8/14/2019 Paying for Silvopastoral Systems in Matiguas_Ecoagriculture Snapshot

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The Ecoagriculture Snapshots series highlights the work o diferent organizations

around the world to implement ecoagriculture landscape management approaches.

Paying for SilvopastoralSystems in Matigus,Nicaragua

Degraded pasture in Matigus, Nicaragua. Source: Stefano

Pagiola

he conversion of natural forests to pasture isa major driver of biodiversity loss and land

degradation in Latin America. Expansion of livestockproduction continues to put pressure on remainingforested areas while decreasing the productive capacityof these landscapes.

The MatigusRo Blanco area in Nicaragua is

located in a biological corridor. It harbors severalthreatened tree species, as well as mixed vegetationfrom the Atlantic and Pacic regions. The area is

relatively dry, hilly, and is dominated by pastureland. The rest is heavily fragmented secondary forest,charrales (shrublands), and crop lands with annualcrops, semi-permanent crops, fruits and monoculturetree plantations.

About half of the areas 42,000 inhabitants are rural,depending primarily on livestock and dairy production.Most land holdings are small and medium-sized,

ranging from 1030 hectares. Almost all householdsare poor, and 71% of the local population falls belowthe poverty line, with an average per capita income ofUS $340. Land degradation from unsustainable cattleranching is a problem that affects both the environmentand local livelihoods.

A more sustainable alternative is silvopastoralism-- a practice that combines pasture with increased treecover in the form of forest patches, riparian vegetation,live fences, and trees in pastures. Silvopastoral systemsprovide important environmental benets including

carbon sequestration, watershed protection, andhabitat for native plant and animal species. They canalso increase farm protability by providing animal

feed, shade for livestock, and a variety of wood andnon-wood tree products.

Between 2003 and 2007, the Regional IntegratedSilvopastoral Ecosystem Management Project piloted the

use of payments for ecosystem services (PES) to promotebiodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration byencouraging the adoption of silvopastoral practices indegraded pastures at three sites in Colombia, CostaRica and Nicaragua. The project was nanced by a

grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF)with the World Bank as the implementing agency andthe technical support of FAOs LEAD program. InNicaragua, it was implemented by Nitlapan, an NGOafliated with the Central American University, with

the assistance of CATIE.

Although some farmers in the area were alreadyusing silvopastoral practices before the project started,about 63% of the area was under extensive pasturewith minimal tree cover. Most farmers had difculty

adopting silvopastoral practices because of relatively

high starting costs, prevalent perception of lowprotability and the time lag between investment and

returns. The project introduced PES to overcome thesestart-up difculties, by paying land users for adopting

silvopastoral practices.

To provide payments proportional to the level of

8/14/2019 Paying for Silvopastoral Systems in Matiguas_Ecoagriculture Snapshot

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For more information, please contact: Ecoagriculture Partners

730 11th Street NW, Suite 301 Washington DC 20001 USA

Tel: (202) 393-5315 Fax: (202) 393-2424 info@ecoagriculture.org www.ecoagriculture.org

February 2009

Prepared by Karin Svadlenak-Gomez. For more

information see:

Gonzlez Lpez, M., et al. 2007. Gestin territorial en

Matigus, Nicaragua: un aporte al enfoque productivo y

ecosistmico.

Pagiola S., et al. 2005. Paying for Biodiversity Conservation

Services.Mountain Research and Development 25(3): 206211.

Pagiola, S. et al. 2007. Paying for the Environmental Services

of Silvopastoral Practices in Nicaragua. Ecological

Economics 64(2): 374-385.

Improved pasture with high tree cover in Matigus,

Nicaragua. Source: Stefano Pagiola

services provided, the project developed indices ofbiodiversity conservation and carbon sequestrationunder different land uses and then aggregated theminto a single environmental services index (ESI). Forexample, the most biodiversity-poor land use (annualcrops) was set at 0, and the most biodiversity-richland use (primary forest) was set at 1. For carbonsequestration, the capacity of different land uses tosequester stable carbon in the soil and in hard woodwas used to establish the index. One point on thescale represents about 10 tons of carbon/ha/year. The

simplicity of the ESI gives land users a clear pictureof what to include in their lands to earn the mostpayments.

Farmers received initial baseline payments ofUS $10 per point on the ESI in 2003, and additionalpayments of US $75 per incremental point accordingto land-use changes made in 2004 and 2005. Theproject also undertook very detailed monitoring at allsites to measure the actual biodiversity and carbonsequestration benets, in addition to productivity

measures.

In Matigus, the PES scheme encouraged farmersto increase the use of silvopastoral systems in morethan 24% of the total project area. The area of degradedpasture fell by two thirds, while pastures with high treedensity increased substantially, as did fodder banksand live fences. The overall landscape impact was anincrease in the effective forest cover to 31% across the

landscape, while landscape connectivity also increasedsignicantly with over 67% of forest fragments

connected to adjacent forest fragments by at least oneroute (of live fences).

The impact of the project on the welfare of participants

is more difcult to assess. It was anticipated that bythe time payments ended, the silvopastoral practicesthemselves would begin to generate additional incomefor land users. Although some PES recipients revertedto pre-project land uses once payments ended, mosthave been pleased with the increased productivity ofthe new silvopastoral approaches and are keeping theimproved pasture systems. The municipal governmenthas also introduced a new policy that grants tax reliefto producers using silvopastoral systems.

Apart from PES, the future certication of green

beef and dairy products holds promise for increasingthe income generated by silvopastoral systems, if entrybarriers (for example, meeting hygiene standards) canbe overcome.

The main challenge for the future is to developsustainable funding sources to continue the PESscheme. An added difculty is institutional weaknesses,

for example, a lack of continuity at the level of localgovernment and a lack of producers associations. It isnecessary to overcome this weakness by establishing asupport infrastructure that can help farmers understandand adopt silvopastoral practices on a larger scale.