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Chamorro Vargas, Carol Tatiana

University of British Columbia

In Latin America, the expansion of land for Extensive Cattle Ranching (ECR) is the leading driver of deforestation causing unsustainable levels of environmental degradation and social vulnerability. Silvopastoral Systems (SPS) are a promising agroecological alternative for cattle production that combines trees and shrubs with forage grasses to enhance cattle production and landscape heterogeneity. Despite strong evidence of SPS benefits including biodiversity conservation, increase in productivity, soil recovery, and deforestation avoidance, its adoption remains low. Previous research made on silvopastoral adoption is limited in sample sizes and has considered adoption as a binary option. This research aimed to determine how SPS can be scaled out by identifying the enabling and constraining factors for adoption in Latin America. First, I synthesized the findings on adoption of SPS in the region with a systematic literature review (n= 52). Second, I analyzed a large socio-economic dataset on 2900 farms in Colombia, collected during the Sustainable Cattle Ranching project in combination with open access farm environmental information using mixed effects linear models to understand the determinants of SPS adoption extension. Key enablers of SPS adoption include economic incentives such as payments for ecosystem services (PES), and information transfer capacity such as presence of technical assistance (TA) or strength of social networks (e.g., distance to closest neighbor) that highlights SPS benefits (e.g., ecosystem services provided) increasing positive perceptions on the systems and knowledge on its management. Additionally, farm characteristics such as presence of forest or watershed on the farm, and high levels of soil erosion positively influence adoption of SPS. Conversely, barriers to adoption of SPS are its management complexity, cost of implementation, and limited market demand for products generated under SPS. Environmental aspects such as water demand and hydric vulnerability also have a constraining effect on adoption. Scaling out SPS in Latin America will depend on economic incentives capable of overcoming the initial investment cost for farmers, information transfer on SPS, stimulation of demand for SPS products, and the environmental conditions experienced by the farms. Widespread SPS adoption can increase cattle production sustainability mitigating the adverse effects of ECR.

Text

2024-05-23

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88362

Resources, Environment and Sustainability

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/