Revisiting bora fallow agroforestry in the Peruvian Amazon: enriching ethnobotanical appraisals of non-timber products through household income quantification

TY - JOUR

T1 - Revisiting bora fallow agroforestry in the Peruvian Amazon

T2 - enriching ethnobotanical appraisals of non-timber products through household income quantification

AU - Cotta, Jamie Nicole

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - Indigenous fallow agroforestry systems play an important role in Amazonian livelihoods by providing food security, cash income, and overall risk mitigation. However, the substantial contribution of fruits, construction materials, handicraft inputs, and myriad other fallow products are not only ignored in many national statistics, they have received little attention from policy makers to date. This study estimates the economic importance and perceived household utility of species in managed indigenous (Bora) fallows using a combination of income data for all harvested products, fallow inventory observations, and free list data. The research represents an important follow-up to Denevan and Padoch’s approximately thirty-year old qualitative description of Bora fallow management in the same area. Results highlight the importance of agroforestry environments (primarily fallows) for providing well over 100 non-timber resources for easily accessed medicines, essential vitamins and nutrients, and cash-generating products such as handicraft materials. Crop staples and promoted native forest species each contribute 14 % of household income and other miscellaneous crops contribute an additional 6 %, for a total income share of 34 %. Chambira (Astrocaryum chambira) handicrafts alone contribute 16 % of household cash income (9 % of total income) in surveyed villages. When considering cash and subsistence importance, plant products harvested from agroforestry environments contribute more than double the income of those from unmanaged forests. Agroforestry can also safeguard biodiversity and ecosystem services while promoting climate change resilience. Study results will enhance research and development initiatives which typically focus on forests or agriculture, but less often on intermediate, managed environments in Amazonian forests.

AB - Indigenous fallow agroforestry systems play an important role in Amazonian livelihoods by providing food security, cash income, and overall risk mitigation. However, the substantial contribution of fruits, construction materials, handicraft inputs, and myriad other fallow products are not only ignored in many national statistics, they have received little attention from policy makers to date. This study estimates the economic importance and perceived household utility of species in managed indigenous (Bora) fallows using a combination of income data for all harvested products, fallow inventory observations, and free list data. The research represents an important follow-up to Denevan and Padoch’s approximately thirty-year old qualitative description of Bora fallow management in the same area. Results highlight the importance of agroforestry environments (primarily fallows) for providing well over 100 non-timber resources for easily accessed medicines, essential vitamins and nutrients, and cash-generating products such as handicraft materials. Crop staples and promoted native forest species each contribute 14 % of household income and other miscellaneous crops contribute an additional 6 %, for a total income share of 34 %. Chambira (Astrocaryum chambira) handicrafts alone contribute 16 % of household cash income (9 % of total income) in surveyed villages. When considering cash and subsistence importance, plant products harvested from agroforestry environments contribute more than double the income of those from unmanaged forests. Agroforestry can also safeguard biodiversity and ecosystem services while promoting climate change resilience. Study results will enhance research and development initiatives which typically focus on forests or agriculture, but less often on intermediate, managed environments in Amazonian forests.

KW - Food security

KW - Handicrafts

KW - Household income

KW - Indigenous fallow management

KW - Livelihoods

U2 - 10.1007/s10457-016-9892-4

DO - 10.1007/s10457-016-9892-4

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:84954491115

SN - 0167-4366

VL - 91

SP - 17

EP - 36

JO - Agroforestry Systems

JF - Agroforestry Systems

IS - 1

ER -