Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment in the Humid Tropics

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Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment in the HUMID TROPICS

not occur. For example, large areas of productive pasturelands that have been in use for several decades or more exist in Venezuela, Costa Rica, and Puerto Rico. The organic carbon content of the soil of well-managed pasturelands is as high or higher than that of the forests from which the pasturelands were originally derived (S. Brown, personal observation).

From a climate change perspective, there are disadvantages to pastures. First, the amount of biomass per unit area is low. Second, frequent burning of pastures to maintain productivity leads to emissions of greenhouse gases in addition to the emissions following the initial clearing. Third, cattle emit CH₄ from their guts. In this case, continuing greenhouse gas emissions are not compensated for by high sustainability, as is the case with wet rice cultivation.

Degradation of Croplands and Pastures

In many areas of the humid tropics, the abandonment of croplands is not followed by forest regeneration. Degraded croplands and pastures may accumulate carbon, but 60 to 90 percent of the carbon in the original forest and 12 to 25 percent of the soil carbon has been lost to the atmosphere (Houghton et al., 1987). Much of the land is abandoned in the first place because it has lost its fertility or has been eroded. These abandoned, degraded lands do not immediately return to forests, yet their degradation requires that new lands be cleared to keep the areas of productive croplands and pastures constant. The new lands are most frequently obtained by clearing forests.

Degraded lands are characterized by having been deforested and exposed to factors that reduced the land's productive potential (Lugo, 1988). According to Grainger (1988), the area of degraded lands in the tropics exceeds the area of unspoiled forestlands. The degraded lands have already lost a fraction of the carbon they stored initially and have the potential to serve as carbon sinks, should they be managed properly or rehabilitated by artificial or natural means.

Shifting Cultivation

The practice of traditional shifting cultivation, in which short periods of cropping alternate with long periods of fallow, during which time forests regrow, is common throughout the tropics. This form of shifting cultivation is sustainable when low population densities exist over large areas and the forests recover during the fallow phase. Shifting cultivation results in about a 60 percent loss of the original

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