Peasant farmer livelihood strategies as driver and outcome of socio-ecological transformations: A qualitative and empirical contribution towards improving land use and land cover modelling based on two case studies in Mexico and Bolivia

• Applicant: Anne Cristina de la Vega-Leinert, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Human Geography ; Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2015 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 277982814

This research proposal addresses a double challenge. First, the debate on land sparing (spatial segregation of intensive agriculture from strict conservation) vs. land sharing (multiple land use in agro-ecological system) remains unresolved. Second, recent studies emphasise the need to better address local agency in regional to global land use and land cover (LU, LC) modelling. Social geography and political ecology approaches are particularly well suited to contextually analyse multiple LU dimensions and make valuable contributions towards overcoming these two challenges. I focus on peasant agriculture as a driver and outcome of regional LU LC transformations in Latin America, a major contributor to food and energy production that is undergoing globally significant LU LC changes. Within the International Year of Family Farming in 2014 the role of peasant systems in realising food security, while preserving rich biodiversity has been emphasized but also questioned. The proposed project will contribute to the development of theory building hypotheses on peasant livelihood strategies and their compatibility with sustainable land use and conservation. Distinct peasant farming systems will be qualitatively investigated in two emblematic case study regions of Southeast Mexico and eastern Bolivia. These agricultural frontiers have undergone drastic LU LC changes in the last decades often driven by marginal peasant communities. The three main objectives are: 1) to investigate the diversity of peasant agricultural (subsistence, commercial) activities, their complementarity and integration to local and broader commodity chains, 2) to analyse peasant livelihood strategies and their LU LC implications, and 3) to explore the role and impact of migration in livelihood and LU decisions. This detailed analysis will provide a well needed reality check to improve existing LU conceptualisations by deliberately addressing the diversity of peasant systems. The empirically-grounded generic categories and hypotheses generated will contribute to the formulation of narratives of peasant agency and livelihoods and structural opportunities and hurdles. These narratives, far from been household specific, will illustrate emblematic situations and form the core of possible scenarios for implementation in LU LC models. Drawing on a strong local network and extensive previous work, participatory rural appraisal methods will be used with a wide spectrum of peasant farmers and other local stakeholders to collect detailed qualitative data for content analysis. Despite being context dependent, it is expected that the research results will be meaningful for similar regions and communities in other Latin American countries. These will provide key insights on: 1) the wider implications of the land sparing vs. land sharing debate for peasant farmers; and 2) the contribution of local qualitative case studies to improve regional to global LU analyses.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Bolivia, Mexico
• Cooperation Partners: Oscar Bazoberry, Ph.D.; Professor Ludger Brenner, Ph.D.; Professorin Leticia Durand Smith, Ph.D.; Marco Antonio Gandarillas González, Ph.D.