The World Bank/WBI’s CBNRM Initiative

Case Received: February 5, 1998

Authors: Larry Frolich and Esmeralda Guevara

Email: larry@uio.satnet.net

Small-scale agricultural interests may be, in Ecuador as well as world-wide, the single most significant threat to conservation of primary forests (Rudel & Horowitz, 1993). In the province of Carchi in northern Ecuador, a unique collaboration between Guandera, a non-profit cloud forest reserve, and "Union y Trabajo," a local agricultural cooperative, has inspired community-wide innovation in land use leading to sustainable farming practices that leave nearby forest intact.

The 1000 hectare Guandera Reserve is in the midst of the only remaining expanse of ancient high altitude cloud forest that once covered the Ecuadorian Andes. The reserve forest, along with another 5000 hectares of surrounding privately held primary forest, are an important natural resource, providing rich organic soil nutrients, fresh water, a consistently humid environment, and a diversity of useful plants and animals.. Most recently, the forest has also proved a strong economic resource drawing hundreds of ecotourists to the region annually.

Cash-cropping of potatoes, the principle agricultural activity in the zone, is in direct conflict with forest conservation. As soils are depleted with repeat plantings of potatoes, hundreds of hectares of forest are cut annually to clear new fields. We, as Guandera staff dedicated to community extension and environmental education work, have been collaborating with "Union y Trabajo" to inspire local farmers to plant a variety of fruit trees and bushes, thereby developing a sustainable mixed crop that produces a marketable product, year after year, without opening new fields.

The farmers involved come from the community of Mariscal Sucre. The small town center is approximately a one hour walk from the reserve and the community extends to include most of the farm-land that borders the Guandera forest. The community is well organized into six neighborhoods that are governed by a central county board. Approximately 1000 families reside within the county which spreads over 100 square kilometers of fertile agricultural land. An extensive drinking water system provides piped water to most houses. Road infrastructure is excellent and year-round truck access to most farms is possible.

Households are characterized by a strong family base with most members working the family's land. A typical family owns from 3-10 hectares of land devoted to potatoes and dairy cows. A hectare of land generates on average $1000-2000 of income annually. As income has risen over the last twenty years, primarily due to cash cropping of potatoes, land devoted to family sustenance has diminished and many families now purchase most of their food.

Over the long run, potato farming is not sustainable and is economically unstable due to extreme fluctuations in the market. Initial potato yields from recently cut forest land are quite high, as much as 15 sacks harvested for every sack planted, with minimal investment in chemical fertilizer and pesticides. However, by the third planting, yields are usually down below 10 per 1 and heavy fertilizer and pesticide application is requisite. After three plantings it is generally necessary to rotate land into dairy pasture for several years and the most depleted land is bought by large dairy operations for perpetual pasture. Thus, small farmers in Carchi have been continually cutting primary forest to open new fields and thereby sustain their potato income. Out of a total of 57,000 hectares of montane forest (between 1500 and 3600 meters above sea level) in Carchi province, approximately 4200 hectares are being cut annually (CESA, 1992).

Five years ago, Fundacion Jatun Sacha, a non-profit, non-governmental organization, began buying the land that now forms the Guandera Reserve. At this time, local farmers were just developing concern over decreasing potato yields and increasing need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides. In the Mariscal Sucre area, farmers had extended their fields almost to the steepest part of the eastern Andean cordillera which rises above town. Although they were continuing to cut these forested hillsides to plant potatoes, the steepness made work difficult and the fields less accessible.

With funds available to purchase only 1000 hectares of forest, the Guandera staff decided to work with the community on environmental education and ecological agriculture, teaching about the value of the forest while seeking sustainable alternatives to potato farming. Our hope was to develop new agricultural products that would provide sustainable income off of existent agricultural lands, thereby negating the need to cut forest and clear new land. Without a change in land use in the Mariscal Sucre area, nearby forest would now mostly be cut. The very farm families who would have cut the forest would be suffering most. Depleted soils in existent fields and the lack of forest land to clear would lead to a deteriorating economic base. The forest, sitting on the hills above the community, provides a continual source of organic material and serves as a humidity trap. In other parts of the Ecuadorian Sierra, highland soils are very depleted and surprisingly dry--the same may ensue in Carchi if the forest continued to be cut. Furthermore, deforestation would lead to a scarcity of fresh clean water and recreational space. This, along with increasing use of cancer-causing pesticides, would result in deteriorating community health.

At the same time, the forest is a world biological treasure and its loss might impact on such diverse groups as natural history lovers, academic biologists, and natural medicine practitioners. Primary inter-Andean forest is extremely rare. In Ecuador, only this small fragment in Carchi remains, making it far more threatened than either Amazon or coastal forests. Diversity in the forest is surprisingly high given the altitude of 3500 meters. Over 60 tree species and 250 species of herbaceous plants were found in initial inventories (Cuamacas & Tipaz, 1995; Palacios & Tipaz, 1996). One hundred and forty species of birds have been recorded, over 75% of which are Andean endemics including 30 rare or endangered species (Cresswell et al., in press). The threatened Andean Spectacled Bear is also resident. Aesthetically, it is spectacular forest with giant ancient trees, twisted and gnarled, coated with mosses and orchids, reaching to a thick green canopy that hangs in the mists overhead. Loss of the Guandera forest due to continued unsustainable cash-cropping of potatoes would be a profound loss for all.

The change to better community-based land management in Mariscal Sucre has been, we believe, a model of how linkage between a private non-profit organization (Guandera) can serve as a catalyst, via a community-based agricultural cooperative ("Union y Trabajo"), to foster effective community participation at the local level (themes 2 and 3 of the workshop). In essence, Guandera has provided technical staff and some fiscal incentives, working via the already well organized agricultural cooperative, to spur farmers to implement sustainable systems--the goal being to reduce clear-cutting while diversifying the economic base.

Initially we looked for examples of sustainable production in similar environments. Several integral farms in the Ambato area (central Ecuadorian Andes), that follow a permaculture philosophy based on fruit cultivation, served as our models (IIRR, 1996). These farms produce a consistent income from an integrated system that mixes fruit trees with other crops, including potatoes. The mix and rotation of crops in erosion control terraces has led to improvement, rather than depletion of soils. Their success over the last twenty y ears convinced us that integrated systems with a fruit tree base is a viable and sustainable alternative.

We began last year, working with three interested farmers, among them the most influential and prominent members of the cooperative. Guandera provided technical consulting (via extensionists) and volunteer intern labor to help with initial plantings. Fruit trees and bushes were purchased with reserve operating funds and provided to the farmers on credit, with the cost to be returned upon first harvest. Each farmer converted ½ hectare of pasture-land into slow-formation, erosion control terraces which were planted with a variety of suitable fruits--raspberry and blueberry (both native species) as well as apples, peaches and plums . To participate in the program, farmers have had to adopt an environmentalist perspective with regard to the Guandera Reserve and their own land holdings.. In addition, they plant Aliso (Alnus acuminata), a good nitrogen-fixing tree, in the terraces and close to their homes as a future source of firewood (many farmers occasionally cut forest trees for home firewood use).

This year, a community greenhouse has been built in order to produce seedlings locally facilitating incorporation of three more farmers in the program. Eucalyptus poles donated by the farmers were used for the greenhouse structure and construction was completed by reserve volunteers and farmers working together. Plastic was purchased with reserve operating funds. Reserve staff, along with a Peace Corps volunteer, manage the greenhouse with the help of participating farmers. This year we also expect to receive a USAID grant to further expand the program, building two outlying greenhouses and incorporating twelve more farmers.

An equally critical component has been our concurrent program of environmental education with students from the local high school. Each year, we work with fifth year students, both in the reserve and on their own model integral fruit farm. We believe this work with the high school students has been crucial for disseminating the idea that the fate of the community and the forest are linked and that sustainable farming practices are crucial for long-term health of both. This on-going relation with high school students makes clear how a change to integrated fruit farming systems serve the interests of all--local farmers, reserve staff and even the international conservation community.

The most significant outcome of the change to integrated fruit farming systems is that six farmers are now invested in fruit cultivation and will soon have a sustainable product that will not require further clear-cutting of forest. Among these farmers are two with significant forest holdings close to the reserve, thus providing Guandera with an additional buffer zone of up to one hundred hectares. As fruit crops are proving financially successful, these farmers are interested in expanding their plantings and a number of farmers have begun fruit planting independently. With the help of the USAID grant, we expect to add twelve new farmers, each with a minimum of one hectare in fruit plantings. The construction of outlying greenhouses will give us better access to farmers with forest holdings close to the reserve.

The program has required relatively little administration. The Guandera Reserve and the "Union y Trabajo" cooperative were already up and running and their existent administrative structures have served to oversee the program in general. In addition, since farmers are converting to a profitable crop with fruit trees provided on credit, they are each responsible for managing their own operation. The greenhouse has become a center of community attention and the Guandera staff need only insure that appropriate cultivation practices are taught and followed. The USAID grant will provide for the hiring of two part-time community members who will be trained in fruit seedling care to manage the greenhouses.

The impact on forest conservation goes well beyond the few hundred protected hectares. With the aid of the high school environmental education program, the environmentalist vocabulary and thinking is now spreading throughout the zone. This is fortified by the observation that fruit trees are proving successful for those farmers who have risked the change. These farmers now have a sustainable crop that requires very little work in comparison with potatoes. With a low capital investment, farmers see that they can convert low-return pasture land into high-return integrated fruit plantations without the hard and damaging work of clear-cutting forest land.

Start small. Initially we were overwhelmed with the extent of the problem. How could we possibly organize such a large community and convince them to change from the profitable activity of monoculture potato farming. However, setting our sites on a hand-full of farmers from the agricultural cooperative reduced the goal to something manageable. It is better to succeed initially with a small project than fail with an overly large one. Success will breed expansion!

Work with existent institutional structures. We thought about creating our own organization of farmers interested in conserving the forest, but it proved far easier to gain the confidence of the agricultural community by working with the well-established and prestigious agricultural cooperative. By convincing two or three of their members to make the change, we gained the ear of the whole cooperative and thereby the attention of the community at large. Equally, the support of the local high school has given weight to our environmental education program and it now fulfills a community service requirement for those students.

Educational component is important. We believe strongly that change is most effective if it includes both a practical component and an educational program to fortify it. It is extremely important to explain why the change will benefit the local community, always with relation to daily life. The double barrel approach of actively implementing change through the agricultural cooperative and explaining why the change will benefit long-run community well-being via the environmental education program has been crucial. We are just now reaching a point where the more esoteric value of the forest--as a thing of beauty and recreational space--can be presented. Having previously established more practical reasons for the change to integrated fruit tree systems, we now have the confidence of the community to accept more esoteric ideas about the value of forest conservation.

What is universal about the case? Agricultural incursion into primary forest land is extremely common. We believe it might often be possible to present a "win-win" situation that improves farm stability and sustainability while leaving forest land intact. The key, in our opinion, is to find a mix of appropriate sustainable products. Forest clearing is never easy work and most farmers will risk planting a crop that is less work and shows good results.

Perhaps what is not so universal is the existence of a strong family base. Institutions trying to implement a change in agricultural practices in outlying areas, where colonizing populations are more unstable, face additional challenges. However, the very act of working with the community via environmental education and promoting sustainable products may lead to a stabilization of the economic base for families in those areas.

Agricultural incursion into primary forest frequently leads to conflict over land management between farmers and conservationists. More often than not, it is easy to sympathize with both sides: farmers are trying to make a living for themselves and their families and are producing crops that feed us all; conservationists are trying to insure a source of clean water, fresh air, organic material, biodiversity and the well-being that the forest provides. Our case is important because it demonstrates that this conflict can have a win-win solution. The key lies in finding a mix of sustainable crops that improve farmers' situations without cutting more forest. Crops that produce a marketable product over the long-run while requiring less work than clear-cutting forest are ideal.

In the community of Mariscal Sucre, we have had success convincing farmers to convert from potato-farming to integrated fruit plantations. Potato cultivation, although profitable over the short run, has not proved to be sustainable for the long term and farmers have been cutting primary forest to open new fields as soils are depleted from repeat mono-crop plantings. By starting slowly with a few farmers from the prestigious agricultural cooperative, we are gradually convincing the community that integrated fruit plantations can be equally profitable and more economically stable while requiring less work. Together with our aggressive program of environmental education, we believe this community-based change in agricultural practices will succeed both in raising the standard of living while conserving the Guandera forest for future generations.

CESA, 1992. El Deterioro de los bosques naturales del Callejon Interandino del Ecuador. Quito, Ecuador.

Cresswell, W., Mellanby, R. And Bright, S., in press. Bird diversity at Guandera Reserve in the high Andes of northern Ecuador. The Tanager

Cuamacas, S. And Tipaz, G.A. 1995. Arboles de los Bosques Interandino del Norte del Ecuador. Quito, Ecuador: Publicaciones del Museo Ecuatoriano de Ciencias Naturales.

IIRR, 1996. Manual de Práctica Agroecológicas de los Andes Ecuatorianos. Quito Ecuador: Instituto Internacional de Reconstruccion Rural.

Palacios, W.A .and Tipaz, G. 1996. Un Bosque Remanente de Altura (Reserva Guandera): Estructura y Composición Florística. Revista Geogfráfica 37.

Rudel, T.K. & Horowitz, B. 1993. Tropical Deforestation: Small Farmers and Land Clearing in the Ecuadorian Amazon. New York: Colombia University Press.