Unsustainable landscapes of deforested Amazonia: An analysis of the relationships among landscapes and the social, economic and environmental profiles of farms at different ages following deforestation

Patrick Lavelle; Sylvain Dolédec; Xavier Arnauld de Sartre; Thibaud Decaëns; Valery Gond; Michel Grimaldi; Oszwald Johan; Bernard Hubert; Bertha Ramirez; Iran Veiga; Simao de Souza; William Santos de Assis; Fernando Michelotti; Marlucia Martins; Alexander Feijoo; Pierre Bommel; Edna Castaneda; Patricia Chacon; Thierry Desjardins; Florence Dubs; Erika Gordillo; Edward Guevara; Steven Fonte; Maria del Pilar Hurtado; Philippe Léna; Tamara Lima; Raphaël Marichal; Danielle Mitja; Izildinha Miranda; Tupac Otero; Praxedes Catarina; René Poccard; Pascale de Robert; Gamaliel Rodriguez; Catalina Sanabria; Stéphanie Tselouiko; Alexander Velasquez; Velasquez Elena; Jaime Velasquez

doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.04.009

Journal articles

Unsustainable landscapes of deforested Amazonia: An analysis of the relationships among landscapes and the social, economic and environmental profiles of farms at different ages following deforestation

Patrick Lavelle ^{1, 2} Sylvain Dolédec ³ Xavier Arnauld de Sartre ⁴ Thibaud Decaëns ⁵ Valery Gond ⁶ Michel Grimaldi ¹ Oszwald Johan ⁷ Bernard Hubert ⁸ Bertha Ramirez ⁹ Iran Veiga ¹⁰ Simao de Souza ¹⁰ William Santos de Assis ¹⁰ Fernando Michelotti ¹⁰ Marlucia Martins ¹¹ Alexander Feijoo ¹² Pierre Bommel ¹³ Edna Castaneda ⁹ Patricia Chacon ¹⁴ Thierry Desjardins ¹ Florence Dubs ¹ Erika Gordillo ⁹ Edward Guevara ² Steven Fonte ² Maria del Pilar Hurtado ² Philippe Léna ¹⁵ Tamara Lima ¹⁶ Raphaël Marichal ¹ Danielle Mitja ¹⁷ Izildinha Miranda ¹⁶ Tupac Otero ¹⁸ Praxedes Catarina ¹¹ René Poccard ¹³ Pascale de Robert ¹⁵ Gamaliel Rodriguez ⁹ Catalina Sanabria ¹⁴ Stéphanie Tselouiko ¹ Alexander Velasquez ⁹ Velasquez Elena ⁹ Jaime Velasquez ⁹

1 UPMC - Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6

2 Centro International de Agricultura Tropical

3 LEHNA - Laboratoire d'Ecologie des Hydrosystèmes Naturels et Anthropisés

4 SET - Société, environnement, territoire

5 ECODIV - Étude et compréhension de la biodiversité

6 UPR BSEF - Biens et services des écosystèmes forestiers tropicaux : l'enjeu du changement global

7 LETG - Rennes - Littoral, Environnement, Télédétection, Géomatique

LETG - Littoral, Environnement, Télédétection, Géomatique UMR 6554

8 ECODEVELOPPEMENT - Unité de recherche d'Écodéveloppement

9 Universidad de la Amazonia, Florencia, Caqueta

10 Federal University of Para - Universidade Federal do Para [Belem - Brésil]

11 MPEG - Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi [Belém, Brésil]

12 Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira

13 Centre International de Recherche en Agriculture et Développement

14 Univalle - Universidad del Valle [Cali]

15 PALOC - Patrimoines Locaux et Gouvernance

16 UFRA - Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia

17 UMR 228 Espace-Dev, Espace pour le développement

18 Universidad Nacional de Colombia Palmira

Abstract : In Amazonia, our knowledge of the trade-offs and possible thresholds in the relationships among social, economic and environmental parameters remains quite limited and hinders the design of sustainable socio-environmental systems. To fill this gap, we analyzed relationships among landscape metrics, socio- economic patterns, biodiversity and soil-based ecosystem services within a total of 51 farms located at 6 sites of the Colombian and Brazilian Amazon. Farms were representative of an initial set of 274 and they represented colonization ages from 10 to 80 years and a range of public policies found in the region. Two farms were abandoned in Colombia for local reasons. Cluster analysis separated farms in 7 types of production systems according to 5 main criteria (size of the farm, human capital, incomes, farm products and production intensity) selected from an initial set of 18 criteria. Biodiversity was summarized into a composite index Bd built with data from 8 different groups: trees, shrubs, grasses and forbs, birds, Saturnidae and Sphingidae moths, Drosophilidae, earthworms and ants. Provision of ecosystem services was quantified by a composite indicator of 6 sub- indicators of soil hydrological functions, C storage and chemical fertility. Increasing intensity of production systems was linked to a significant decrease of indicators of natural capital biodiversity (Bd) and soil based ecosystem services (Es) with 20% and 37.3% variance explained, respectively. No relationship was observed between production systems and an indicator of human wellbeing (Sb) based on a set of 5 criteria identified with the farmers. Findings indicate that early colonizers migrate when a certain level of development has been achieved (as a result of their activities) and are replaced by wealthier populations. An overall indicator of sustainability (Su) – that combines production efficiency (Ep), Sb, Bd and Es indices (ranging from 0.1–1.0) – decreases significantly with the landscape intensification (Li) with 18.7% variance directly explained by this relationship. Su was also significantly related to production systems (36.4% variance explained): while this indicator remained relatively stable with a value of 0.5 across the early and intermediate phases following deforestation, it dropped down considerably (0.2) for production systems based on cattle ranching on highly degraded pastures with less than 2% forest cover remaining. Restoration with sylvopastoral systems allowed some farms of this former group to increase sustainability to a value of 0.35 after less than 5 years. Agroforestry systems on sites deforested at the same time maintained values around 0.5, as they allowed the maximum production efficiencies and maintained relatively high values of the Biodiversity (Bd) and Ecosystem services (Es) indexes. This is evidence that beyond the general negative trade-off between human development and natural capital observed in Amazonia, agro ecological options to revert the trend are quite promising. A general methodological approach for the reconstruction of sustainable landscapes in farms of the deforested Amazonian region is proposed as a conclusion.

Keywords : Socioecological systems Amazonia Landscapes Biodiversity Ecosystem services Social wellbeing Economic ef␣ciency

Document type :

Journal articles

Domain :

Environmental Sciences / Biodiversity and Ecology

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Submitted on : Thursday, September 15, 2016 - 3:54:40 PM
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Unsustainable landscapes of deforested Amazonia: An analysis of the relationships among landscapes and the social, economic and environmental profiles of farms at different ages following deforestation

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Unsustainable landscapes of deforested Amazonia: An analysis of the relationships among landscapes and the social, economic and environmental profiles of farms at different ages following deforestation

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