A Tradition of Change: The dynamic relationship between biodiversity and society in Sector Muyuy, Peru
Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez
Center for Environmental Research and Conservation, CERC
Columbia University
José Barletti Pasqualle
Amazonia Cluster, Peru Subcluster, Iquitos
Population Land and Environmental Change – PLEC
United Nations University
Denis Del Castillo Torres
Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonia Peruana
Iquitos, Peru
International Conference on
Biodiversity and Society
Columbia University Earth
Institute
UNESCO
May 22-25, 2001
I. Preface
The theme of biodiversity and society is an opportunity to look beyond skewed environmental ideologies that lead biodiversity researchers to ignore land "tarnished" by humans in search of "pristine" ecosystems. Many ecologists suggest that biodiversity is the result of natural processes (Terborgh, 1999) and relegate social processes to a category of "disturbances". In contrast, the anthropocentric point of view, proposed by many social scientists, argues that much of biodiversity -- including that in Amazonia -- is the result of long term human intervention and manipulation of natural processes (Raffles, 1998). A major objective of the Peru study has been to test and draw practical conclusions from a view that rejects any partisan position in favor of a more balanced view that acknowledges that biodiversity is part and product of complex and linked natural and anthropogenic interactions.
In response to the biodiversity crisis, many advances have been made in identifying critical organisms, ecosystems, landscapes and environments. Most specialists agree, however, that the scientific community must seek more effective ways of mitigating these threats. Common approaches to this goal include the establishment of a multiplicity of protected areas, including UNESCO's Biosphere Reserves, as well as other forms of parks, community-based reserves and others. These efforts have produced limited results and it is clear that new approaches are required to conserve, restore or improve the state of species, ecosystem and landscape diversity on a regional and global scale. There are several reasons why the establishment of formal protected areas has failed to stem the rate of species extinction and damage to habitat-rich landscapes. In Amazonia, as in most areas around the world, most threatened species, habitats, ecosystems, landscapes and environments exist entirely outside the boundaries of parks, reserves and other conservation units. Most of these riches are located in areas used for production of economic goods by human communities. This case study, therefore, seeks to examine the crucial ecological and social processes associated with resource use and land-cover dynamics that influence changes in biodiversity levels over time and space in the varzea floodplain region of Muyuy, a biodiversity-rich zone located outside protected areas.
II. The Muyuy floodplain
The total area of the varzea floodplain known as Sector Muyuy is approximately 292 km2 of which approximately 223 km2 is land and 69 km2 is river during the season when river levels are at about an annual midpoint. The Sector Muyuy is located in the floodplain (varzea) of the upper Amazon River, an area dominated by a yearly flood cycle during which river levels rise and fall an average of over 9 meters. When river levels are at their lowest annual level the area of land increases by about 30%; when it is at its highest level, virtually all land disappears. Due to its location wholly within a highly dynamic floodplain, Muyuy includes a diversity of environments exposed to flooding of varying intensities and frequencies, riverbank erosion and deposition due to lateral river migration, as well as other powerful fluvio-dynamic processes. The exact timing and height of floods varies from year to year. The composition of soils is continually altered by the deposition of new sediments. Both landforms and water-bodies are also highly unstable.
The flood regime is not the only agent of change and instability in Muyuy. The Sector also includes a great diversity of human settlements and production types that have created and altered land forms, water bodies and, particularly, vegetation. Virtually all of Muyuy's landscapes are constantly subject to complex, and interlinked natural and anthropogenic processes. These processes are highly variable and unpredictable in their frequency, intensity and spatial characteristics. In order to endure and prosper in this environment, historical data show that the residents of this region have developed technologies and strategies for managing and maintaining these processes.
The Muyuy varzea floodplain is located near Iquitos, the largest urban center in Peruvian Amazonia, and is populated by smallholder farmers, fishers, and forest managers known locally as ribereños (Fig. 1). The population of Muyuy in 2000 was approximately 3,740 persons distributed in 38 villages. Muyuy is one the most densely populated rural floodplain regions in Amazonia with about 67 people per km2. The age and gender composition of the Sector Muyuy population is roughly similar to that of other Amazonian regions (Fig. 2). Muyuy's population is remarkably young.
Residents of Muyuy take advantage of fluvio-dynamic and other natural processes to produce, transform, and conserve agrobiodiversity and other forms of biological diversity in their landholdings and surrounding environments. Smallholders intervene in natural processes through complex agriculture, agroforestry and other types of production and management technologies as well as conservation practices. As ribereños interact with natural processes, socioeconomic factors are also constantly altering the availability of resources and the value of what is produced. Political change, including variation in regional, national, and international economic development and credit policies are yet other sources of change and instability that have long affected the biodiversity of Muyuy's environments.
Several development and conservation initiatives were and continue to be tested by governmental and non-governmental agencies in the villages of Muyuy. Abandoned buildings, machines and other evidence of development projects are scattered over the Muyuy landscape. Despite numerous projects produced by decades of political and economic pressures to promote "improved" and "modern" production systems developed elsewhere and to reduce landscape and crop diversity, most of the production systems and techniques used by smallholders in Muyuy are based on locally-developed technologies.
The ribereños of Muyuy and neighboring communities typically engage in multiple production and management activities. Their landholdings contain an immense diversity of species, ecosystems, landscapes and environments. Ribereños' knowledge of diversified resource use and their dependency on large number of produced, managed and collected resources have enabled them to resist large-scale clearing of their forests for sugar cane plantations, pastures or other single use systems promoted by development projects. In other varzea regions near urban centers such as Manaus and Santarem the rate of land conversion to cattle ranches and other single use systems is very high. Consequently those areas of varzea biodiversity have greatly impoverished biodiversity (Worbes et al., 2000). The livelihoods of all Muyuy households integrate complex agriculture, agroforestry and other types of conservation, production, and management technologies. Local histories as well as our recent data show that these locally-developed technologies and conservation practices are dynamic and change to adjust to social and ecological processes. They also have resulted in a notably patchy landscape.
Within this diverse and patchy landscape are small populations of several threatened species. Proponents of limited access conservation strategies incorrectly attribute the species loss to the patchy "non-pristine" landscape. In Muyuy, for example, most species listed as over-exploited and endangered are the victims of regional and global market forces. Currently, the over-exploited forest species are found only in the landholdings of smallholders. Likewise, populations of paiche can be found only in lakes that are protected by the Muyuy residents in village or inter-village reserves.
In this case study we evaluate the meaning and value of ribereño resource use systems, their agriculture, agroforestry and forest management technologies, as well as their conservation practices in Muyuy. By including concrete findings on who is doing what, why they are doing it, and with what effects, we aim to recommend specific actions to confront a local instance of the biodiversity crisis. The resource use systems and conservation practices documented in Muyuy can be employed to restore threatened environments, landscapes and the population of threatened species in other varzea regions.
As is demonstrated in this case, ribereño technologies and knowledges are valuable resources to be appreciated by conservation and development agencies. Smallholder technologies described in this case study can act as a foundation for sustainable resource use, thus reducing landscape and ecosystem destruction, as well as species loss. Numerous studies have shown that swidden-fallow or shifting cultivation systems maintained by smallholders contains much more biodiversity than do more "modern" land use systems such as cattle ranches, industrial plantations and others that are part of the current development models promoted in Amazonia (Brondizio, 1997; Pinedo-Vasquez, 1995, Anderson 1992). Solutions to the biodiversity dilemma will more readily come from studies that explore the multitude of social interactions with biodiversity and evaluate land use systems that conserve or damage Amazonian biodiversity. This goal cannot be accomplish by treating society as a unit that is either present or absent and biodiversity as an element that is either pristine or destroyed.
While most experts agree on the ecological value of biodiversity found in the landholdings of smallholders, there is little appreciation for its role in helping to improve living conditions. Smith,(1996), has suggested that Amzonian peasants, particularly indigenous people, cannot benefit from the conservation of biodiversity. While the residents of Muyuy, as well as most indigenous and non-indigenous people in Amazonia, do not benefit from the biodiversity protected in parks and reserves, they do benefit from the biodiversity that they produce, manage and protect in their landholdings. Experts continue to argue these points largely because: a) information on biodiversity managed by smallholders in Amazonia is incomplete and has yet to be presented in a consistent and accessible form; b) most researchers do no understand the role of biodiversity in the livelihood of peasants; and c) agrobiodiversity and other forms of biological diversity produced by residents of Muyuy and other varzea regions are often not considered important biological resources.
Most quantitative studies on the biodiversity used, produced and managed by ribereños report only a small fraction of the total diversity found in their landholdings. For instance, many studies of species diversity conducted in estuarine varzea environments only evaluate housegardens and not the many other land use stages or field types found in peasant landholdings (Anderson, 1997). The present Muyuy case study includes the existing bioidversity produced and maintained by smallholders in the fields, fallows, house gardens and forests. In addition, we document the diversity of landforms and water bodies where ribereños produce, manage and collect resources.
III. Research methods
This case study was constructed using data collected over a five-year period (1996-2000) on the physical and social landscapes of Muyuy. Field information was matched with quantitative and qualitative data gathered together at a workshop held in Iquitos and in several community meetings conducted over the last six months. Most information on physical changes in the landscape (including vegetation cover) was obtained using a series of Landsat images from 1987, 1995 and 2000. Information collected from these images was checked in the field and compared with data that were collected in land surveys and from the archives in Iquitos.
Two demographic censuses (collected in 1997 and 2000) provided data on the resident and itinerant populations of the area. Information on natural and political-economic processes was also collected in interviews with selected informants. Interviews as well as land surveys were used to identify the origin and age of landforms, water bodies and vegetation that form the Muyuy landscape. Records on economic booms and busts, as well as changes in land tenure and use were also collected in interviews with the oldest residents of Muyuy, as well as with historians working in Iquitos, and by reviewing documents in archives located in public offices in Iquitos.
The number and area of village or inter-village lake reserves, family-protected forests and other conservation areas were recorded during land surveys. Information on local rules and means of enforcement were collected for each protected area. The name of threatened species and environments at risk of being converted to simplified resource uses were also recorded. Data on the number and size of agricultural and agroforestry fields, forests and house gardens made and maintained, were collected every year of the five year study. The sample includes 84 landholdings in 14 of the 38 villages in Muyuy (6 landholdings per village). Information for each sample property includes: the number and area of fields, fallows, forests and house gardens as well as the type of landform in which they were located. Together with members of the families (men, women and children) we made hand-drafted maps for each landholding representing its location within the landscape and the spatial distribution of the fields, fallows, forests and houegardens.
The diversity of agricultural and other production and management technologies practiced by members of 84 selected households was investigated using participant observation techniques. Researchers followed members of the selected households in their daily activities and observed and recorded production and management techniques. Information collected from each household was cross-checked during group discussions and dialogues with the most knowledgeable members of each household and community.
The planted, protected, managed or conserved agrobiodiversity and other forms of plant diversity within fields, fallows, forests and house gardens of each sampled landholding were inventoried three times over the five years. Plant diversity in forest areas was measured in 1 ha randomly selected plots for each of the 84 sampled landholdings. Individual plants with a DBH of less than 5 cm were inventoried in a sample of 168 (2 in each one ha sampled forest) randomly-selected sub-plots of 5m x 5m. Plant diversity in fallows was quantified for a sample of 252 plots of 20m x 20m that were randomly selected in the 84 sampled landholdings. Fallows where plots were established ranged from 5 to 8 years old and are managed for several products. We selected a sample of 120 house gardens to record plant diversity. The average size of each garden was 1.8 ha. In each inventoried plot and sub-plot established in forests, fallows and house gardens we recorded the common name, height, DBH, life form (tree, shrubs, vine, grass or herb) and location of each species. We also quantified species and varieties of planted or protected crops three times during the five-year study in 150 fields that were made by the 84 sample families at the beginning of the high-water and low-water seasons. Due to the heterogeneity of the landscape we estimated ß-diversity in addition to the species richness and Shannon index. Information collected during the five years of the study were presented and discussed with farmers in 8 communal meetings and one workshop.
IV. An overview of natural processes and responses
Sector Muyuy is part of the highly dynamic central Amazonian varzea floodplain (Sioli, 1987). The region comprises heterogeneous landscapes that include a great diversity of human settlements, land formations, water bodies and vegetation cover. Based on examination of three sets of Landsat images, major changes in the direction of the river and the location of structural features have taken place from 1987 to 2000. One of the major changes in the landscape was the formation of an oxbow lake at the north end of the Muyuy sector (Fig. 3). The formation of this oxbow lake was the product of sedimentation of a secondary channel near Iquitos and the lateral migration of the Amazon River. The formation of the lake and the closure of the secondary channel left Iquitos disconnected from the main river channel for a considerable part of the year. This change creates an obstacle for ribereños bringing their products to the city markets. Riverbank erosion has significantly reduced the size of the large and populated island of Padre Isla. Two of the five villages located on this island disappeared during the period and their inhabitants moved to the other side of the river and founded two new villages. This type of adaptation is common in the region. Padoch and de Jong (1992) report that a village located in the Ucayali varzea switched from one bank to the other more than five times in the last 50 years.
Another important change in Muyuy was the formation of several small islands near a large island in the center of Muyuy (Fig. 3). Residents of the large island reported an increase in sedimentation and an increase in the height of levees near the community. Villagers also reported major changes in the size and number of streams, landforms and vegetation cover since the appearance of the small islands. The change in area and number of landforms and streams caused several important economic shifts. These include an increase in fish populations, an expansion of silt bars available during the dry season for planting annual crops, and of high levees for planting perennial crops and making agroforests.
The formation of secondary channels at the south end of Muyuy is perceived to be the most important change since 1987 (Fig. 3). Since the formation of the secondary channel, the river current at this section of Muyuy is stronger and navigation is increasingly dangerous. As the current of the river became stronger, the five oxbow lakes were sedimented, and currently all three dry out when the river level is low. Villagers plant rice and other annual crops in the dry lake. In addition, a strong current is removing the vegetation along the new stream forming a number of small new stream channels that facilitate access to forest resources at the interior of the large island. Enhanced access to this area has led to an increase in the extraction of catahua (Hura crepitans) and other timber species. This in turn has prompted the villagers to control access to the resources and their extraction. Such shifts in village control illustrate how ribereños effectively use and varying conservation actions in response to changes resulting from fluviodynamic processes and market modifications.
V. A history of economic booms and busts
Oral histories, as well as historical and geographic information reveal that the social processes that lead to change in Muyuy have been no less complex and dynamic as the natural ones. Over the last century the Muyuy varzea floodplain has been subject to different intensities and forms of land and resource use. Many of these were generated locally although others resulted from changes in far-off markets and well as from more direct outside interventions in the form of development and conservation projects.
In Muyuy patterns of commercial production and extraction have varied greatly in response to recurring but ephemeral economic booms and busts. Although the Rubber Boom has been widely discussed, many other such economic fluctuations have affected Muyuy. One of the early booms of this century was based on the extraction of firewood for fueling steamboats as well as on the cutting of high grade timbers such as tropical cedar and mahogany for export to international markets. The main impact of this boom was the virtual destruction of populations of the four most valuable timber species: tropical cedar (Cedrela odorata), mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), lupuna (Ceiba pentandra) and capinuri (Maquira coraceae).
Muyuy residents also witnessed and participated in the extraction of animal river and land resources for international markets several times in recent history. A major boom occurred during the Second World War. Turtle eggs were intensively collected and processed to fill the industrial demand for olive oil-type lubricants, supplies of which had been disrupted during the war. One of the negative results of this boom was the drastic decline of the population of the giant river turtle, which is now consider as one of the most endangered species in Amazonia.
The disruption of the supply of leather in the international markets produced by WWII also had considerable repercussions on the populations and current situation of wildlife in Muyuy. The residents of Muyuy were engaged in hunting jaguars, black caimans, peccaries, river otters and other large game for their skins to supply world markets with leather. During this time populations of most large game animals suffered and in cases such as the black caiman and jaguars, they were totally exterminated from the region. Similarly, the increased demand in regional and national markets have greatly reduced the population of paiche (Arapaima gigas) fish in the lakes of Muyuy and other varzea regions.
A third major disruption affecting the residents and resources of Muyuy came as a result of a series of economic shifts, the most important one of which was petroleum exploration in Amazonia in the 1970s. While ongoing oil production employs few local residents now, the era of exploration and construction of an oil pipeline provided opportunities to many rural men to escape traditional forms of labor and production in the region and to earn substantial cash incomes for the first time. One of the eventual impacts of this boom was the migration of considerable part of Muyuy's population to the city of Iquitos. Many of the families that remained in the villages, had the means to purchase a house or land in the shanty towns of Iquitos during this period. Another important impact on resource use patterns and biodiversity of the oil boom of the 1970s was the collapse of a number of family-run enterprises in the Sector Muyuy know as fundos. The fundos of Muyuy had largely produced sugar cane for processing into a rough cane alcohol. Since the 1950s fundos had been losing their regional economic importance due to complex shifts in local society and in marketing patterns. During the petroleum boom fundos lost their source of cheap rural labor and finally collapsed. They also lost out because they could not compete with the low-priced sugar cane alcohol that began to be imported imported from Brazil. With these shifts the production of sugar cane in relatively on a relatively large scale in Muyuy appeared to end.
The fourth economc change in Muyuy that we will mention was largely an attempt to revive sugar cane production and the commercial production of alcohol. This time, however, the financing and implementation came in the guise of an internationally-funded development project. From 1977 to 1983 the government of Italy provide capital for large-scale planting of sugar cane on the former fundo lands. The scheme which involved cane cultivation on a larger scale than had been seen before, as well as the provision of agricultural credit, formation of growers' cooperatives, and the building of a sugar mill, met with failure within a few years.
The reluctance of smallholders to convert their land into larger-scale sugar cane plantations as was required for accessing the agricultural loans, and the low prices of alcohol in the markets led to the collapse of the Italian development efforts. It has been followed by several other schemes including a loan program for the production of rice (particularly on silt bars) and jute (particularly on low levees) for smallholders. These programs that lasted until the end of 1980s are remembered by the majority of Muyuy residents as la bella epoca. This period was a "golden age" for the area's smallholder producers because the loan programs had provided them with capital during the time of the year when funds were needed for the survival of the family after floods.
VI. Ribereño responses to resource depletion
The periods of booms and busts profoundly affected important biological resources of the region. At various times and places timber, animal, and land resources of Muyuy appeared to have been devastated forever. Each time, however, ribereno villagers responded to these changes with mitigating actions. During and after the firewood and timber boom, for instance, ribereños actively engaged in planting, managing and protecting individuals of these species. They continue to do so. As a result of their little-recognized conservation efforts over many years the landholdings of ribereños again contain healthy populations of the four formerly severly over-exploited timber species. Throughout these woodland areas one finds evidence of how these species are being managed. One indication that trees of valuable species are being deliberately propagated is that individual adult trees that farmers selected and maintained as seed producer trees to maintain reproduction of the species are found throughout Muyuy forests (Table 1).
| Species | Number of Individuals |
Average DBH (cm) |
| Swietenia macrophylla Cedrela odorata Ceiba pentandra Maquira coreaceae |
18 42 12 58 |
48 64 112 75 |
Table 1: Average number of seed producer trees found in the forests areas owned by 64 sample families in Muyuy.
Despite the obvious conservation value of keeping productive trees that help to produce seeds and seedlings for the restoration of the four over-exploited timber species, conservation experts have regularly ignored such contributions of ribereños and their management methods (Gentry and Vasquez, 1992).
Responses to the depletion of wildlife to supply oil and skins for the war effort are also evident. Despite the allegations of some conservation experts, ribereños have not been passively allowing their wildlife disappear, reacting only when outsiders show them how to save their animals and other precious resources from extinction. They have long employed a diversity of strategies to protect and restore the populations of over-hunted and over-fished resources. Muyuy residents have established several village and inter-village reserves to protect and restore populations of paiche, river turtles, black caimans and other lake resources. As a result of such efforts, some of the the protected lakes contain healthy populations of these animals (Table 2).
| Threatened species | Lake 1 | Lake 2 | Lake 3 |
| Paiche (Arapaima gigas) Giant river turtle (Podocnemis expansa) Taricaya (Podocnemis spp.) Black caiman (Melanosuchus niger) |
12 9 52 13 |
27 4 76 18 |
8 6 48 7 |
Table 2: Average number of adult paiche (more than 1m long), giant turtles , taricaya (Podocnemis spp.) and black caiman (more than 1m long) inventoried in three inter-village lake reserves in Muyuy. The population of black caimans and paiche were recorded combining capture and observations in the lake and surrounding areas during the lowest level of the river. Adults taricayas and giant river turtles were censused in and the surrounding areas of the lake by sight and by counting the number of tracks and nests. All censuses were conducted following the methods and techniques recommended by expert fishermen and hunters of turtles and caimans from the villages
Although the populations of adults found in the three lakes are still very low, they are playing an important role in the restoration of populations in and around Muyuy. In addition the much maligned swidden agricultural system practiced by smallholders and the ways how individual families control hunting, collection of fruits and other forest resources is helping to restore the population of wildlife. Results of wildlife surveys conducted in a sample of 15 forests owned by families shows a great diversity of wildlife species including the over-hunted majaz (Dasyprocta paca), añuje (Dasyprocta agouti) and others. Hiraoka (1992), also found that villagers of San Jorge (a village near Muyuy) maintain considerable populations of deer, paca and other small game. They have continued to hunt these species but at a rate that does not lead to precipitous declines in their populations. These and other data show that ribereños and their conservation practices can help restore populations of valuable and threatened terrestrial and aquatic resources that were over-exploited during the Second War World and later.
VII. Ribereño technologies and conservation practices
Ribereño resource use systems and production technologies have evolved to take advantages of the environmental heterogeneity produced by natural, including fluvio-dynamic, processes. The farmers of Muyuy do not plow, level or drastically change the topography and soils of the diverse biotopes that compose the three main land formation of the varzea. Ribereño families produce and collect resources from all the 39 "planting environments" that compose the three main land formations (Fig. 4). Using this tremedous diversity of terrains, soils, temporal qualities and other subtle differences as a resource, rather than as a problem, Muyuy's small farmers plant an average of 13 species diufferentiated into 40 varieties of annual crops on the ephemeral sand bars or beaches of the sector. Another 22 species and 74 varieties are planted on silt bars. The average number species and varieties of agricultural, agroforestry and forest species crop planted by ribereños on levees is much higher than in silt and sand bar environments , with 82 species and more than 260 varieties of plants in their production spaces(Fig. 4).
Ribereño diversification of resource use systems as a way for optimizing use of environmental heterogeneity is one of the reasons why their landholding are a complex mosaic and form a patchy landscape. The average size of a ribereño household's patchy landholdings is 25 ha comprising an average of five patches or plots of forests, nine patches of fallows, three distinct patches of agricultural fields and one house garden (Table 3).
| Average # of patches |
Average Total area |
|
| Forests Fallows Fields House gardens |
5 9 3 1 |
15 8 0.8 1.2 |
Although data have been collected for only five years, we can clearly see a pattern in the number and sizes of forests, fallows, fields and house gardens where ribereño households produce, manage and conserve varzea resources. The data show that the number and area of agricultural fields are very small in comparison to the extent of managed forests and fallows. The relatively small size of fields made by ribereños and the large areas of fallows and fields found on their properties have led some to the conclusion that ribereños are more extractors than producers. Based on this and other generalization people working in development agencies designed their agricultural projects to increase the size of agricultural fields. Their agricultural credit aims to promote the planting of one or a very few selected crops. These programs hope to make the ribereno a farmer rather than forest extractor.
The goals of many conservation projects are largely similar to those promoting agriculture. Their most salient difference is that they tend to focus on the promotion of agroforestry. Such programs are also meant to reduce ribereño dependence on the extraction of forest and river products.
While the argument among experts on exactly what constitutes an extracted and what a produced resource will doubtless continue, data collected in Muyuy show that it is very difficult (and probably pointless) to identify which resources are extracted and which are produced by ribereños. However, there is much evidence that shows that ribereños use highly diverse, complex and sophisticated technologies for producing, managing and protecting varzea resources. Muyuy households have small farms not because they are lazy, ignorant, or are "forest people". The farmers of the area are industrious and productive farmers and agroforesters, but they are not conventional farmers and agroforesters. Sector Muyuy is not a conventional place to do farming and agroforestry. The dynamism and uncertainty that has long characterized both the natural and socio-economic environments of floodplain Amazonia have led to the development of resource management patterns that emphasize diversity, adaptation, and flexibility. Such technological knowledge is rarely found among groups such as timber companies or large-scale commercial fishing concerns, nor is it often found in externally planned and financed development projects.
As has been mentioned by other researchers working in the Iquitos region, many complex and "indirect" local resource management patterns are easily misunderstood and ignored. For instance, ribereño residents of Muyuy maintain large stocks of fish in their lakes by protecting the floating grass meadows and the riparian vegetation surrounding the lakes. Similarly, populations of rodents and other forager species are managed by protecting fruit species that were planted or protected. Stocks of commercial volume of timber species found in Muyuy are also the products of long processes of management that originated with the protection of spontaneously occurring seedlings and seed producer trees in the fields and fallows. These and other systems of resource use can be lost if experts persist in categorizing ribereño resource uses as pure extractivism and promoting conventional approaches to production and conservation. Perhaps the greatest risk in this situation is that of inadvertantly causing the disappearance of management and production techniques and methods that could be used for developing effective actions to confront the biodiversity cirsis.
A close evaluation of the ribereño landholdings shows that Muyuy farmers maintain high levels of biodiversity in their all types of production spaces. Under the widely-employed swidden fallow system the diversity of plants increases from field to fallow and from fallow to forests (Fig. 5). Such practices explain why the residents of Muyuy not only plant crops, but also protect the seedlings and saplings of forest and agroforest species that appear in their agricultural fields. A list of species and varieties planted and protected in fields is included in Annex I. The average number of species and varieties of crops found in each of the fields sampled in Muyuy is higher than those reported in fields owned by smallholders within colonization projects (Anderson, 1992). Although fields are still made using swidden techniques, we observed that most farmers are opting not to burn the slash. Plant diversity is also encouraged by the selective way swidden fields are weeded.
Those fields that eventually mature into fallows rich in economically valuable species are known as purmas cuidadas or enriched fallow; where few seedlings protected in fields survived the process of aging, farmers have "wild fallows" or purmas remontadas. Ribereños use these wild fallows for making new fields and manage the enriched fallows for the continuing production of agroforestry and forest products. The general pattern observed in Muyuy and reflected in the biodiversity inventory data is that smallholders tend to maintain or in same cases increase levels of biodiversity as fields age in order to increase the number of products available in the fallows (Fig. 6). The range of Shannon Index values (H'= 2 to 3.5) shows that while ribereños maintain biodiversity-rich fallows, differences in Shannon Index values among the five fallows clearly demonstrate that biodiversity levels vary considerably with the intensity and frequency of the owners' interventions (Fig. 6). Farmers who were interviewed corroborated the estimated Shannon Index values, by mentioning that vegetation in fallows where no management operation were conducted tend to be dominated by individuals of cetico (Cecropia membraneaceae).
Thinning and removal of vines are the main management operations applied to fallows. Muyuy farmers are, however continually experimenting and adapting or developing new management techniques. This transformation and innovation of technologies may be driven by recently increasing prices for some agroforest and forest resources. For instance, field observations indicated that the residents of Muyuy are making small openings (clareras) in their fallows for planting or transplanting lemon and several species of medicinal plant species. Small farmers collect the seeds of several forest species, such as tropical cedar and bijao, to broadcast in their fallows. The frequency and intensity of removing termite nests and other operations to control pests is also increasing as a result of the economic importance of fallow products. Farmers' decisions to convert fallows into fields or forests are largely based on how well the production of agroforestry products is faring, and on whether forest species, such as of timber are dominating the vegetation.
The majority of forest areas that are part of the landholdings of ribereños are the results of successive management operations that began at the field stage and continued into the fallow and forest stages. Inventories conducted in a sample of seven plots of forest (each 900m2 in size) show that the forests in ribereño landholdings contain high levels of species richness (Fig. 7). The mean average number of species per hectare estimated using data collected in the five plots is greater (76) than the that found in a forest that was not reported to be managed (Kalliola et al., 2000). Differences in species composition among the seven sample forests reflect the histories of management and resource extraction practiced by their owners (Fig. 7). Field observation and interviews suggest that some ribereños are more dedicated to enriching their forest with timber species, while others are more interested in fruit and medicinal species. Despite the abundance of valuable species, inventory data show that ribereños also maintain small numbers of individuals of some non-commercial species. Among these species are pioneer species such as Cecropia membraneaceae that play an important role in attracting game animals and fish during floods.
As in the case of managing fallows, the residents of Muyuy use complex forest management technologies to produce economic products while maintaining important ecosystem functions. The abundance and dominance of economically important species is maintained through the application of management operations that promote the regeneration of species under varying light and environmental conditions. Ribereños conduct pre-harvest operations to avoid excessive damage to the forests, thus improving production. Among the most recent and innovative operations is the broadcasting of seeds or planting of seedlings of valuable species before cutting timber. Most seedlings are collected from other parts of the forests; the seedlings of the four over-exploited species mentioned abocve are, however, produced in house gardens. Within the house garden category the Muyuy residents include orchards, nurseries as well as areas for raising domestic animals. House gardens are also rich in species and produce a large variety of products.
Results of the biodiversity surveys presented in this paper shows the great diversity of resources that are produced, managed and protected by ribereños in their landholdings. The reported levels of agrobiodiversity and other forms of biodiversity should add useful biological data that further clarifies the complex and diverse operations and technologies used by smallholders that produce and maintain Amazonian biodiversity outside protected areas. The following section is devoted to discussing the role of the diversity of plants and animals in the household economy of ribereños. We present data collected in market surveys and direct interviews with a sample of 12 families from December 1999 to Jun 2000.
VIII. Marketing Biodiversity
Some experts have questioned the idea that preservation of biodiversity can be economically rewarding for small farmers and other peasant groups in Amazonia (Smith, 1997, Browder, 1995). The Muyuy case study shows that while such scepticism may indeed be warranted in many instances, it does not apply to all cases, places and peasant groups of Amazonia. Data on the kinds and quantities of products brought to market as well as prices that were paid for them, strongly suggest that diversity may indeed have a reward for Muyuy farmers. Data were collected over eight months by following 20 sample families during their expeditions to markets in Iquitos as well as when they sold their produce in their villages. We found that members of the 20 families went to the market in an average of three times per week. While men participated little in marketing their products, women and children were most active.
A total of 104 products were brought to market and sold by the women and children of the 20 families during the eight months of the study. Of these 82 were plant products, 10 animal products and 12 domestically processed products. Of the 82 plant products 53 were produced in agricultural and agroforestry fields and 19 were managed and collected from forests. During this period each family sold an average of 68 products. Among the ten most important products that were brought and sold in the markets are agricultural, agroforestry, and forest products (Table 4).
| Products | Average # of Days brought |
Frequency | Origin of the Product |
| Cayenne lemon – toronja Sp. leaves – Bijao Cassava roots – yuca s.cultantro aguaje culantro chonta anona gallina pescado banana |
179 92 89 66 61 44 39 36 35 35 34 |
0.75 0.38 0.37 0.28 0.25 0.18 0.16 0.15 0.15 0.15 0.14 |
Agroforestry Forest Agriculture Agriculture Forest Agriculture Forest Agroforestry Domestic animal Lake & river agriculture |
Table 4: Eleven of the most frequently products sold by the 20 sampled households in the markets of Iquitos from December 1999 to June 2000.
The three products that were the most frequently sold by the 20 families were: cassava (yuca) an agricultural product, an agroforestry product cayenne lemon (toronja) and the leaves of bijao which is a forest product (Table 4). The market prices of these three products fluctuated in different ways during the eight months of the study. While the prices of cassava went down in December reaching their lowest prices in March; the prices of toronja stated very low during February, March and April (Fig. 8). Prices for the two products also changed as much as 300% within one day as supplies available rose and fell. Farmers understandably find it very difficult to cope with such variation. One response is to market a variety of agricultural, agroforestry, and forest products.
Our data show that the 20 families brought a greater variety of products to market products during the harvest season for agricultural and agroforestry products when prices for staples like yuca tend to fall precipitously (Fig. 9). During the two months of March and April each one of the 20 sampled families brought an average of 70 different products to the market. Each family also went to the market an average of three times during the month.
These results clearly demonstrate that ribereños are benefiting from biodiversity even when their profits might not be very high. Perhaps the most important benefit from is a reduction of risk in a market where prices are very variable and unpredictable. The data also show that ribereños are able to sell their diversity because Iquitos consumers are used to buying and consuming a great diversity of products.
IX. Conclusions
The Muyuy case shows that ribereños do not separate conservation from production and vice versa as is done by experts engaged in the promotion of conventional development and conservation programs. The residents of Muyuy are producing to conserve and are conserving to produce as part of a long tradition of making their livelihoods in a rich but highly risky environment characterized by extreme natural and social dynamism. Such a "tradition of change" has allowed ribereños to profit economically while enhancing the conservation of varzea biodiversity. Data presented in this case study also show that ribereño traditions of resource use produce patchy landscapes and avoid the wholesale conversion of species- and habitat-rich environments and landscapes into cattle ranches, sugar cane plantations and other forms of simplified, conventional land use.
The diversity of resource use systems and other cultural practices as well as the capacity of ribereños to adapt to natural and social changes are rural realities that are still marginally taken in account in designing conservation and development planes. One of the few examples where ribereño knowledge, as well as resource use and conservation practices are integrated in conservation and development activities is in the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve (Ayres et al., 2000). The MSDR depends on zonation of areas for conservation and for limited use. Environmental zonation has been widely practiced by ribereño communities and is integrated into their resource use systems and conservation practices. Based on their traditional practices ribereños and other Amazonians identify which environments and landscapes need to be protected, and which is the best environment and habitat for the conservation of particular endangered or overexploited species. We do not wish to suggest that Muyuy should be recognized as a sustainable development reserve, but rather to suggest that models already exist for integration of complex and flexible systems into formal conservation plans.
The Muyuy case calls for a new and unconventional understanding of both conservation and resource management. Setting aside large areas where no one but armed guards and scientists can tread does not fit into the ribereño way of conservation. The Muyuy vision of a balanced world includes landscapes that are clearly Amazonian because they were shaped not only by a distinctive conjoining of physical and biological processes but also by the work of human hands and minds. The farmers of Muyuy offer a distinctly local and rural approach to conservation and production. Muyuy residents' conservation practices of establishing commmunity lake reserves and even family forest reserves may be prove more efficient in protecting a large percentage of biodiversity than do the traditional parks and reserves established by conservation groups. Thus far these peasant practices have not only been ignored but have been often denigrated and threatened by urban experts in both conservation and development.
Finally we argue that the crises of biodiversity must be seen as not only the loss of species and habitats, but also the loss of local developed resource use systems and technologies that have formed those landscapes. Muyuy resdients offer not only a set of techniques and technologies that work, but also an alternative vision of what needs to be preserved. Without the knowledge and experience of ribereños and other Amazonians, the parks, reserves and other protected areas will go but a very short way toward alleviating the biodiversity crisis.
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