Project
Interventions on the farming system in the Peruvian Amazon
In the Peruvian Amazon of Madre de Dios, both the forest cover and deforestations rates are high. Fueled by a variety of intentions i.e. environmental conservation, economic development, etc., the smallholder farmers see their farming system intervened in a variety of ways. This research aims to understand how key drivers and interventions influence change towards more diverse and resilient agricultural systems in early stages of forest transition and, thereby, to explore promising interventions with the use of participatory methods.
Background
The department of Madre de Dios is currently in the early phase of forest transition, as natural extraction activities are progressively being replaced by agricultural expansion. The agricultural frontier is advancing quickly, while public and private actors try to influence smallholder farmers decision making. The interventions on the farming system play an important role for the future of both smallholder farmers and the Amazon rainforest. Based on literature review, extensive field interviews and serious game workshops, this research sets out to explore the effect of interventions on the farming system, how these interventions are perceived by farmers, and which interventions have the potential to respond to both social and ecological issues.
Project description
After exposing the growing important of the farming system through a historical analisis (chapter 1), Fuzzy-Cognitive Maps (FCMs) are used to compare the current perceptions of the farming system across farmers receiving different levels of support from external institutions (chapter 2). A serious game is developed to represent the farming system and played with over 100 farmers, to understand farmers decision making and how it is influenced by external actors (chapter 3). Finally, the prominent intervention strategy in Madre de Dios, cacao promotion, is analyzed through extensive interviews with cacao farmers and experts of the cacao sector, in order to contrast sustainability claims with the local reality (chapter 4).