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Changing Land Use, Changing Livelihoods

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A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2015) | Viewed by 106513

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Prof. Dr. Claudia A. Radel

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Guest Editor

Department of Environment & Society, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322-5215, USA
Interests: gender and agrarian change, conservation, and natural resource management & assets; migration and land-use change; smallholder livelihood dynamics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Jacqueline M. Vadjunec

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Guest Editor

Department of Geography, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078-4073, USA
Interests: human dimensions of global environmental change; common property theory; resource management; cultural and political ecology; mixed and participatory research methods
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Understanding changes in rural smallholder livelihoods has long been considered essential to comprehending some types of land use changes. Nonetheless, contemporary changes in smallholder livelihood strategies have not often been fore-fronted in more recent land use change studies. Nor have understandings of household livelihood change, especially at the household scale, always been linked well to regional patterns of land use change. Calls to seek complementarities between the approaches, methods, and frameworks found within land change science (LCS) and political ecology (PE) demonstrate, in part, a desire to highlight the role of changing livelihoods in changing land systems. Fore-fronting changing livelihoods and livelihood strategies also links to the emerging foci on networks; teleconnections; and household politics, production, and adaptation in land change studies. Other scholars have recently argued for conceptualizing livelihoods and landscapes as co-produced.

For this special issue, we are interested in contributions that link changing livelihood strategies to changing land uses, through either empirical research or conceptual/theoretical works, examining any key processes, including but not limited to:

Smallholder agricultural production and adaptation
Livelihood vulnerability and resilience
Labor migration and remittances
Social relations of inequality and/or difference such as gender, race, class, and ethnicity
Political economy teleconnections
Rural to urban, transboundary, and multi-scalar linkages
Network relationships and transformations

Contributions at the intersection of land change science and political ecology are especially welcome, but contributions from other human-environment fields that fore-front smallholder livelihoods are also highly welcome. Regional and scalar diversity in contributions is also desired.

Proposed titles and abstracts (250 words) can be submitted by 30 April 2015 to the guest editors, at [email protected], for possible feedback, if prospective authors want some feedback before preparing their manuscripts.
Article Publication Fees of quality submissions could have a chance to be waived.

Dr. Claudia A. Radel
Dr. Jacqueline M. Vadjunec
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

adaptation
households
livelihoods
networks
remittances
resilience
social inequality/difference
teleconnections
vulnerability

Published Papers (12 papers)

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Editorial

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209 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Introduction: The Continued Importance of Smallholders Today

by Jacqueline M. Vadjunec, Claudia Radel and B. L. Turner II

Land 2016, 5(4), 34; https://doi.org/10.3390/land5040034 - 25 Oct 2016

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 6121

Abstract

Smallholders remain an important part of human-environment research, particularly in cultural and political ecology, peasant and development studies, and increasingly in land system and sustainability science. This introduction to the edited volume explores land use and livelihood issues among smallholders, in several disciplinary and subfield traditions. Specifically, we provide a short history of smallholder livelihood research in the human-environment tradition. We reflect on why, in an age of rapid globalization, smallholder land use and livelihoods still matter, both for land system science and as a reflection of concerns with inequality and poverty. Key themes that emerge from the papers in this volume include the importance of smallholder farming and land-use practices to questions of environmental sustainability, the dynamic reality of smallholder livelihoods, the challenges of vulnerability and adaptation in contemporary human-environment systems, and the structural and relative nature of the term “smallholder.” Overall these contributions show that smallholder studies are more pertinent than ever, especially in the face of global environmental change. Additionally, we argue that questions of smallholder identity, social difference, and teleconnections provide fertile areas of future research. We conclude that we need to re-envision who the smallholder is today and how this translates into modern human-environment smallholder studies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Changing Land Use, Changing Livelihoods)

Research

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757 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Smallholders, Agrarian Reform, and Globalization in the Brazilian Amazon: Cattle versus the Environment

by Ritaumaria Pereira, Cynthia S. Simmons and Robert Walker

Land 2016, 5(3), 24; https://doi.org/10.3390/land5030024 - 07 Jul 2016

Cited by 30 | Viewed by 9296

Abstract

Smallholder farming in the Brazilian Amazon has changed markedly over the last few decades, following a pervasive swing to cattle production observed across the basin. These changes have brought opportunities for accumulating a modicum of wealth that were not available in the early stages of colonization. At the same time, they have reconfigured livelihood systems away from diversified agriculture to a strong engagement with the cattle economy. They are also exposing smallholders to new forms of exploitation by transnational corporations, seeking to pass risk upstream to less powerful economic agents who provide inputs to production, such as calves. The case of Southeastern Pará provides a natural laboratory for investigating such phenomena, which the article considers through the presentation of data from field research conducted in the region over the past decade. Here, agrarian reform efforts have been particularly intense, and social movements have often espoused a green rhetoric in favor of diversified agriculture, even though smallholders show little interest in anything but cattle. Household level incentives promote Amazonia’s emergent cattle economy, demonstrating how global production networks have reached into the basin, where production relations between smallholders provisioning calves to large ranching operations often resemble what has been referred to in the literature as “contract farming” land grabs, given the exploitive terms of trade. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Changing Land Use, Changing Livelihoods)

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Agriculture on the Brink: Climate Change, Labor and Smallholder Farming in Botswana

by William G. Moseley

Land 2016, 5(3), 21; https://doi.org/10.3390/land5030021 - 27 Jun 2016

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 10873

Abstract

Botswana is a semi-arid, middle-income African country that imports 90 percent of its food. Despite its relative prosperity, Botswana also suffers from one of the highest measures of income inequality in the world, persistent poverty, and relatively high levels of food insecurity. The objective of this paper is to explore how political economy, climate change and livelihood dynamics are synergistically impacting household food security. The major finding is that the marginalization of smallholder farming in Botswana has as much or more to do with domestic, regional and international political economy as it does with climate change. As such, international efforts to support climate change adaptation in Botswana will have a limited effect on smallholder farming livelihoods and rural food security unless such efforts take account of political economic constraints. Effective support must be based on a grounded understanding of the real drivers of marginalization and food insecurity. One initiative that merits further exploration is the government’s backyard gardening initiative, which could be viewed as a pro-poor climate adaptation strategy. The findings of this paper are based on semi-structured interviews with policymakers and surveys with urban, peri-urban and rural households undertaken in 2012 and 2015. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Changing Land Use, Changing Livelihoods)

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Poverty and Environmental Degradation in Southern Burkina Faso: An Assessment Based on Participatory Methods

by Daniel Etongo, Ida Nadia S. Djenontin and Markku Kanninen

Land 2016, 5(3), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/land5030020 - 24 Jun 2016

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 11954

Abstract

The poverty and environmental degradation vicious circle hypothesis considers the poor as agents and victims of environmentally degrading activities. Despite some studies, however, there still has not been a sufficient empirical examination of the poverty-environment nexus. Based on participatory poverty assessment (PPA) methods with two hundred farm households categorized by wealth status in southern Burkina Faso, six indicators of environmental degradation and a set of land management practices were examined to answer the following questions: (i) Which households (non-poor, fairly-poor, or poorest) are responsible for environmental degradation? (ii) Does poverty constrain adoption of land management practices considered to improve the land? Results indicate deforestation is highest for non-poor farmers, and non-poor and fairly-poor farmers have higher rates of overgrazing. In addition, the entire non-poor group, mainly recent migrants to the area, occupy borrowed lands with tenure perceived as insecure, considered by farmers to be a disincentive for assisted natural regeneration of vegetation. Thus, non-poor and fairly-poor farmers participate most in activities locally identified as environmentally degrading, and the former contribute more than the latter. On the other hand, adoption of land management practices considered to improve the land is relatively low amongst the poorest farmers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Changing Land Use, Changing Livelihoods)

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The Quiet Rise of Medium-Scale Farms in Malawi

by Ward Anseeuw, Thomas Jayne, Richard Kachule and John Kotsopoulos

Land 2016, 5(3), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/land5030019 - 24 Jun 2016

Cited by 39 | Viewed by 10591

Abstract

Medium-scale farms have become a major force in Malawi’s agricultural sector. Malawi’s most recent official agricultural survey indicates that these account for over a quarter of all land under cultivation in Malawi. This study explores the causes and multifaceted consequences of the rising importance of medium-scale farms in Malawi. We identify the characteristics and pathways of entry into farming based on surveys of 300 medium-scale farmers undertaken in 2014 in the districts of Mchinji, Kasungu and Lilongwe. The area of land acquired by medium-scale farmers in these three districts is found to have almost doubled between 2000 and 2015. Just over half of the medium-scale farmers represent cases of successful expansion out of small-scale farming status; the other significant proportion of medium-scale farmers are found to be urban-based professionals, entrepreneurs and/or civil servants who acquired land, some very recently, and started farming in mid-life. We also find that a significant portion of the land acquired by medium-scale farmers was utilized by others prior to acquisition, that most of the acquired land was under customary tenure, and that the current owners were often successful in transferring the ownership structure of the acquired land to a long-term leaseholding with a title deed. The study finds that, instead of just strong endogenous growth of small-scale famers as a route for the emergence of medium-scale farms, significant farm consolidation is occurring through land acquisitions, often by urban-based people. The effects of farmland acquisitions by domestic investors on the country’s primary development goals, such as food security, poverty reduction and employment, are not yet clear, though some trends appear to be emerging. We consider future research questions that may more fully shed light on the implications of policies that would continue to promote land acquisitions by medium-scale farms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Changing Land Use, Changing Livelihoods)

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7322 KiB

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Fluid Waters and Rigid Livelihoods in the Okavango Delta of Botswana

by Brian King, Jamie E. Shinn, Kelley A. Crews and Kenneth R. Young

Land 2016, 5(2), 16; https://doi.org/10.3390/land5020016 - 11 Jun 2016

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 5243

Abstract

Current and future impacts of climate change include increasing variability in a number of biophysical processes, such as temperature, precipitation, and flooding. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has suggested that Southern Africa is particularly vulnerable to the anticipated impacts from global climate change and that social and ecological systems in the region will be disrupted and likely transformed in future decades. This article engages with current research within geography and cognate disciplines on the possibilities for responsive livelihoods within socio-ecological systems experiencing biophysical change. The paper draws from an ongoing research project that is evaluating perceptions of environmental change, specifically of precipitation and flooding dynamics, in order to understand social responses. We report on the findings from qualitative interviewing conducted in 2010 and 2011 in the communities of Etsha 1, Etsha 6, and Etsha 13 within the Okavango Delta of Botswana. While flooding and precipitation patterns have been dynamic and spatially differentiated, some livelihood systems have proven rigid in their capacity to enable adaptive responses. We assert this demonstrates the need for detailed research on livelihood dynamics to support adjustments to biophysical variability within socio-ecological systems experiencing change. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Changing Land Use, Changing Livelihoods)

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Toward the Integrated Framework Analysis of Linkages among Agrobiodiversity, Livelihood Diversification, Ecological Systems, and Sustainability amid Global Change

by Karl S. Zimmerer and Steven J. Vanek

Land 2016, 5(2), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/land5020010 - 21 Apr 2016

Cited by 29 | Viewed by 8634

Abstract

Scientific and policy interest in the biological diversity of agriculture (agrobiodiversity) is expanding amid global socioeconomic and environmental changes and sustainability interests. The majority of global agrobiodiversity is produced in smallholder food-growing. We use meta-analyses in an integrated framework to examine the interactions of smallholder agrobiodiversity with: (1) livelihood processes, especially migration, including impacts on agrobiodiversity as well as the interconnected resource systems of soil, water, and uncultivated habitats; and (2) plant-soil ecological systems. We hypothesize these interactions depend on: (1) scope of livelihood diversification and type resource system; and (2) plant residues and above-/belowground component ecological specificity. Findings show: (1) livelihood diversification is linked to varied environmental factors that range from rampant degradation to enhancing sustainability; and (2) significant ecological coupling of aboveground and soil agrobiodiversity (AGSOBIO assemblages). The environmental impacts of livelihood interactions correspond to variation of diversification (migration, on-farm diversification) and resource system (i.e., agrobiodiversity per se, soil, water). Our findings also reveal mutually dependent interactions of aboveground and soil agrobiodiversity. Results identify livelihood diversification-induced reduction of environmental resource quality with lagged agrobiodiversity declines as a potentially major avenue of global change. Our contribution re-frames livelihood interactions to include both agrobiodiversity and ecological systems. We discuss this integrated social-environmental re-framing through the proposed spatial geographic schema of regional agri-food spaces with distinctive matrices of livelihood strategies and relations to biodiversity and resources. This re-framing can be used to integrate livelihood, agrobiodiversity, and ecological analysis and to guide policy and scientific approaches for sustainability in agriculture and food-growing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Changing Land Use, Changing Livelihoods)

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1065 KiB

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Do Smallholder, Mixed Crop-Livestock Livelihoods Encourage Sustainable Agricultural Practices? A Meta-Analysis

by Thomas K. Rudel, Oh-Jung Kwon, Birthe K. Paul, Maryline Boval, Idupulapati M. Rao, Diana Burbano, Megan McGroddy, Amy M. Lerner, Douglas White, Mario Cuchillo, Manuel Luna and Michael Peters

Land 2016, 5(1), 6; https://doi.org/10.3390/land5010006 - 06 Feb 2016

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 10067

Abstract

As calls for bolstering ecosystem services from croplands have grown more insistent during the past two decades, the search for ways to foster these agriculture-sustaining services has become more urgent. In this context we examine by means of a meta-analysis the argument, proposed by Robert McC. Netting, that small-scale, mixed crop-livestock farming, a common livelihood among poor rural peoples, leads to environmentally sustainable agricultural practices. As predicted, mixed crop-livestock farms exhibit more sustainable practices, but, contrary to predictions, a small scale of operation does not predict sustainability. Many smallholders on mixed crop-livestock farms use sustainable practices, but other smallholders practice a degrading, input-scarce agriculture. Some large farm operators use soil-conserving, minimum-tillage techniques while other large operators ignore soil-conserving techniques and practice an industrialized, high chemical input agriculture. The strength and pervasiveness of the link in the data between mixed crop-livestock farming and sustainable agricultural practices argues for agricultural policies that promote mixed crop-livestock livelihoods. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Changing Land Use, Changing Livelihoods)

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Spatial Distribution of Estimated Wind-Power Royalties in West Texas

by Christian Brannstrom, Mary Tilton, Andrew Klein and Wendy Jepson

Land 2015, 4(4), 1182-1199; https://doi.org/10.3390/land4041182 - 02 Dec 2015

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 7484

Abstract

Wind-power development in the U.S. occurs primarily on private land, producing royalties for landowners through private contracts with wind-farm operators. Texas, the U.S. leader in wind-power production with well-documented support for wind power, has virtually all of its ~12 GW of wind capacity sited on private lands. Determining the spatial distribution of royalty payments from wind energy is a crucial first step to understanding how renewable power may alter land-based livelihoods of some landowners, and, as a result, possibly encourage land-use changes. We located ~1700 wind turbines (~2.7 GW) on 241 landholdings in Nolan and Taylor counties, Texas, a major wind-development region. We estimated total royalties to be ~$11.5 million per year, with mean annual royalty received per landowner per year of $47,879 but with significant differences among quintiles and between two sub-regions. Unequal distribution of royalties results from land-tenure patterns established before wind-power development because of a “property advantage,” defined as the pre-existing land-tenure patterns that benefit the fraction of rural landowners who receive wind turbines. A “royalty paradox” describes the observation that royalties flow to a small fraction of landowners even though support for wind power exceeds 70 percent. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Changing Land Use, Changing Livelihoods)

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9976 KiB

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Forest Transition in Madagascar’s Highlands: Initial Evidence and Implications

by William J. McConnell, Andrés Viña, Christian Kull and Clayton Batko

Land 2015, 4(4), 1155-1181; https://doi.org/10.3390/land4041155 - 25 Nov 2015

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 6730

Abstract

Madagascar is renowned for the loss of the forested habitat of lemurs and other species endemic to the island. Less well known is that in the highlands, a region often described as an environmental “basket-case” of fire-degraded, eroded grasslands, woody cover has been increasing for decades. Using information derived from publically available high- and medium-resolution satellites, this study characterizes tree cover dynamics in the highlands of Madagascar over the past two decades. Our results reveal heterogeneous patterns of increased tree cover on smallholder farms and village lands, spurred by a mix of endogenous and exogenous forces. The new trees play important roles in rural livelihoods, providing renewable supplies of firewood, charcoal, timber and other products and services, as well as defensible claims to land tenure in the context of a decline in the use of hillside commons for grazing. This study documents this nascent forest transition through Land Change Science techniques, and provides a prologue to political ecological analysis by setting these changes in their social and environmental context and interrogating the costs and benefits of the shift in rural livelihood strategies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Changing Land Use, Changing Livelihoods)

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Changing Livelihoods and Landscapes in the Rural Eastern Cape, South Africa: Past Influences and Future Trajectories

by Sheona Shackleton and Marty Luckert

Land 2015, 4(4), 1060-1089; https://doi.org/10.3390/land4041060 - 19 Nov 2015

Cited by 34 | Viewed by 9272

Abstract

This paper seeks to understand the drivers and pathways of local livelihood change and the prospects for transformation towards a more sustainable future. Data are used from several studies, and a participatory social learning process, which formed part of a larger project in two sites in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Secondary information from a wealth of related work is used to place our results within the historic context and more general trends in the country. Findings indicate that livelihoods in the rural Eastern Cape are on new trajectories. Agricultural production has declined markedly, at a time when the need for diversification of livelihoods and food security seems to be at a premium. This decline is driven by a suite of drivers that interact with, and are influenced by, other changes and stresses affecting local livelihoods. We distil out the factors, ranging from historical processes to national policies and local dynamics, that hamper peoples’ motivation and ability to respond to locally identified vulnerabilities and, which, when taken together, could drive households into a trap. We end by considering the transformations required to help local people evade traps and progress towards a more promising future in a context of increasing uncertainty. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Changing Land Use, Changing Livelihoods)

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“Nothing Is Like It Was Before”: The Dynamics between Land-Use and Land-Cover, and Livelihood Strategies in the Northern Vietnam Borderlands

by Sarah Turner and Thi-Thanh-Hiên Pham

Land 2015, 4(4), 1030-1059; https://doi.org/10.3390/land4041030 - 18 Nov 2015

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 7679

Abstract

Land uses are changing rapidly in Vietnam’s upland northern borderlands. Regional development platforms such as the Greater Mekong Subregion, state-propelled market integration and reforestation programs, and lowland entrepreneurs and migrants are all impacting this frontier landscape. Drawing on a mixed methods approach using remote sensing data from 2000 to 2009 and ethnographic fieldwork, we examine how land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) has occurred across three borderland provinces—Lai Châu, Lào Cai and Hà Giang—with high proportions of ethnic minority semi-subsistence farmers. After a broad examination of regional land-use changes, we select three case studies to further analyze the underlying relationships between specific LULCC and local livelihood diversification strategies. These include specific patterns of urban growth due to a range of political decisions in Lai Châu and Lào Cai Provinces; reforestation due to non-timber forest (NTFP) product cultivation in the west of Lào Cai Province; and a stable landscape that restricts government attempts at refashioning upland livelihoods in the east of Hà Giang. Our findings point to the difficulties of completing LULCC maps for this highly heterogeneous region and the complexity of LULCC and livelihood interactions and relationships examined on the ground. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Changing Land Use, Changing Livelihoods)

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