Dataset Information

Land-use poverty traps identified in shifting cultivation systems shape long-term tropical forest cover.

ABSTRACT: 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.

SUBMITTER: Coomes OT

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3161596 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Land-use poverty traps identified in shifting cultivation systems shape long-term tropical forest cover.

Coomes Oliver T OT Takasaki Yoshito Y Rhemtulla Jeanine M JM

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20110822 34

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 l ...[more]

PMID: 21873179

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Dataset Information

Land-use poverty traps identified in shifting cultivation systems shape long-term tropical forest cover.

Publications

Land-use poverty traps identified in shifting cultivation systems shape long-term tropical forest cover.

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