The sustainability of shifting cultivation in rain forest conservation: Participatory mapping the cultural geography of native peoples in the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve, Honduras.

摘要

The Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve, established in 1980, is the oldest, UNESCO-affiliated protected area in Central America. It contains part of the largest surviving tropical rain forest in the region and is home to more than 40,000 indigenous Garifuna, Miskito, and Pech, as well as Hispanic Ladinos. The Honduran Forestry Agency, with support of the German government, initiated a project in 1997 to enlarge the reserve and delimit its buffer, nucleus, and cultural zones. The project's landmark achievement was a participatory zoning activity (1997-98) in which elected local surveyors worked with residents, project staff, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations to divide the buffer and cultural zones into community-approved, managed-use subzones. This formed the basis of the biosphere management plan that was approved by the Honduran government in 2000. The multiple-use subzone of the reserve encompasses areas where agriculture, ranching, and other land-use activities occur. Much of it is vacant and set aside for future population growth, but no study has determined how much land it contains or how much is now in use.; This dissertation, based on 2000-2001 fieldwork, assesses the sustainability of shifting cultivation in three communities on the middle Rio Patuca, the southeastern boundary of the reserve. Participant observation and participatory research mapping methods were used to collect demographic, socioeconomic, and agricultural data from the 227 households of the study area. This dissertation measures the sustainability of shifting cultivation in two ways. First, it maps the extent of agricultural land use to determine whether the study-area portion of the multiple-use subzone is sufficient for present and future agricultural needs of residents. Second, it compares the performance of shifting cultivation to other economic activities in the study area. This research shows that shifting cultivation is currently sustainable within the context of conservation management, but is unsustainable in terms of the local economy of the study area. The greatest challenge now facing shifting cultivators is not whether they can live within the limits set by the biosphere management plan, but whether they can survive economically in the increasingly cash-oriented economy of the middle Rio Patuca.