| Abstract: | Summary A combination of social, economic and physical factors contribute to a decision to migrate for a peasant farmer. Seventy percent of Panamanian land comprises steep topography with low soil fertility. Campesinos (peasant farmers) must perpetually migrate when the land they have settled in the forest loses fertility. This process of continual migration results in deforestation and conversion of forest land to pasture land, which then becomes degraded and subsequently abandoned. Also, government policy has not favored the activities of small land owners, but loans from national banks have financed the promotion of large-scale cattle ranches. Migration patterns consist of moving to a forested area, clearing it for agriculture for one to three years, and thereafter sowing it for pasture. These conditions eventually result in low agricultural and cattle production. Campesinos therefore sell the land to cattle ranchers who can afford to invest in better management practices. Deforestation in the Canal Watershed, therefore, has left a pattern of land ownership comprising a matrix of a few large landowners, within which remain numerous but small peasant land holdings. A program for small land owners in and around the Watershed region that promotes social, cultural, and economic stability of land use is needed. Supporting and promoting agroforestry with uses of native tree species associated with subsistence and market crops is an alternative for slowing deforestation and promoting sedentary land use. |
