Deforestation, Coffee Cultivation, and Land Degradation ... - lumes

1. Introduction1.1 Problem DefinitionOver the past five centuries, deforestation has reduced Brazil’s Atlantic Rainforest to lessthan 50,000 square kilometers—a mere five percent of the more than 100 million squarekilometers of its original coverage (Consórcio 1992). Although it is often the Amazon thatcomes to mind at the mention of deforestation in Brazil, the lesser known Atlantic Rainforest,the Mata Atlântica in Portuguese, holds the country’s highest amount of biodiversity. Overthe last 500 years the Mata Atlântica has disappeared at 5 times the rate of the Amazon (Dean1995), and is considered to be one of the world’s most threatened biomes. What was once avast rainforest holding a rich diversity of plant and animal life is now a collection of brokenpockets of mostly secondary forest.As in the Amazon, deforestation in the Mata Atlântica is a result of the seemingly insatiablesearch for productive agricultural land. Native Indians practiced slash and burn forestclearing as early as 3,000 years ago, but the process of deforestation really began with thearrival of the first Portuguese settlers to Brazil during the early 1500’s. Today deforestationin the Mata Atlântica continues at an alarming rate, primarily to provide land for coffeeplantations and cattle grazing (ibid.).Once the rainforest has been cleared the soil remains fertile for only a short period, afterwhich time the land begins to degrade, leading to the felling of even more forest in thecontinuous pursuit for productive soil. This destructive cycle is driving the Mata Atlântica toits limits, and with it the extinction of hundreds of plant and animal species. Of the 202species on Brazil’s threatened or endangered list, 171 of these are found in the MataAtlântica, and 85 percent of these are endemic (Ferreira 1999).Not only is the forest threatened, but also are the rural farmers who are dependent upon itsrich soils for their livelihoods. Despite the downward trend in world coffee prices, farmersare unable to receive government assistance for anything but the cultivation of coffee. Yet, anaverage coffee plantation remains productive for a mere 20 years, after which time the landmay be planted with grass and made into pasture for livestock, but eventually must beabandoned. This process is costly, coffee markets are unstable, and the forest continues to becleared.This cycle of deforestation, coffee cultivation and land degradation cannot be solved unless aland management plan is found that addresses the causes behind such problems, not merelythe symptoms. Such a management plan, once implemented, should provide for theprotection of natural resources, while allowing rural farmers economically feasiblealternatives for improvement. Encompassing all aspects of a sustainable land managementstrategy—ecological, economic, and social—is the focus of this study.1.2 Objectives and ScopeThe objectives of this study are to address the causes and development behind the currentproblems of land management in Brazil’s Mata Atlântica rainforest by examining the strugglebetween forest conservation and agricultural productivity. This struggle is complex and hasthree dimensions—ecological, economic, and social—involving many factors.3