Secondary Forests and Agrarian Transitions: Insights from Nepal and Peru

Adam Pain,Kristina Marquardt,Dil Khatri

doi:10.1007/s10745-021-00224-1

Adam Pain, Kristina Marquardt + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-021-00224-1

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Journal: Human Ecology	Publication Date: Mar 2, 2021
Citations: 11	License type: open-access

Affiliation: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Abstract

We provide an analytical contrast of the dynamics of secondary forest regeneration in Nepal and Peru framed by a set of common themes: land access, boundaries, territories, and rights, seemingly more secure in Nepal than Peru; processes of agrarian change and their consequences for forest-agriculture interactions and the role of secondary forest in the landscape, more marked in Peru, where San Martín is experiencing apparent agricultural intensification, than in Nepal; and finally processes of social differentiation that have consequences for different social groups, livelihood construction and their engagement with trees, common to both countries. These themes address the broader issue of the necessary conditions for secondary forest regeneration and the extent to which the rights and livelihood benefits of those actively managing it are secured.

Highlights

Tropical forests have a core regulatory function in global climate systems, but even if they are conserved, existing primary or near climax tropical forests are unlikely to be sufficient to maintain this role (Chazdon 2014)
Secondary forests are too often regarded as degraded and too little attention is given to their diverse formations (Chazdon et al 2016), the ecosystem services they provide, and crucially the contribution that smallholders can make in managing such forests for livelihood benefits (Hecht 2014)
We explore the conditions under which secondary forest regeneration takes place and whether these conditions necessarily guarantee the security of users of forest resources who have a vested interest in its management through a comparative analysis of the dynamics of smallholder actions in various types of secondary forest regeneration and the agrarian conditions associated with these

Summary

Introduction

Tropical forests have a core regulatory function in global climate systems, but even if they are conserved, existing primary or near climax tropical forests are unlikely to be sufficient to maintain this role (Chazdon 2014). Secondary forests are too often regarded as degraded and too little attention is given to their diverse formations (Chazdon et al 2016), the ecosystem services they provide, and crucially the contribution that smallholders can make in managing such forests for livelihood benefits (Hecht 2014). Their diversity reflects the nature of the disturbances that created them, the institutional regimes within which those are embedded, and the resulting forest regeneration processes. We draw from long term research in the mid-hills of Nepal (Marquardt et al 2016) and in the San Martín region of the Peruvian Amazon (Marquardt et al 2019)

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