Biofuels, land use change and smallholder livelihoods: a case study from Banteay Chhmar, Cambodia

TY - JOUR

T1 - Biofuels, land use change and smallholder livelihoods

T2 - a case study from Banteay Chhmar, Cambodia

AU - Hought, Joy Marie

AU - Birch-Thomsen, Torben

AU - Petersen, Jacob

AU - de Neergaard, Andreas

AU - Oelofse, Myles

PY - 2012

Y1 - 2012

N2 - Crop-based biofuels represent an environmental and political alternative to fossil fuels, as well as an important source of rural development income; as global biofuel markets continue to mature, however, their impact on food security remains controversial. This study investigates the effects of biofuel feedstock adoption by smallholders in the northwestern Cambodian province of Banteay Meanchey, a region undergoing rapid land use change following the formal end of the Khmer Rouge era in 1989 and subsequent rural resettlement. Remote sensing data combined with field interviews pointed to three discrete phases of land use change in this period: first, as a result of the establishment of new settlements (mainly subsistence rice production); second, via the expansion of cash crop cultivation into forested areas (mainly grown on upland fields); and third, due to the response of smallholders to a sharp increase in regional demand for cassava starch (grown exclusively on upland fields). The study found that agricultural expansion due to cassava growing was severe, but it was not the sole contributor to deforestation in the region. The exposure of smallholder economies to the volatile cassava market had severe consequences for livelihoods and food security. The paper concludes with a discussion of the probable impacts of the emerging cassava market on trajectories in land use, land ownership, and land access in rural Cambodia. The case looks at biofuel adoption in the context of other land use changes, but also provides evidence at the local scale of how a strongly market driven crop, in this case biofuel feedstock, can have striking environmental and socioeconomic consequences.

AB - Crop-based biofuels represent an environmental and political alternative to fossil fuels, as well as an important source of rural development income; as global biofuel markets continue to mature, however, their impact on food security remains controversial. This study investigates the effects of biofuel feedstock adoption by smallholders in the northwestern Cambodian province of Banteay Meanchey, a region undergoing rapid land use change following the formal end of the Khmer Rouge era in 1989 and subsequent rural resettlement. Remote sensing data combined with field interviews pointed to three discrete phases of land use change in this period: first, as a result of the establishment of new settlements (mainly subsistence rice production); second, via the expansion of cash crop cultivation into forested areas (mainly grown on upland fields); and third, due to the response of smallholders to a sharp increase in regional demand for cassava starch (grown exclusively on upland fields). The study found that agricultural expansion due to cassava growing was severe, but it was not the sole contributor to deforestation in the region. The exposure of smallholder economies to the volatile cassava market had severe consequences for livelihoods and food security. The paper concludes with a discussion of the probable impacts of the emerging cassava market on trajectories in land use, land ownership, and land access in rural Cambodia. The case looks at biofuel adoption in the context of other land use changes, but also provides evidence at the local scale of how a strongly market driven crop, in this case biofuel feedstock, can have striking environmental and socioeconomic consequences.

KW - Faculty of Science

KW - Cassava

KW - Biofuels

KW - Asia

KW - Land use change

KW - Livelihoods

KW - Cambodia

KW - Former LIFE faculty

U2 - 10.1016/j.apgeog.2012.02.007

DO - 10.1016/j.apgeog.2012.02.007

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0143-6228

VL - 32

SP - 525

EP - 532

JO - Applied Geography

JF - Applied Geography

ER -