Land tenure, ecological zone, and agricultural regime in the Central Andes

Abstract

Using a sample of community studies, the interrelationships between land tenure, agricultural regime, and ecological zone in the Central Andes are explored. Communal control is found to be associated with grazing and sectorial fallowing, while private control is found to be associated with permanent irrigation, specialized horticulture, and long‐term fallowing. These patterns are shown to be produced by population pressure and market relations interacting with the vertical ecology of the Central Andean area. The importance of these findings to the debate over the “Tragedy of the Commons” and the degradation of mountain environment is discussed. [land tenure, “Tragedy of the Commons,” Central Andes, mountain agriculture, vertical ecology]