Shade coffee & tree cover loss: Lessons from El Salvador

Environment

Volumn 49, Issue 7, 2007, Pages 22-33

  Blackman, Allen ^b   Ávalos Sartorio, Beatriz ^a   Chow, Jeffrey ^b  

^a Research Science Council Secretariat ^*  (Italy)

^b NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 66949175533     PISSN: 00139157     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3200/ENVT.49.7.22-33     Document Type: Article

References (46)

1. R. Rice, "Coffee Production in a Time of Crisis: Social and Environmental Connections," SAIS Review 23 no. 1 (2003): 221-45;
2. and I. Perfecto, R. Rice, R. Greenberg, and M. E. Van der Voort, "Shade Coffee: A Disappearing Refuge for Biodiversity," Bioscience 46 no. 8 (1996): 98-608.
3. P. Varangis, P. Siegel, D. Giovannucci, and B. Lewin, Dealing with the Coffee Crisis in Central America: Impacts and Strategies, Policy Research Working Paper 2993 (Washington, DC: World Bank Development Research Group, March 2003).
4. Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and World Bank, "Managing the Competitive Transition of the Coffee Sector in Central America," paper prepared for the Workshop on the Coffee Crisis and its Impact in Central America: Situation and Lines of Action, Antigua, Guatemala, 3-5 April 2002;
5. Varangis, Siegel, Giovannucci, and Lewin, note 2 above;
6. and International Coffee Organization (ICO), "Impact of Low Prices on Sustainability Indicators in the Coffee Economy," paper presented at 255th meeting of ICO Executive Board, London, England, 18-21 May 2004.
7. A. Blackman, H. Albers, B. Ávalos-Sartorio, and L. Crooks Murphy, Deforestation and Shade Coffee in Oaxaca, Mexico: Key Research Findings, RFF Discussion Paper 05-39 (Washington, DC, 2005), http://www.rff.org.
8. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Forestry Department, El Salvador: The Forests and the Forestry Sector, http://www.fao.org/forestry/ site/23747/en/slv.
9. This article is drawn from a longer, more technical report: A. Blackman, B. Ávalos-Sartorio, and J. Chow, Tree Cover Loss in El Salvador's Shade Coffee Areas, RFF Report, http://www.rff.org. The extent to which the study period coincides with - or predates - the "coffee crisis" is open to question; a precise definition of this term does not exist. Recent studies frequently use it to refer to the precipitous decline of prices between 1997 and 2001.
10. See, for example, Varangis, Siegel, Giovan-nucci, and Lewin, note 2 above;
11. and World Bank, Shocks and Social Protection: Lessons from the Central American Coffee Crisis, Report No. 31857-CA (Washington, DC, 2005). However, the overall downward trend in coffee prices that culminated in this steep five-year slide began decades earlier and many researchers use the 1989 collapse of the International Coffee Agreements (ICA) quota system to mark the start of the coffee crisis.
12. See, for example, S. Ponte, The Coffee Crisis, Issue Paper (Copenhagen: Center for Development Research, 2002);
13. and C. Gresser and S. Tickell, Mugged: Poverty in Your Coffee Cup (London: Oxfam, 2002). Hence, using the first definition, the study period overlaps with the last three years of the coffee crisis. Using the second definition, it covers a 10-year period in the middle of the crisis. In both cases, however, the study period misses the trough in prices that occurred in 2001.
14. PROCAFE (Fundación Salvadoreña para Investigaciones del Café), Boletín Estadístico de la Caficultura Salvadoreña, (San Salvador, El Salvador: PRO-CAFE, 1998);
15. Varangis, Siegel, Giovannucci, and Lewin, note 2 above;
16. and World Bank, El Salvador: Coffee Price Risk Management, Phase 2 Report (Washington, DC, 2001).
17. PROCAFE, ibid.
18. Global Environmental Facility (GEF), El Salvador: Promotion of Biodiversity Conservation Within Coffee Landscapes, (Washington, DC: GEF, 1998).
19. O. Gómez, extension agent, PROCAFE, in discussion with the authors, San Salvador, 24-25 October 2005.
20. PROCAFE, note 7 above.
21. World Bank, note 7 above.
22. M. Batz, H. Albers, B. Ávalos-Sartorio, and A. Blackman, Shade-Grown Coffee: Simulation and Policy Analysis for Coastal Oaxaca, Mexico, RFF Discussion Paper 05-61 (Washington, DC, 2005), http://www.rff.org.
23. PROCAFE, note 7 above.
24. World Bank, note 7 above.
25. PROCAFE, note 7 above.
26. Three of the five cooperatives interviewed reported that they were heavily in debt and that all of their profits are allocated to servicing their loans, leaving no funds for investment. For example, managers of a small (85 hectare) reform cooperative in the west region stated that they pay $64,000 per year to service their debt and that their creditor has threatened to foreclose unless they are able to repay the outstanding principal. Similarly, a large (945 hectare) reform cooperative in the west region reported that they owe $1.8 million and pay $225,000 each year to service the debt.
27. N. Cuéllar, I. Gómez, S. Kandel, and H. Rosa, Rural Poverty and the Environment in El Salvador: Lessons for Sustainable Livelihoods (San Salvador: Programa Salvadoreño de Investigación Sobre Desarollo y Medio Ambiente (PRISMA), 2002).
28. J. Rodríguez-Meza, D. Southgate, and C. González-Vega, "Rural Poverty, Households' Responses to Shocks, and Agricultural Land Use: Panel Results for El Salvador," Environment and Development Economics 9, no. 2 (2004): 225-39;
29. A. Blackman, H. J. Albers, B. Ávalos, and L. Crooks Murphy, Land Cover in a Managed Forest Ecosystem: Mexican Shade Coffee, RFF Discussion Paper 07-30 (Washington, DC, 2007), http://www.rff.org.
30. M. Cerrutti and R. Bertoncello, Urbanization and Internal Migration Patterns in Latin America (Buenos Aires: Centro de Estudios de Población, 2003).
31. Cerrutti and Bertoncello, ibid.
32. World Bank, El Salvador Rural Development Study, Main Report, Volume I, Report No. 16253-ES (Washington, DC, 1997).
33. World Bank, ibid.
34. World Bank, note 22 above.
35. Cuéllar, Gómez, Kandel, and Rosa, note 18 above.
36. Cuéllar, Gómez, Kandel, and Rosa, note 18 above.
37. Cuéllar, Gómez, Kandel, and Rosa, note 18 above.
38. K. Andrade-Eckhoff, "Intercambios Transnacionales a Través de las Migración en Centroamérica: Dimámicas, Impactos y Potencial (Transnational Migration and Exchange in Central America: Origins, Impacts, and Potential)," PowerPoint presentation, (San Salvador: Facultad LatinoAmericana de Ciencias Sociales, 2003).
39. Cuéllar, Gómez, Kandel, and Rosa, note 18 above.
40. Gómez, note 10 above; S. Nuenninghoff, sectoral specialist, IADB, in discussion with authors, San Salvador, 25 October 2005;
41. L. A. Celis, co-country director, Proyector Fortalecimiento de la Gestión Ambiental en El Salvador (the Strengthening of Environmental Management in El Salvador Project), in discussion with authors, San Salvador, 28 October 2005;
42. F. Barillas, President, Unión de Cooperativas de Cafetaleros de El Salvador (Union of El Salvador Coffee Farmer Cooperatives), in discussion with authors, San Salvador, 31 October 2005.
43. A key environmental regulatory gap in El Salvador is a system of comprehensive land use planning. Although a law has been drafted, it has yet to be passed. During the 1990s, no such law existed. As a result, there was a great deal of confusion about which regulatory authority - local mayors' offices or national ministries - had jurisdiction over permitting in land use planning. Celis, note 30 above.
44. Celis, note 30 above; Gómez, note 10 above; and J. A. Olano, director, Dirección General de Ordenamiento Forestal, Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganaderia (Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock) in discussion with the authors 3 November 2005.
45. Celis, note 31 above; and Olano, ibid.
46. A recent study that also used satellite data concluded that in the country as a whole including both shade coffee areas and non-shade coffee areas, "woody cover" actually increased during the 1990s, albeit from a relatively low level. See S. B. Hecht, S. Kandel, I. Gomes, N. Cuéllar, and H. Rosa "Globalization, Forest Resurgence, and Environmental Politics in El Salvador," World Development 34 no. 2 (2006): 308-323. If robust, this trend is encouraging. Nevertheless, tree cover in shade coffee areas still provides important ecological services and its loss is likely to have significant adverse local impacts.