Background

1
Background

• Petén is largest department (35,000 km2) in
  Guatemala
• A region of lowland rainforest

2

Background

• Population has grown from 25,000 in 1965 to about
  700,000 today

3

Background

• Land cover change

4
Background

• Land cover change

5
Background

• Population growth is likely to continue
• In order to
• Conserve remaining forest
• Help ensure the long-term food security of people
  in the region a critical need to
• Improve economic conditions
• Intensify land use
• Improve fertility management in areas already
  cleared

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El Petén and the Maya Biosphere Reserve
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The Farming System

• Mean holding size 30 ha
• Mean cropping area per season less than 5 ha
• Main crop maize

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The Farming System

• Also common are beans (69 of households),
  squashes, rice, and various fruits and
  vegetables, generally for home consumption only
• Very weak market conditions and infrastructure
• Very few farmers have cattle

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The Farming System

• Mounting pressure to intensify
• Pathways to intensification include
• Use of green manure (Mucuna spp.)
• Tractor plowing

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The Farming System

• Pathways to intensification
• High value cash crops (peanut, sesame,
  watermelon, some pineapple)
• Perennials

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Key Finding

• Intensification being promoted by extensionists
  but adoption rates vary substantially
• Household and regional scale factors influencing
  adoption

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Household Scale Factors

• Property size and tenure type
• Amount of remaining forest on property
• Amount of land in fallow
• Amount of degraded land on property
• Plot locations
• Soil quality
• Household wealth and labor supply
• Farmer experience

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Community or Regional Scale Factors

• Land quality and micro-climate
• Market conditions
• Physiologic density (people per arable land)
• Availability of off-farm employment
• Settler origins and colonization history

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Key Finding
Each study area distinct...
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Ruta Bethel Area

• Better soil and market conditions
• Considerable tractor plow usage and cash cropping
  (wealthier farmers)
• Many landless farmers who rent land and practice
  slash and burn

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Ruta Naranjo Area

• Highest pressure to intensify
• Substantial use of mucuna-based green manure
  system (hardly used in other study areas)

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Ruta Tikal Area

• Relatively high population density but much
  off-farm employment in urban and tourism sectors
• Most households farm only to meet subsistence
  needs
• Little interest in farming and agricultural
  intensification

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Key Finding

• Poorer households place greater emphasis
• on intensification strategies oriented
• toward household food security, such as
• Perennial crops (citrus, avocado,
• mango, plantain, etc.)
• Homegarden systems
• Use of green manure system

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In Search of Common Ground Food
Security, Ecotourism and Conservation in the
Ecuadorian Tropics
Heather McIlvaine-Newsad