Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment in the Humid Tropics (1993) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 1-18
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Agricultural production practices in tropical regions are frequently unsustainable because the capacity of land to support crop production is rapidly exhausted. This fundamental problem is exacerbated by the pressures arising from poverty and the demand for food.
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The committee also identified constraints to adopting sustainable land use systems. A key factor in attaining improved resource management, which can lead to agricultural sustainability and development, is population.
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Farmers, foresters, and land managers will need to receive information and technical assistance in developing new management skills to select and employ sustainable land use systems.
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IANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT: A GLOBAL REQUIREMENT Superficially, the underlying cause for the transformation and degradation of the landscape in the humid tropics may appear to be excessive forest conversion, but in reality there are many underlying causes that are interrelated and cumulative in their effects. The committee strongly believes, however, that optimal and balanced management of the entire landscape is integral to resolving problems related to forest conversion, agricultural production, and land use options in all countries of the humid tropics and in all their unique local situations.
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Tropical lowland vegetation constitutes about 80 percent of the vegetation in the humid tropics. Although a variety of distinct plant associations and forest formations exist in the region, the forests of the humid tropics are often referred to as tropical rain forests.
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The demand for land by shifting cultivators, small-scale farmers, and landless migrants accounts for a significant portion of forest conversion in some regions. Most of the farmers in the humid tropics, however, are acting in response to a socioeconomic environment that offers few alternatives.
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The social consequences of unsustainable conversion practices may include the decline of indigenous cultural groups and the loss of knowledge of local resources and resource management practices; dislocation of small communities of farmers and forest dwellers as forestlands are appropriated for more profitable land uses; and continued poverty and rural migration as farmers abandon lands degraded through soil-depleting agricultural practices. The economic consequences include the loss of production potential as soil is degraded; the loss of biological resources, such as foods or pharmaceuticals, from primary forests; the destabilization of watersheds, with the attendant downstream effects of flooding and siltation; and, at the global level, the long-term impacts of deforestation on global climate change.
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With proper management, these land use options have the potential to stabilize forest buffer zone areas, reclaim cleared lands, restore degraded and abandoned lands, improve small farm productivity, and provide rural employment. They are described below: · Intensive cropping systems are concentrated on lands with adequate water, naturally fertile soils, low to modest slope, and other environmental characteristics conducive to high agricultural productivity.
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In these areas, however, shifting cultivation can be stabilized by adopting local cropping practices and varieties, observing sufficient fallow periods, maintaining continuous ground cover, diversifying cropping systems, and introducing fertility-restoring plants and mulches into natural fallows. · Agropastoral systems combine crop and animal production, allowing for enhanced agroecosystem productivity and stability through efficient nutrient management, integrated management of soil and water resources, and a wider variety of both crop and livestock products.
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· Regenerating and secondary forests have followed forest conversion and land abandonment in many areas of the humid tropics. Regenerating forests can be viewed as a type of land use in that they provide valuable goods and services to society, while preparing degraded lands for conversion to more intensive agricultural uses or alternative purposes.
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Modified forests should be considered a viable land use that allows indigenous peoples and local communities to sustain their ways of life while protecting large areas of forestland. · Forest reserves have been established through a variety of protection mechanisms, including biological and extractive reserves, wildlife preserves, national parks, national forests, refuges, private land trusts, crown lands, and sanctuaries.
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Technical Research Needs The committee has found that publicly supported development efforts are confined to a range of land use choices that is too narrow. In this report, the committee identifies sustainable land use options suitable for a broad range of conditions in the humid tropics.
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Biophysical attributes are grouped as nutrient cycling capacity, soil and water conservation capacity, stability toward pests and diseases, biodiversity level, and carbon storage. Social attributes are grouped as health and nutritional benefits, cultural and communal viability, and political acceptability.
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Sustainable agriculture will not automatically slow forest conversion, or deforestation, in the humid tropics. However, the combination of forest management and the use of sustainable land use options will provide a framework that each country can use to fit its capabilities, natural resources, and stage of economic and technological development.
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Supporting Sustainable Agriculture Changes in policies that contribute to forest conversion, deforestation, and natural resource degradation in the humid tropics alone will not encourage the adoption of sustainable agricultural systems. The committee makes the following recommendations for efforts to support sustainable agriculture.
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INCENTIVES National governments in the humid tropics and international aid agencies should develop and provide incentives to encourage long-term investment in increasing the production potential of degraded lands, for settling and restoring abandoned lands, and for creating market opportunities for the variety of products available through sustainable land use. To attain the most efficient use of limited funds, it will be necessary to determine where natural regeneration of degraded lands is proceeding without major investment, and alternatively, where regeneration and economic development will require a financial boost.
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National and international development agencies should foster the productive involvement of local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as intermediaries between themselves, national government agencies, universities, and local communities in support of the methods and goals of sustainable land use.
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