What is Agroforestry?

Agroforestry is a sustainable farming technique in which trees and shrubs are planted with crops to preserve soil quality and land longevity. It is an alternative to the “slash and burn” farming technique common to tropical rainforests, which is destructive to the environment and labor-intensive for farmers. Agroforestry can break the

cycle of poverty and environmental degradation by rehabilitating forest eco-systems, improving agricultural sustainability, and increasing food security.

Why Ixcán, Guatemala?

Ixcán is a rural municipality in Quiche Prov-ince, Guatemala, near the Mexican border. The region is dominated by rainforest that is being rapidly deforested for agricultural pur-poses. Additionally, half a century of civil war has led to mass displacement and loss of community solidarity; many Ixcán communities are not working together strategically to preserve the health of the land they depend on.

Who is The EcoLogic Development Fund?

EcoLogic, a Cambridge-based non-profit that empowers rural communities to preserve their local ecosystem, began an agroforestry program in Ixcán in 2002 to preserve the area’s rainforest and promote food security. They use community agroforestry strategies to preserve the region’s rainforests, pro-mote food security, and . Because agroforestry is a multi-year farming process that discourages relocation, these agroforestry programs also build and strengthen social health and cohesion. EcoLogic is currently developing a 5-year plan for expanding their agroforestry program to more sites in Ixcán, and is therefore seeking information on potential sites for new programs. Precipitation: Guatemala has two crucial

planting seasons for annual cover crops, which are common starter crops for a new agroforestry site. The Growing Season (August to October) has higher rainfall than the Hunger Season (January – March), when crops are pursued due to dwindling stores of food, despite non-ideal growing conditions.

The goal of this project was to help EcoLogic explore opportunities for new ag-roforestry programs in Ixcán, Guatemala. To do this, I worked with EcoLogic to determine seven factors to consider in identifying agroforestry sites. Three of these factors related to ecological feasibility: slope, precipitation (across two growing seasons), and land use suitability. Four factors related to social needs: proximity to roads, current EcoLogic agroforestry sites, and villages, and vil-lage population density.

I obtained a dataset for each suitability factor and converted the data into ras-ter files with optimal parameters ranked highest (3) and untenable factors ranked lowest (0). I then added these files together to create one final suitabil-ity analysis map. Untenable land (steep slopes and intact rainforest that need not be disturbed) was eliminated from the final map.

Of Ixcán’s 1575 km2, 224 km2 are unsuitable for agroforestry due to steep slopes or the presence of rainforests that should not be disturbed for agricul-tural projects. While very little land achieved the highest overall suitability ranking, more than half the municipality’s land is at least somewhat suitable enough for agroforestry. These areas should be investigated further.

This study was limited in scope, as there are likely other factors worthy of con-sideration in the identification of agroforestry plots for which GIS data was not available. Because each agroforestry site is unique, it is difficult to assign accu-rate agroforestry suitability parameters to the whole region. Furthermore, lim-ited metadata and high-resolution data may limit the accuracy of the study.

For reasons of population, land access, and environnmental suitability, EcoLog-ic should consider the eastern area of Ixcán for future agroforestry program expansion. It is my hope that this preliminary data will assist EcoLogic in the early stages of developing their 5-year plan for additional agroforestry projects in Ixcán, Guatemala.

Cartographer: Elise Simons

Date: May 2016

Class: UEP 232 Intro to GIS

Map Projection: WGS_1984_UTM_Zone_16N

A Tree Grows in Guatemala Assessing the Suitability of Land in Ixcán for Agroforestry Projects

Project Background

Ranking Slope Hunger Season

Precipitation

Growing Season

Precipitation

Land Cover

3 5 - 10 % 335 - 516 mm 1451 - 1668 mm Agriculture

2 0 - 5 % 279 - 335 mm 1279 - 1451 mm Pastureland

1 10 - 15 % 231 - 279 mm 1054 - 1279 mm Secondary

Forest

0 15 % + X X Forest or

Other

Ranking Distance to

Roads (km)

Distance to

Villages (km)

Distance to

Agroforestry

Plots (km)

Village Density

(ppl per sq km)

3 0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 10 36 - 96

2 1 - 3 1 - 2 10 - 20 24 - 36

1 3 - 5 2 - 3 20 - 30 18 - 24

0 5 - 20 3 - 8 30 - 60 0 - 18

Methodology

Ecological Feasibility: Land Suitability Analysis

Results & Next Steps

Ecological Feasibility Factors Social Suitability Factors

Social Need: Proximity & Density Analysis

Slope: 5-10% is optimal. Steeper slopes (10-15%) have trouble retaining water, while shallower slopes (0-5%) are prone to waterlogging. Slopes over 15% are too steep for planting.

Land Cover: Agricultural land is ideal, as it is al-ready set aside for farming. Pastures and grass-es, which are often used for livestock rearing, are secondary options; third is secondary forest, or fallow former farmland. Forest land, rivers, and roads were ruled out entirely as inappropri-ate places for agroforestry implementation.

Distance to Roads: Land closest to the road is ranked highly, as these regions are the most ac-cessible for farmers, community members, and EcoLogic workers.

Distance to Communities: As agroforestry will do the most good when it is integrated into the community landscape and within walking dis-tance of village centers, land within 1 km of a village was ranked highest, while land more than 3 km from any village was ranked lowest.

Distance to Agroforestry Sites: EcoLogic has al-ready made contacts and hired employees in ar-eas of existing agroforestry sites; it therefore makes sense to site new plots near old ones where possible. The highest ranked areas are less that 10 km from current sites.

Community Density: EcoLogic can do the most good by reaching the most people; it therefore makes sense to target rural communities with higher populations. Villages with more than 36 people per sq km were ranked highest.

Precipitation over the two seasons was ranked by high, medium, and low rainfall in millimeters.

Ranking Square Kilometers Acres

3 6 0.0015

2 360,097 88.9819

1 378,550 93.5416

0 910,174 224.9085

Final Suitability Results

Data Sources:

The EcoLogic Development Fund, Cambridge, MA (2015)

Guatemala National Goegraphic Institute (IGN) (2014)

Guatemala Ministry of Planning and Programming

of the Presidency (SEGEPLAN) (2006)

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (2011)

Worldclim Global Climate Data (2000)