus, 1990~.
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From page 517... ...
These nitrogen-fixing trees provide most of the nitrogen required to maintain soil fertility under intensive high-yield cultivation practices. The use of leguminous trees as shade trees for cacao was a preHispanic practice that is now used on coffee plantations (Cardos, 1959; limenez and Gomez-Pompa, 1981~.
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From page 518... ...
Present-day practices that are similar to those used by the Maya during the pre-Hispanic era indicate that sustained use of the tropical forest would have been possible for a long period of time. The regeneration of the ecosystems of the Maya area after successive abandonments, the last one occurring after the Spanish conquest, was possible only because seed banks existed in the managed and protected natural ecosystems of the area (Gomez-Pompa et al., 1972)
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From page 519... ...
It is important to examine the reasons producers had for not following the techniques recommended by Plan Puebla because they represent many of the points that need to be addressed in future recommendations for sustainable agricultural techniques. The principal ones mentioned by Volke Haller and Sepulveda-Gonzalez (1987)
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From page 520... ...
SECONDARY FORESTS OF VERACRUZ Because most of the tropical rain forest in Mexico has disappeared, it is important to use and manage secondary forests so they may provide a wide range of agricultural products- from vegetables to timber. In situ experimental research on secondary forest has been
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From page 521... ...
Tropical Forest Action Plan [PAFT} Mexico has joined an international effort headed by FAO to develop a worldwide Tropical Forestry Action Plan. Several versions of an action plan for Mexico (Plan de Accion Forestal del Tropico [PAFT]
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From page 522... ...
, a new tropical forest action plan, which will attempt to rectify these problems, is currently under way in Mexico. Sustainable Food and Commodity Production An ecologic approach to food and commodity production is important to the tropical environment in Mexico because it is essential to develop food production systems that depend less on inputs, particularly import inputs (for example, reliance on outside production)
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From page 523... ...
Reforestation efforts are insignificant and the area of humid tropical forest under management that will maintain productivity and profitability is growing slowly, if at all. Improving forest management is perhaps the best and only hope for saving and restoring the tropical forests of the Mexican humid tropics, maintaining the productivity of these often fragile lands, and improving the quality of life for the residents of those areas.
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From page 524... ...
In addition to the traditional methods of forest management in the Mexican humid tropics, there are many potentially valuable methods and crops from comparable humid tropical zones. One of the most promising of these combines strips of trees with agricultural crops (alley cropping)
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From page 525... ...
, cattle production must be improved on lands where the forest has been removed. Sufficient work has been done to suggest some of the possibilities for sustainable livestock production in the humid tropics (Murgueitio, 1988, 1990; Preston and Leng, 1987~.
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From page 526... ...
These alternatives might provide jobs and resources for a limited number of local people. STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Improvement of resource management systems to protect and restore the humid tropical forests will require a variety of strategies and programs involving Dolicv research education demonstration.
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From page 527... ...
-a of -I · Incentives to Conserve Biodiversity Are Needed Initiatives for conserving biodiversity and for small-scale farmers to use sustainable resource management practices should be developed and promoted. These incentives should include actions that improve the quality of life for people in the local communities.
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From page 528... ...
. Institutional Barriers Need To Be Broken Studies of the humid tropical forests of Mexico should include a detailed review of institutional needs and limitations, so that projects can proceed with minimal interference and maximum support from government regulatory
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From page 529... ...
It should also take into account the market system for tropical forest products, from the producer to eventual retail outlet; the commercial sector, including alternatives to rain forest products; schools; religious groups; and the economic community (banks and lenders, etc.~. · Local Land and Tree Tenure Considerations Need To Be Reviewed One of most important and sensitive issues in resource management is the insecurity of land tenure.
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From page 530... ...
Although it is often assumed that people will accept an innovation because "it is good for them," to succeed, a program must meet the real and perceived needs of the people involved and fit the social and cultural setting (Leeger, 1989~. Research done in collaboration with local people provides the groundwork for successful development and demonstration projects.
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From page 531... ...
It is thought to have been a vital food resource of the ancient Maya (Puleston, 1982) and may again return to prominence as a vital part of sustainable agricultural systems for the humid tropics (Pardo-Tejeda and Sanchez-Munoz, 1980~.
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From page 532... ...
Education The following are strategies for improving education in sustainable resource management. · Local Farmers Should Be Included as Teachers in Educational Efforts The knowledge and wisdom of local farmers need to be included in educational curricula and resource management studies (Gomez-Pompa and Kaus, 1992~.
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From page 533... ...
Demonstration Projects The following are suggestions for demonstration projects of sustainable resource management in the Mexican humid tropics. · Demonstration Projects Need to Be Developed in Local Communities Demonstration projects should be one of the first priorities for future funding.
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From page 534... ...
Although it is not possible to state that the full complex community of the humid tropical rain forest can be restored, many important species and functions of the forest can be reestablished in areas that are now degraded and very unproductive. Implementation of Sustainable Resource Management High priority should be given to the ejido (peasant)
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From page 535... ...
The following are suggestions for implementing sustainable resource management. · Development-Oriented Projects with Local People Should Be Developed In addition to demonstration projects done on a local level, larger development-oriented projects for the protection and restoration of humid tropics must also be established.
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From page 536... ...
· A Program to Help Local Communities Plan and Implement Appropriate Development Programs Should Be Developed Working with local people, information on planning and implementing appropriate development programs could then be used to develop a set of management goals and objectives. These would include economic (cash crops)
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From page 537... ...
Many of these jobs may be provided by new processing and manufacturing facilities that use new forest products. SUMMARY These are the priorities for reversing current trends of deforestation and the use of unsustainable agricultural practices in the Mexican humid tropics.
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From page 538... ...
Davis, Calif.: University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program. Barrera-Vazquez, A
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From page 539... ...
Propuesta pare la Conservaci6n y el Desarrollo de las Selvas del Sureste. Mexico, D.F.: Secretary of the Agrarian Reform, Secretary of Agriculture and Hydraulic Resources, and Secretary of Urban Development and Ecology.
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From page 540... ...
1981. Tropical Forest Resources Assessment Project, Vol.
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From page 541... ...
1991. Tropical forestry as if people mattered.
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From page 542... ...
1984. Quantifying changes in forest cover in the humid tropics: Overcoming current limitations.
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From page 543... ...
In A Half Century of Tropical Forest Research, A
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From page 544... ...
1985. A comparison of two recent estimates of disturbance in tropical forests.
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From page 545... ...
1984. The humid tropics cattle ranching complex: Cases from Panama reviewed.
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From page 546... ...
1991. Tropical rain forest management: A status report.
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From page 547... ...
1983. Potential contribution of Leucaena hedgerows intercropped with maize to the production of organic nitrogen and fuelwood in the lowland humid tropics.
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From page 548... ...
In Multipurpose Tree Species for Small Farm Development. IDRC/Winrock.
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