Abstract
AbstractSilvopastoral systems (SPS)—production systems integrating trees, forages, and livestock within the same land area—are recognized as critical for reducing tropical deforestation and improving livelihoods, ecosystem services, and carbon sinks. Yet, research on how scaling SPS influences forest cover changes at large geographical scales is scant. Our study delves deeper into the interlinkages between scaling SPS and deforestation. In two surveys conducted among 144 Colombian Amazon livestock producers with traditional or SPS farms, we assessed changes in herd composition between 2016 and 2020. Results showed a change in herd composition, with fewer males and more cows/heifers, suggesting a shift toward specializing in milk production, which, with the appropriate environmental incentives and safeguards, would unlikely broaden deforestation. However, interlinkages between the dairy and beef value chains suggest that extra male cattle from SPS intensification would be moved for fattening as a source of beef to new pastures at the forest border. If SPS scaling interventions in the Colombian Amazon are to be truly deforestation‐free, they need to be designed based on a clear understanding of the interlinkages between food and land systems. Therefore, policies advancing the livestock and land‐use agenda must create mechanisms that support deforestation‐free livestock intensification, based on biophysical and socioeconomic evaluations.
Highlights
The 19th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) reaffirms the importance of addressing the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation and recognizes that addressing such drivers may have implications for livelihoods (UNFCCC, 2014)
We present the findings of a study undertaken to inform strategies for scaling silvopastoral systems (SPS) among smallholder livestock producers in the Colombian Amazon
The increased supply of calves and male heads does not necessarily directly equate to more deforestation, it is better to be safe than to risk the Amazon being further deforested based on our results, we argue that all investments for scaling SPS targeting milk- and calfproducing farms in the Colombian Amazon would need to implement environmental safeguards to ensure that the environmental and economic benefits needed for widespread adoption of SPS are deforestation-free
Summary
The 19th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) reaffirms the importance of addressing the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation and recognizes that addressing such drivers may have implications for livelihoods (UNFCCC, 2014). In such contexts, the widespread adoption of sustainable land use systems (SLUS), such as agroforestry and silvopastoral systems (SPS), is seen as critical to reducing deforestation for both biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation. Even though SPS have proven to be economically, socially, and environmentally beneficial at the farm level, adoption remains low in Colombia and elsewhere (Tapasco, Fraçois LeCoq, Ruden, Sebastian Rivas, & Ortiz, 2019)
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