Session Information
| Session | Poster Session | | Date | Monday (2008-04-07) | | Time | 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM | | Room | Grand Terrace |
Presentation Information
| Presenter | Jeanine Rhemtulla | | Title | Landscapes of inequality: Effects of land ownership on the shifting cultivation mosaic in the Peruvian Amazon, 1965-2007 | | Affiliation | McGill University | | Authors | Jeanine Rhemtulla, Oliver Coomes | | Keywords | Deforestation, Fragmentation, Land ownership, Land use change, Slash-and-burn agriculture | | Presentation Type | Poster | Abstract:
Swidden-fallow agroforestry practices in humid tropical forests create a landscape mosaic of fields, orchards, and secondary forest patches of varying ages. Previous research in riverine peasant communities in the Peruvian Amazon suggests that there is considerable variability in agroforestry practices at the household level, whereby demographics and total land holdings affect crop choice and the amount and ages of secondary forest fallows. In particular, land-rich households tend to own more and older forest fallows. Changes in the distribution of land holdings through time, therefore, may drive changes in landscape composition and pattern. To study the effects of inequality of land ownership on landscape change, we reconstructed and mapped individual household land holdings and field histories in a traditional peasant community near Iquitos, Peru, from 1965 to 2007. Data were gathered through detailed household interviews (n≈50), and the boundaries of all fields and fallows were mapped. Changes in land cover mapped through field histories were compared to independent land cover maps derived from historical airphotos and satellite imagery from 1965, 1972, 1978, 1991, and 2007. Results suggest that a minority of households hold the majority of land and thus control overall landscape pattern. As households age and land is transferred from parents to children, however, large land holdings are being broken into smaller components subject to more intensive agricultural use, with important implications for the future ecological and economic sustainability of the community. |
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