Using PES to Secure Livelihoods and Environmental Services in Coffee Agro forests

Project Type:

Smaller projects: PhD

project summary

Nearly half of the world’s 25 million coffee farmers are smallholder farmers who depend on coffee production as their main source of income. They often produce coffee in shade systems, i.e. coffee fields with shade trees of different diverse composition. These agroforests provide a great array of environmental services, from biodiversity conservation to watershed protection. With increasing costs of production and the ever fluctuating coffee prices, coffee farmers are increasingly driven to replace agroforestry practices with tree-less practices such as extensive pastures or intensive agriculture. Other drivers of change also play a role. The result is a loss of environmental services that may have local, regional and global impacts. Payments for environmental services (PES) are economic incentive mechanisms that seek to sustain environmental service and may have socio-economic benefits at the same time. However, existing PES schemes are often not suited for smallholder farmers and tree cover improvement in agroforestry systems. This PhD project investigates the drivers of land use change among smallholder coffee farmers, the extent of the land use change and impacts on tree cover, and the potential of PES to sustain coffee production in agroforestry systems. A further objective is to investigate the role of local institutions, NGOs and cooperatives as intermediaries in PES schemes and their facilitation of smallholder participation. Field work, mainly in the form of household surveys, will be carried out in the Matagalpa region in Nicaragua and in the central regions of Costa Rica with CATIE as the primary collaborating partner. The project is related to several ongoing projects at CATIE, among these the EU funded CAFNET project that aims to improve the livelihoods of coffee communities while conserving natural resources. Expected results of the PhD are four articles, policy briefs and presentations at relevant international conferences. The project findings will be shared with local stakeholders, such as the FONAFIFO, the national PES office in Costa Rica, and contribute to the development of economic incentives for environmental management and sustainability in the smallholder coffee sector.

Facts

PERIOD: 31 August 2008 to 31 December 2011
PROJECT CODE: 10-08-LIFE
COUNTRIES: Costa Rica, Nicaragua
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Aske Skovmand Bosselmann
TOTAL GRANT: 221,587 DKK

Institutions