Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T16:20:57.578Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Agroforestry in Bolivia: opportunities and challenges in the context of food security and food sovereignty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2016

JOHANNA JACOBI
JOHANNA JACOBI*
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, USA Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern, Switzerland
*
*Correspondence: Johanna Jacobi, Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern, Hallerstrasse 10, 3012 Bern, Switzerland. E-mail: johanna.jacobi@cde.unibe.ch
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Agroforestry systems have long been implemented in Bolivia, but little is known about their overall current status. Interviews with farmers, policymakers and members of civil society organizations about the challenges and opportunities that agroforestry faces, as well as field visits to agroforestry projects revealed a wide range of agroforestry initiatives in Bolivia that provide ecosystem services, food and income to local families. All interviewees attributed a high potential to agroforestry, for example, to promote biodiversity, water conservation, food sovereignty and adaptation to climate change impacts. However, agroforestry initiatives lacked support because government incentives were channelled to cattle rearing and large-scale monocultures rather than diversified farming systems, and agroforestry initiatives tended to be small and isolated. A nationwide policy is needed which is coordinated with civil society organizations and individual farmers and strategically and efficiently supports agroforestry initiatives – especially in the most vulnerable first years of establishment – through extension services and access to materials, markets, knowledge and financial resources.

Keywords

agroforestryBoliviadiversified farming systemsfood securityfood sovereignty
Type
Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , December 2016 , pp. 307 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aguilar, L.C., Piepenstock, A. & Burgoa, W. (2008) Especies nativas kewiña (Polylepis sp.) y kiswara (Buddleja sp.) en barreras vivas: una alternativa para reducir la degradación de suelos y mejorar las condiciones de vida en la zona altoandina de Bolivia. Acta Nova 4(2–3): 425–428.Google Scholar
Aguilar-Stoen, M., Moe, S.R. & Camargo-Ricalde, S.L. (2009) Home gardens sustain crop diversity and improve farm resilience in Candelaria Loxicha, Oaxaca, Mexico. Human Ecology 37(1): 55–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Altieri, M.A. & Toledo, V.M. (2011) The agroecological revolution in Latin America: rescuing nature, ensuring food sovereignty and empowering peasants. Journal of Peasant Studies 38(3): 587–612.Google Scholar
Babin, N. (2014) The coffee crisis, fair trade, and agroecological transformation: impacts on land-use change in Costa Rica. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems 39(1): 99–129.Google Scholar
Barrientos, R. (2011) Diagnóstico de la situación cafetalera del Municipio de Caranavi. Caranavi-La\sPaz, Bolivia: Programa de Apoyo a la Política Sectorial.Google Scholar
Boillat, S. & Berkes, F. (2013) Perception and interpretation of climate change among Quechua Farmers of Bolivia: indigenous knowledge as a resource for adaptive capacity. Ecology & Society 18(4): 21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bottazzi, P., Reyes-García, V., Crespo, D., Marthez-Stiefel, S.-L., Galvarro, H.S., Jacobi, J., Clavijo, M. & Rist, S. (2013) Productive diversification and sustainable use of complex social–ecological systems: a comparative study of indigenous and settler communities in the Bolivian Amazon. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems 38(2): 137–164.Google Scholar
Castañón Ballivián, E. (2014) Two sides of the same coin: agriculture and food security in Bolivia. Berlin, Germany: Forschungs- und Dokumentationszentrum Chile-Lateinamerika.Google Scholar
Catacora Vargas, G. (2007) Soya en Bolivia: producción de oleaginosas y dependencia. In: Repúblicas Unidas de la Soja. Realidades de la Producción de Soya en América del Sur. pp. 235–252. Asunción, Paraguay: Grupo de Reflexión Rural.Google Scholar
Chepstow-Lusty, A. & Winfield, M. (2000) Inca agroforestry: lessons from the past. Ambio 29(6): 322–328.Google Scholar
Cuesta, J., Edmeades, S. & Madrigal, L. (2013) Food security and public agricultural spending in Bolivia: putting money where your mouth is? Food Policy 40: 1–13.Google Scholar
Fabricant, N. (2013) Good living for whom? Bolivia's climate justice movement and the limitations of indigenous cosmovisions. Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies 8(2): 159–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FAO (2014) The state of food insecurity in the world: strengthening the enabling environment for food security and nutrition. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.Google Scholar
Grisaffi, T. (2013) ‘All of us are Presidents’: radical democracy and citizenship in the Chapare province. Critique of Anthropology 33(1): 47–65.Google Scholar
Hinojosa, F. (2010) Sistemas Agroforestales Tradicionales en la Comunidad Tallija-Confital (Prov. Tapacari Dpto. Cochabamba). Diploma thesis, Universidad de San Simón, Cochabamba, Bolivia.Google Scholar
Hoch, L., Pokorny, B. & de Jong, W. (2012) Financial attractiveness of smallholder tree plantations in the Amazon: bridging external expectations and local realities. Agroforestry Systems 84(3): 361–375.Google Scholar
IAASTD (2008) Agriculture at a crossroads – Synthesis Report. Washington, DC, USA: International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development.Google Scholar
Ibisch, P.L. & Mérida, G. (2004) Biodiversity: the richness of Bolivia. State of knowledge and conservation. Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia: Editorial FAN.Google Scholar
ICRAF (2014) Trees for life: creating a more prosperous future through agroforestry. Nairobi, Kenya: World Agroforestry Centre.Google Scholar
Jacobi, J., Schneider, M., Bottazzi, P., Pillco, M., Calizaya, P. & Rist, S. (2013) Agroecosystem resilience and farmers’ perceptions of climate change impacts in cocoa farms in Alto Beni, Bolivia. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 39(2): 170–183.Google Scholar
Johnson, J. (1998) La agroforestería en Bolivia. Dirección de Recursos Forestales, Rome, Italy: FAO.Google Scholar
Knoblauch, B. (2013) La experiencia de PRISA-Bolivia en la difusión del cultivo de cacao en sistemas agroforestales. Cochabamba, Bolivia: Etreus impresores.Google Scholar
Kumar, B.M. & Nair, P.K.R. (2004) The enigma of tropical homegardens. Agroforestry Systems 61–62(1–3): 135–152.Google Scholar
La Razón (2013) Una revolución agroforestal se gesta en la Amazonía boliviana. El Diario Nacional de Bolivia, 20 January 2013. [www document]. URL www.la-razon.com/suplementos/financiero/revolucion-agroforestal-gesta-Amazonia-boliviana_0_1763223802.html Google Scholar
Lin, B.B. (2011) Resilience in agriculture through crop diversification: adaptive management for environmental change. BioScience 61(3): 183–193.Google Scholar
Mahboubi, P., Gordon, A.M., Stoskopf, N. & Voroney, R.P. (1997) Agroforestry in the Bolivian Altiplano: evaluation of tree species and greenhouse growth of wheat on soils treated with tree leaves. Agroforestry Systems 37: 57–77.Google Scholar
Martínez-Torres, M.E. & Rosset, P.M. (2014) Diálogo de saberes in La Vía Campesina: Food sovereignty and agroecology. Journal of Peasant Studies 41(6): 979–997.Google Scholar
Matocha, J., Schroth, G., Hills, T. & Hole, D. (2012) Integrating climate change adaptation and mitigation through agroforestry and ecosystem conservation. In: The Future of Global Land Use, eds. Nair, P.K.R. & Garrity, D., pp. 105–126. Gainesville, USA: Springer.Google Scholar
McDowell, J.Z. & Hess, J.J. (2012) Accessing adaptation: multiple stressors on livelihoods in the Bolivian highlands under a changing climate. Global Environmental Change – Human and Policy Dimensions 22(2): 342–352.Google Scholar
McKay, B., Nehring, R. & Walsh-Dilley, M. (2014) The ‘state’ of food sovereignty in Latin America: political projects and alternative pathways in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia. Journal of Peasant Studies 41(6): 1175–1200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MDRyT (2012) Análisis y Mapeo de la Vulnerabilidad a la Inseguridad Alimentaria. La Paz, Bolivia: Ministerio de Desarrollo Rural Y Tierras.Google Scholar
MDRyT (2014) Plan del Sector Desarrollo Agropecuario 2014–2018 “Hacia el 2025”. La Paz, Bolivia: Ministerio de Desarrollo Rural Y Tierras.Google Scholar
Mercer, D.E. (2004) Adoption of agroforestry innovations in the tropics: a review. Agroforestry Systems 61–62(1–3): 311–328.Google Scholar
Mueller, R., Pacheco, P. & Montero, J.C. (2014) The context of deforestation and forest degradation in Bolivia: drivers, agents and institutions. Occasional Paper 108. Bogor, Indonesia: Center for International Forestry Research.Google Scholar
Mueller, R., Pistorius, T., Rohde, S., Gerold, G. & Pacheco, P. (2013) Policy options to reduce deforestation based on a systematic analysis of drivers and agents in lowland Bolivia. Land Use Policy 30(1): 895–907.Google Scholar
Nair, P.K.R. & Garrity, D. (2012) Agroforestry – the future of global land use. Nairobi, Kenya and Gainesville, USA: Springer.Google Scholar
Nair, P.K.R. (1992) An introduction to agroforestry. Gainesville, USA: Kluwer Academic Publishers in cooperation with the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry.Google Scholar
Nyéléni Declaration (2007) Nyéléni Declaration [www document]. URL http://www.nyeleni.org/spip.php?article290 Google Scholar
Paris, B. (2013) Investigating the relationship between agro-forestry and food sovereignty in dryland context of Niger. MSc thesis, Development Planning Unit, University College London, UK.Google Scholar
Patton, M.Q. (2002) Qualitative research and evaluation methods. Beverly Hills, USA: Sage.Google Scholar
Perfecto, I., Vandermeer, J. & Wright, A. (2009) Nature's matrix: linking agriculture, conservation and food sovereignty. New York, USA: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Perfecto, I., Vandermeer, J., Mas, A. & Pinto, L.S. (2005) Biodiversity, yield, and shade coffee certification. Ecological Economics 54(4): 435–446.Google Scholar
Philpott, S.M., Lin, B.B., Jha, S. & Brines, S.J. (2008) A multi-scale assessment of hurricane impacts on agricultural landscapes based on land use and topographic features. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 128(1–2): 12–20.Google Scholar
Plurinational State of Bolivia (2016) Plan de desarrollo económico y social 2016–2020 en el marco del desarrollo integral para vivir bien. La Paz, Bolivia: Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia.Google Scholar
PNUD (2008) La otra frontera: usos alternativos de recursos naturales en Bolivia. informe temático sobre desarrollo humano. La Paz, Bolivia: Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD) Bolivia.Google Scholar
Pokorny, B., de Jong, W., Godar, J., Pacheco, P. & Johnson, J. (2013) From large to small: reorienting rural development policies in response to climate change, food security and poverty. Forest Policy and Economics 36: 52–59.Google Scholar
Reyes-Garcia, V., Vadez, V., Marti, N., Huanca, T., Leonard, W.R. & Tanner, S. (2008) Ethnobotanical knowledge and crop diversity in swidden fields: a study in a native Amazonian society. Human Ecology 36(4): 569–580.Google Scholar
Rosse, E.L. (2015) The hidden potential of agroforestry systems in the Chapare cocoa production area, Bolivia. CIDOB-OCP Policy Center Documents 4: 1–10.Google Scholar
Sager, F. (2014) Bolivia entre el desarrollo sostenible y la explotación de la naturaleza – el marco político y jurídico de los sistemas agroforestales como ejemplo para una agricultura sostenible. Acta Nova 6(3): 194–209.Google Scholar
Schnatmann, A. (2006) Análisis económico de rentabilidad de parcelas agroforestales multiestrato. La Paz, Bolivia: Interinstitucional Alto Beni.Google Scholar
Seiler, C., Hutjes, R.W.A. & Kabat, P. (2013) Likely ranges of climate change in Bolivia. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology 52(6): 1303–1317.Google Scholar
Somarriba, E., Beer, J., Alegre-Orihuela, J., Andrade, H., Cerda, R., DeClerck, F., Detlefsen, G., Escalante, M., Giraldo, L., Ibrahim, M., Krishnamurthy, L., Mena-Mosquera, V., Mora-Degado, J., Orozco, L., Scheelje, M. & Campos, J. (2012) Mainstreaming agroforestry in Latin America. In: Agroforestry – the Future of Global Land Use, eds. Nair, P.K.R. & Garrity, D., pp. 429–453. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer.Google Scholar
Suárez, R., Camburn, M. & Crepos, S. (2010) El pequeño productor en el ‘cluster’ de la soya. Caso cruceño. Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia: Probioma.Google Scholar
Tscharntke, T., Clough, Y., Bhagwat, S.A., Buchori, D., Faust, H., Hertel, D., Hölscher, D., Juhrbandt, J., Kessler, M., Perfecto, I., Scherber, C., Schroth, G., Veldkamp, E. & Wanger, T.C. (2011) Multifunctional shade-tree management in tropical agroforestry landscapes – a review. Journal of Applied Ecology 48: 619–629.Google Scholar
Tscharntke, T., Clough, Y., Wanger, T.C., Jackson, L., Motzke, I., Perfecto, I., Vandermeer, J. & Whitbread, A. (2012) Global food security, biodiversity conservation and the future of agricultural intensification. Biological Conservation 151(1): 53–59.Google Scholar
UNODC (2015) Estado plurinacional de Bolivia: monitoreo de cultivos de coca 2014. Vienna, Austria: Oficina de las Naciones Unidas contra la Droga y el Delito.Google Scholar
Urioste, M. (2012) Concentration and ‘foreignisation’ of land in Bolivia. Canadian Journal of Development Studies/Revue Canadienne d’Études du Développement 33(4): 439–457.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Jacobi supplementary material

Table S1

Download Jacobi supplementary material(File)
File 31.4 KB