Sustainable land-use in Peruvian flood plain forests: options, planning and implementation

Abstract

Flood plains comprise over 12% of the lowland Peruvian Amazon, and they are economically important in agriculture, fishing, hunting, forestry and extraction of other forest products. Some special features of the flood plains are outlined and their implications for land-use are interpreted. A close interaction exists between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, implying that management needs to consider effects on both systems. By nature the flood plains are adapted to large perturbations, indicating that rough management interventions can be carried out, but only a limited proportion of each habitat is disturbed by nature at a time, suggesting that simultaneous profound large-scale interventions in certain habitats should be avoided. The high fertility of flood plain soils and periodical sedimentation hint that the risk of soil nutrient depletion is limited. The flood plain production potential is relatively high, although it varies much according to patterns of flooding and drainage, stressing the need to provide information on the geographic variation in these environmental factors. The culture and organisation of flood plain inhabitants is dynamic, and a patron system dominate in many economic activities. Few regulations control the access to and use of the flood plain natural resources, and no permanent tenure rights can be issued for flood plain land. This emphasises the need to promote adapted organisations and institutions, and to develop a land tenure system fostering incentives for management working on a long-term perspective. It was found that sustained timber production in the natural flood plain forests can have net present values (NPVs) up to US$ 250 per ha without accounting for growth enhancing effects. On the average the extraction value of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) was low, but certain habitats generated high economic benefits constituting a major part of the economy of many flood plain households. Domestication has a high potential and agroforestry is already widespread, but effects of flooding, bad drainage and risk of erosion by the river current are impediments to successful intensive land-use systems. Socio-economic distortions can be risked if land suited for agricultural subsistence production is gradually taken over by agriculturalists focusing on large-scale commercial production.