The Cashew Frontier in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa: Changing Landscapes and Livelihoods

Abstract

Guinea-Bissau farmers are replacing shifting cultivation with cashew (Anacardium occidentale) orchards in response to international and national economic and conservation policies, local social changes and perceived increasing climate instability. However, changes from relative food self-provisioning to full dependence on one cash crop and from a complex mosaic of agricultural fields, fallows and forest patches to a homogenous landscape of cashew agroforests impacts both the natural environment and livelihoods. This article on the demise of shifting cultivation in the tropics contributes to the growing body of scholarship on land use-cover change (LUCC) and its multiplex global, national and local drivers, varying across time and space. Further, we argue that instead of adopting an approach exclusively focused on parks, conservation-oriented external interventions should engage with farmers in the development of innovations that both preserve forest ecosystems and enhance food security.