Fragile Lands of Latin America Strategies for ... - PART - USAID

The Geography of Fragile Lands
Table 2
Extent of Fragile Lands
Category
1. Tropical forests
2. Tropical savannas
3. Wetlands
4. Dry lowlands
5. Montane tropical forests
6. Dry highlands
7. Rainfed highlands
Area covere8 (km2)
Percentage of
Latin America
Less fragile 2 , ~ , ~ 13
Total 20,575,000 100
a Modified from Cole, 1965:49. More recent estimates show lower figures for
tropical forests and tropical savannas, which could raise the less fragile total to
as much as 2Wh.
or for market. All forest can be used. Deserts can be irrigated, de-
pending on water availability. Steep slopes can be terraced. Swamps
can be drained. And infertile soils can be fertilized. The costs, of
course, may be prohibitive for permanent, sustained systems, or systems
may be used which are sustainable only on a periodic basis.
Figures are not available, but certainly a much lower percentage of
the more fragile lands is cultivated compared to the less fragile lands.
Furthermore, the more fragile lands are dominated by small farmers,
whereas the less fragile lands are dominated by large farmers, haciendas,
plantations, and corporate farms.
Management of Fragility
All the fragile land categories can be utilized under extensive man-
agement systems (shifting cultivation, sectorial fallowing, agroforestry,
low density grazing) with minimal deterioration. However, all are sub-
ject to deterioration under intensive use systems. Sustained, intensive
productivity generally requires significant landscape and soil modifi-
cation (terracing; raised and sunken fields; water control canals, res-
ervoirs, and embankments; and soil additives) in order to manipulate
resource conditions and stress factors (slope, water availability, tem-
perature, pests, soil fertility). Under traditional land-use systems such
modifications are usually labor intensive; they are usually responses to
population or market pressure; and they usually include risk-minimizing