Deforestation andDeforestation andShade Coffee inShade Coffee inOaxaca, MexicoOaxaca, Mexico

ALLEN BLACKMAN, HEIDI ALBERS, BEATRIZALLEN BLACKMAN, HEIDI ALBERS, BEATRIZẤVALOS-SARTORIO, AND LISA CROOKSẤVALOS-SARTORIO, AND LISA CROOKS

IntroductionIntroduction

– preserve forest – cover shade coffee

farms– harbor biodiversity– sequester carbon– aquifer recharge

• crisis had forced shade coffee growers to migrate to cities to find employment

IntroductionIntroduction

• Three-quarters of Mexico’s coffee is grown on small plots– preserve forest – cover shade coffee farms– harbor biodiversity– sequester carbon– aquifer recharge

• Explore causes of deforestation to design more efficient and effective policies

• Shade coffee areas being deforested– ecological services are

being lost– coffee crisis—the steep

decline of international coffee prices

– crisis had forced shade coffee growers to migrate to cities to find employment

– encroachment by conventional farmers, ranchers, and loggers

• Resources for the Future (RFF) – 3 year research

Study AreaStudy Area

• Sierra Sury Costa = 20% of Mexico’s Coffee production

• Study Area– 254,000-hectare– 400–1,600 meters above

sea level (msl)– 1,155 towns– 43 municipios

• Process– Cultivation– Assisted picking– Transport– Sold to middlemen/ Co-ops– Transport– 2 large coffee market

towns • Clearing of land provides

timber and area for subsistence crops– Suffer from heavy erosion

• Poor enforcement of land clearing

FindingsFindings

• 1.Factors explaining the deforestation before coffee crisis in 1993

• Shifting agriculture• Low prices from coffee yields• High cost of production esp.

transportation cost• Remoteness from cooperative

organization, center of infrastructure, goods & services, markets

• Lower latitude and not north-facing areas: more sunlight for conventional crops and accessible path to coffee markets

• 2.Difference of patterns of deforestation between coffee range and off-coffee range before 1993

• Less deforestation within the coffee range

• Within the coffee range, deforestation occurs near the north-facing path suggesting struggles to accessible key coffee markets

FindingsFindings

• 3.How much deforestations have occurred in the coffee range after the coffee crisis (1993-2001)?

• Within study area II net loss of forest cover is 3% or 8,000 hectares along the north-facing roads

• Reforestations occur along the west of plantation

• Average annual rate of deforestation during (1993-2001) within Study Area II is 0.4. (compared to the rate of deforestation for all Mexican forest is 1.1% during the 90’s)

• 4.Factors explaining deforestations occurred in the coffee range after the coffee crisis (1993-2001)?

• Near cities: A)the declining prices of coffee, thus causing abandonment when farmers seek for alternative income in the cities. B) abandoned farms are subject to conventional crop cultivation requiring deforestation

• No hypothesis for the findings on the steep mountainsides

FindingsFindings

• 5.Factors explaining abandonment

• farmers have limited accumulated wealth; (they are poor)

• farmers have limited access to credit;

• coffee prices are highly variable;

• prices, yields, or both are so low that farmers lose money if they harvest; or

• prices, yields, or both are so low that farmers find it difficult to meet subsistence levels.

• Measures to prevent the abandonment

• Credits given to farmers to enable them to maintain the coffee shade growing during the hard times of low price

• Price Premium

• Price Floor

• Agricultural activities

• Policies should be implemented immediately after the price shock

ConclusionConclusion

• Coffee crisis has led to significant deforestation• Promoting shade coffee should preserve forest

cover• Promoting coffee marketing cooperatives should

help to slow deforestation• Indigenous areas may be good targets for policies

aimed at slowing deforestation• Investments that reduce transportation costs will

likely have countervailing impacts on deforestation• Policies that enables coffee farmers to harvest and

to perform maintenance on their plantations• Policies aimed at preventing abandonment

Suggestions & CommentsSuggestions & Comments

• Question policy of promoting producers to continue to commit to a highly volatile crop that is highly dependant on supports and has relatively poor infrastructure

• Question the use of price supports (inefficiency effects) along with credit which in the puts the producer at greater risk in the longer run

– Suggest the utilization of financial derivatives to better mitigate risk rather than inefficient price supports

• Depending on the efficiency of the tax revenue department, perhaps differential taxation based on method of farming can also be used to promote shaded cultivation

– Alternatively a direct subsidy could also be used to stimulate eco friendly cultivation

• Study would have been better served with CBA of shaded coffee production vs. other available uses

• Equitable consolidation may promote the continued use of shaded cultivation due to scale effects

• Crop rotations, alternative cultivation within the shade range