INVESTIGADORES
GRAU Hector Ricardo
artículos
Título:
Globalization and Land-Use Transitions in Latin America
Autor/es:
GRAU, HR; AIDE, TM
Revista:
ECOLOGY AND SOCIETY
Editorial:
Resilience Alliance
Referencias:
Año: 2008 vol. 13 p. 1 - 8
ISSN:
1708-3087
Resumen:
Current socioeconomic drivers of land-use change associated with globalization are
producing two contrasting land-use trends in Latin America. Increasing global food demand (particularly
in Southeast Asia) accelerates deforestation in areas suitable for modern agriculture (e.g., soybean), severely
threatening ecosystems, such as Amazonian rain forests, dry forests, and subtropical grasslands.
Additionally, in the coming decades, demand for biofuels may become an emerging threat. In contrast,
high yields in modern agricultural systems and ruralurban migration coupled with remittances promote
the abandonment of marginal agricultural lands, thus favoring ecosystem recovery on mountains, deserts,
and areas of poor soils, while improving human well-being. The potential switch from production in
traditional extensive grazing areas to intensive modern agriculture provides opportunities to significantly
increase food production while sparing land for nature conservation. This combination of emerging threats
and opportunities requires changes in the way the conservation of Latin American ecosystems is approached.
Land-use efficiency should be analyzed beyond the local-based paradigm that drives most conservation
programs, and focus on large geographic scales involving long-distance fluxes of products, information,
and people in order to maximize both agricultural production and the conservation of environmental
services.