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Format:
Print
Author:
Gross, Lee Hamilton
Dept./Program:
Natural Resources
Year:
2011
Degree:
MS
Abstract:
Much attention has been paid to the establishment of Protected Areas for the protection of biodiversity. In recent years there has been an increased recognition that successful conservation strategies should look beyond artificial park boundaries and zoom out to the scale of landscapes. A landscape approach conserves biodiversity while maintaining ecological functions that benefit integrated human communities. Most rural landscapes where conservation activities are taking place also contain working agricultural lands managed by smallholder farmers. Individual farm-level choices can play a significant role in the management of ecosystem services such as habitat provisioning, nutrient cycling, recreation amenities, carbon sequestration, and the delivery of clean water. Choices over the style Qand diversity of agricultural activities are often a result of farmer household livelihood strategies influenced by broader political, economic and environmental interactions. This underscores the need for integrated, landscape-scale strategies to support rural livelihoods and ecosystem services conservation.
This study presents results of an interdisciplinary analysis performed with shade coffee farmers in the Pico Duarte region ofthe Dominican Republic between 2009 and 2010. Baseline information on the social and ecological processes affecting livelihoods was collected through participatory focus groups, household interviews, and farm biodiversity transects from 42 households in 7 communities. All households were members of a local farmers' association located within the Yaque del Norte watershed. Household sampling was stratified by size (i.e. small, medium, large producers) and by agroecological management (e.g. shade organic, conventional and transitional). A Participatory Action Research approach was taken to integrate the goals of the local farmer's association, development organizations, University researchers and a Vermont company purchasing coffee from the area.
Findings suggest that all farms, as part of a diversified livelihood strategy, maintained similar levels of native tree and fruit species and supported important watershed service functions. However, findings verify conditions of poverty among coffee farmer households and strong economic pressures to abandon shade coffee for high input monoculture crops (e.g., chayote squash and beans) with potential loss to ecosystem services across the region. To conserve ecosystem services at multiple scales, a coordinated effort to support shade coffee farmers who practice diverse, low input agroecological management was evaluated through market and non-market approaches. In order to promote more sustainable landscape management in the region, a set of policy recommendations was developed for improving livelihoods and environmental conservation over the long-term.