Regeneration of farmers' woodlots

Regeneration of farmers' woodlots

Learning with farmers in Puerto San Lorenzo, Paraguay

by Bil Grauel

Puerto San Lorenzo, Itapua department is adjacent to the Parana River on the Argentinean border and is a government sponsored colony that was initiated in 1968 under the IBR resettlement scheme (see box on page 8). Today about 500 households live here and the majority have small farms with holdings of about 5 to 20 ha. Agricultural activities and timber harvesting have been and continue to be the main economic activities of the people in this area.

In 1992 a farmers' group associated with Coordinacion Campesina de Itapua (CCI) purchased a small second hand sawmill with funds from a revolving credit scheme made available by Helvetas, a Swiss development organization. Technical assistance was also provided during 8 months of 1993 to help the farmers learn to use this mill and to manage their woodlots. The sawmill was seen by farmers as an opportunity to diversify and add value to their woodlots by making it possible for them to partially or wholly process standing trees. During this technical assistance phase, the farmers converted a large limbo into boards to build beehives for sale and for their own use. Timbo is ideal for this use - but it was the last one in the two hectare woodlot. If the investment in the mill was going to be sustainable then improved woodlot management to ensure a future supply of timber was necessary. As a forester I worked with the farmers in this group who were interested in developing their silvicultural techniques to improve their woodlot management and secure the future supply of timber for their mill.

Republic of Paraguay

Some background context

Paraguay is a typical Third World country, i.e. it is different from all others. Its unique history has had profound consequences for the opportunities and constraints the country faces today.

A long history of forest exploitation

In the early 16th century this area was inhabited by Guarani people. In the mid 1500s the Spanish arrived together with Jesuit priests. They intermarried with the local people and today 95% of the population is mestizo who's first language is Guarani. The main heritage of these colonizers includes the early adoption of 'western' agriculture techniques of intensive land use and a strong tradition of private property rights.

When the Jesuits and Spanish were expelled 3 centuries later the state became the owner of more than 60% of the country s land. Large tracts were sold off to pay the countries debt resulting from the War of the Triple Alliance 1864-1870. (This war had horrendous effects on the country - by some reports up to ninety percent of the male population was killed.) Buyers were primarily European, Argentinian and North American corporations seeking to profit from the exploitation of yerba mate and the region's abundant timber. This was the beginning of the concentration of land, not in the hands of the Spanish or a local elite, but rather in the hands of foreign investors. While 80% of the worlds tropical forests are owned by governments, in Paraguay private ownership, even of forests, is the rule.

In the 1600s Paraguay was known for its fine hardwoods and as a centre of ship and boat building. Two centuries later exploitable woods were still found along the Paraguay river but as early as 179() warning voices were raised criticizing the logging concessions by which entrepreneurs could in one year "cut all the wood they desire .... so that these men leave the forests in which they work in a state of not being able to produce a useful tree." (Félix de Azara, 1790s )

Figure 1

Figure 2

The recent history

Around 1965 a massive expansion of the agricultural frontier began towards the east and export crops such as soybeans, cotton and wheat were cultivated. For example various reports estimate that the area under soyabean cultivation increased from 7300 ha in 1963 to 570 000 ha in 1983 and to 900 000 ha in 1989. This expansion has been possible through large scale deforestation. This advance of the agricultural frontier at the expense of natural forests is one of the most worrisome problems facing Paraguay and especially the Eastern region.

In such a situation where agricultural production takes priority over forest production, harvesting of trees is highly selective. Typically only six to eight trees per hectare of the twelve most valuable species are harvested. So only a small fraction of the woody volume is utilized in the process of land clearing for agriculture (as little as 5 - 10 m3 of the estimated 150 to 300 m3 per hectare). Seventy to eighty percent of the useful wood is cut and burned in place. This highly selective exploitation has led to near extinction of some species. For example trebol is a species highly valued both for its construction and medicinal uses. Today there are thought to be less than 200 of these trees left in the whole country. Tajy hu is also very rare and today only found in larger (>500ha) parcels of forest owned by foreign agribusiness in the Parana river watershed. It is rarely found in small woodlots. Yvyra paje is also in danger of extinction. This highly valued species, exported to Europe under the name cabreuva, is only found in Paraguay.

Between 1945 and 1985 approximately 130 000 ha of forest were converted to agricultural land uses annually. This has accelerated in recent years - in 1989 an estimated 500 000 ha were converted, and in 1990 more than 1000000 ha. This alarming increase has been partly explained by the fear of large land owners that government will expropriate forest land to hand over to landless Paraguayans. Therefore they have cut and burned large parcels of 'unproductive' forested lands.

Land distribution is highly skewed in Paraguay. The 1991 National Census showed that 77% of the land in Paraguay is owned by 1% of the population. Eighty percent of the land holdings are in parcels of less than 20 ha. These holdings represent only about 6% of the agricultural land area.

While agribusiness converts huge swaths of forest to mechanized soybean and wheat production in the eastern region, farm families move into the remaining islands of forest to plant subsistence crops and cotton. Because credit is available to farmers for cotton seed and agrichemicals, and because cotton has traditionally been a major source of farm income, Paraguayan farmers have incentives to clear ever more forest in order to plant cotton. In this cycle of annual credit and debt Paraguayan farmers have little incentive to diversify their production systems let alone think in terms of long term sustainability. However, with fluctuating cotton prices and the recent entry of the cotton boll weevil into northeastern Paraguay from neighboring Brazil, many farmers are striving to become less dependent on king cotton and more dependent on their own abilities to diversify into less-traditional cash crops (such as citrus, strawberries' vegetables, sorgum, and ka'a he'e, a small non-woody plant of the Stevia spp that is used as a natural sweetener. )

Constraints to conservation and management

The situation in Paraguay is typical of many countries. Timber is extracted and little or no investment is made to ensure the capacity of the forest for future production. The forest is converted at ever increasing rates to unsustainable agricultural uses leading to degraded natural resources and ecosystems for short term monetary gain (greed) or for survival (need). The reasons are many and include issues of tenure and land-use, the economic incentives that lead to unsustainable management and lack of knowledge among professionals and land owners about sustainable forest management and restoration/rehabilitation of degraded areas.

This was the challenging context of small farmer forest rehabilitation in Paraguay when I came to work with them in 1993.

Institute for Rural Welfare - IBR

Prior to 1960 short distance migration was common as farmers practiced slash and burn agriculture. The 1950 census shows that the great majority of all Paraguayans were living in the local area of their birth.

In 1963 the Institute for Rural Welfare (IBR) was created with a mandate for formulating programmes for colonization and for the resettlement of families in the eastern border region, as well as for registration of land titles. These government sponsored land settlement / land reform programmes drew as many as 250 000 rural Paraguayans to the eastern border region. IBR also became involved in 'indiscriminate sale'of land to private Brazilian investors. The huge Itaipu hydroelectric project implemented between 1972 and 1981 also attracted thousands of Paraguayan nationals as well as immigrants from neighbouring Brazil.

Farmers priorities

The farmers in Puerto San Lorenzo with whom I worked have extensive practical knowledge of their environment and their traditional technologies are often well adapted to site specific situations. Certain tree-based cropping systems are common in this area around Itapua. Plantations of tung (Aleurites fordii the fruits of which are harvested for their oil used in a variety of industrial processes) are a familiar part of the landscape. So are plantations or various agroforestry plantings of yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis - the leaves of which contain caffeine and are used to make tea. This tree is integral to the social, cultural and economic life in Paraguay.) as well as citrus. Valuable timber species are often left in pastures or croplands.

Because many of the most valued timber species ( Table 1) are becoming extremely scarce, other species are increasingly exploited for timber. In addition, many other species are valued by farm families for medicines, bee forage, fenceposts, firewood, etc. Some of these are shown in Table 2 and this list is by no means complete.

Although the farmers' knowledge of their trees and environment is extensive, rapidly changing conditions have created an urgent need for innovations in traditional landuse systems, especially the need to conserve forests as ecosystems. Until recently forest exploitation has been the same as timber extraction. At present the woodlots of some of these farmers still have high value timber species but the process of degradation is apparent after years of selective harvesting, - removing the biggest, most accessible, most valuable trees and little management.

Some farmers, especially those with 5 - 10 ha of land, have conserved small, highly degraded islands of forest because of their continued value as sources of firewood, forage, medicinal plants or because of the unsuitability of the land for agriculture. For many others the immediate constraint to forest conservation and management is the physical absence of the forest resource. Many farmers in Itapua with title to 10 - 20 ha of land have converted all their remaining forest to pasture or agriculture land for cash crops such as cotton, soyabeans, or wheat. With the high-value trees removed, it is a rational short-term economic decision to convert this land into agricultural land for crop production. Natural regeneration processes result in less desirable species taking hold in the large gaps left when the big trees are felled. This is despite the fact that several valuable timber species are well suited to enrichment planting of the artifically large canopy gaps commonly present in farmers' woodots. Species such as ygary, yvyra paje, peterevy, yvyra pyta yvyra ro , cancharana, yvyra ro-mi and timbo require full sunlight throughout their life cycles. (Tajy hu requires some shade early on and later tolerates full sunlight while yvyra neti and the laurels, aju'y guaika and aju'y sa'y ju, are exceptions - they can regenerate and persist in deep shade and seem to be relatively abundant.)

Table 1. Most valued Paraguayan woods

Guarani name	Spanish name	Family	Species
Ygary	Cedro	Meliaceae	Cedrela fissilis
Yvyra neti	Guatambu	Rutaceae	Balfourodendron riedelianum
Yvyra paje	Incienso	Leguminosae	Myrocarpus frondosus
Kurupa'y ra	Anchico colorado	Leguminosae	Parapiptadenia rigida
Tajy hu	Lapacho negro	Bignoniaceae	Tabebuia heptaphylla
Peterevy	Loro negro	Boraginaceae	Cordia trichotoma
Trebol	Trebol	Leguminosae	Amburan cearensis
Yvyra ro	Tipa colorado	Leguminosae	Pterogyne nitens
Urunde'y mi	Urundei	Anacardiaceae	Astronium urundeuva
Yvyra ro-mi	Peroba	Apocynaceae	Aspidosperma polyneuron

Table 2. Other valued species for wood and other products

Guarani name	Spanish name	Family	Species
Cancharana	Canchara	Meliaceae	Cabralea canjerana
Aju'y guaika	Laurel guaika	Lauraceae	Ocotea puberula
Aju'y sa'y ju	Laurel amarillo	Lauraceae	Nectandra lanceoloata
Ka'a ti	-	Styracaceae	Styrax leprosus
-	Sota caballo	Tiliaceae	Luehea divaricata
Yvyra ovi	Canela del venado	Rutaceae	Helietta apiculata
Kurupa'y kuru	Cebil colorado	Leguminosae	Anadenanthera colubrina
Timbo	Timbo colorado	Leguminosae	Enterolobium contortisiliquum
Yvyra pere	Grapia	Leguminosae	Apeluia leiocarpa
Yvyra pyta	Cana fistula	Leguminosae	Peltophorum dubium
Jaguarata'y	Cambo-ata	Sapindaceae	Cupania vernalis
Guajayvi	Guayabi	Boraginaceae	Patagonia americana
Yvyra pi'u	Maria preta	Sapindaceae	Diatenopteryx sorbifolia
Yvyra pi'u guasu	Marmelero	Polygonaceae	Ruprechtia laxiflora
Tembetary	-	-	Fagara naranjillo

The problem is that there are two small bamboo species which are particularly problematic: takuapi (Merostachis clausseni) and takuarembo (Chusquea ramosissima). They invade the gaps and smother the emergent seedlings. One of the challenges facing the farmers is how to control the growth of these bamboos, and other undesirable species so the desirable species can grow well - i.e. fast and straight. What silvicultural management techniques could help the farmers with this problem?

Any relevant information available from researchers?

Not much. To date little attention has been paid by forest professionals to farmer-based forest management. Although many farm families realize the production and service benefits of the forest, little or no technical assistance is available to them for its maintenance and improvement.

Research that has been done has not been particularly relevant for these small farmers' situations. For example the work underway at the Subtropical Forestry Research Institute at the National University of Misiones, Argentina employs a shelterwood harvest system based on the presence of advanced regeneration that maintains canopy cover. In the shady environment of a closed forest, the bamboos are present but do not dominate. This system, however, is not feasible for a small farmer with less than five ha of forest.

Other researchers have suggested the use of herbicides to control bamboo regrowth but this is not feasible for the small farmer with limited resources.

A silvicultural treatment being tested at the experimental forest in Chore, San Pedro is liberation thinning using a machete. Paths are cut through the understory releasing existing regeneration and stimulating growth. Work is also being done with this technique at the forestry school Centro Forestal Alto Parana near Ciudad del Este.

Because natural regeneration of the most desired species is often limited or even absent in farmers' woodlots, enrichment planting which introduces valuable timber species into degraded woodlots is a natural extension of the liberation treatment. The utility of enrichment planting in natural forests has been questioned and successes have been limited due to high labour requirements and/or poor seedling survival and growth. However, at the scale of the woodlot, artificial regeneration could be effective as small-scale farmers who will accrue the economic benefits of the work will be able ensure higher survival and growth rates through planting care and subsequent management. It seems to work well as a means to counteract the progressive impoverishment of a forest resulting from repeated selective logging.

Another silviculture technique, of particular reference in this situation in light of the sawmill, is pruning which improves log quality and encourages height growth. The tajy hu, for example, tends to favour branch production but can respond almost immediately to heavy pruning, growing 35 - 4() cm in two weeks.

New and innovative options, such as 'assisted natural regeneration' or 'restoration systems' are not well defined silvicultural systems. Rather they include a great many techniques for planting desirable species in logged forests and in light gaps produced by falling trees. While the least known of the tropical forest management systems they are increasingly the most needed. They are also the most problematic as they will, of necessity, be locally specific no blanket recommendations are possible. This is why collaboration with farmers is a necessity.

Collaboration with Domingo and Virginio

A few farmers were interested in exploring the relevance of these techniques for improving their own forest parcels and how they could be adapted to better fit their own circumstances. The best time for this, they decided, was from April to July. During these cool winter months they had less work on the farm, it was the best time to plant out seedlings and the winter frosts would help to kill off the resprouting bamboo.

Domingo's ten hectare and Virginio's six hectare farm lie close to the Parana river in an area that has been repeatedly and selectively logged for more than a century for its commercial and exportable timber - mainly ygary and tajy hu. Their farms consist of small plots of cotton, soybeans, yerba mate, citrus, beans, corn, cassava, sweet potatoes, rice, groundnuts, and various vegetables. In addition small areas are in pasture and fallow. Each household keeps some pigs, chickens and bees but no large livestock. The group's small sawmill is located near Domingo's house.

The initial work consisted of informal walks through the forest to survey the general condition of the woodland. For me these sessions with the farmers served as an informal inventory and orientation to the history of use of woody and non-woody forest products. Although an early objective of the project was to develop methodology for farmers to carry out woodlot inventories this joint assessment of general forest condition proved more useful. Both Domingo and Virgino knew their forest areas well - both what species are present as well as their general abundance and age-class distribution. More elaborate inventories could have, over time, provided reliable data showing the process of degradation. However farmers knew this as it was easily seen when comparing different parts of the woodlots. Efforts needed to concentrate, not on the degradation which was well known, but rather on the solutions, what to do about it, which was not well known.

Of Domingo's 10 hectares, two are still covered by high forest that he has selectively logged. Increasingly intensive timber extraction has drastically altered the structure and composition of about two-thirds of these two hectares. The removal of much of the contiguous canopy, combined with the scarcity of natural regeneration has resulted in favourable conditions for growth and spread of the bamboo species - takupi and takuarembo. The remaining one-third of the woodlot stood, in contrast to this, with most of the dominant layer intact, an all-aged structure evident and the bamboos present but not dominant.

Domingo had utilized about fifteen to twenty mature trees of the following species: ygary, peterevy, yvyra neti, aju'y sa'y ju, kurupa' y, ra, sota caballo and tembetary. Regeneration of these species exists in various abundance and age classes. Domingo had cut the last aju'y guaika and timbo from his parcel. No regeneration of these species was found.

In cutting about 250 m through the bamboos and other understory plants we found regeneration of various species including yvyra neti, ygary, yvyra paje, peterevy, yvyra pi'u, jaguarata'y, aju'y 'v guaika, and aju'y sa'y ju. Of the most valued timber species only yvyra neti seemed relatively abundant in all age classes. The few seedlings of yvyra paje appeared to be associated with the root system of the single mature individual present in the woodlot. All ygary regeneration had been attacked by the Hypsiphyla moth. Peterevy regeneration was extremely scarce. Only one large seed tree of peterevy remains in the woodlot and, like the very few remaining specimens of ygary, had not been harvested due to its relatively poor form. Domingo was well aware of these dysgenic effects that can result from years of selective harvesting without management.

More than half of Virginio's holding is occupied by degraded forest (4 ha). It consisted of a scattered overstory composed of yvyra neti and other less desirable species. Beneath the markedly discontinuous dominant layer was an understory primarily composed of very dense takuapi. During the walkthroughs we noticed that many yvyra paje seedlings were located within a 15m radius of the stump of a mother tree that had been felled and sold by Virginio a few years earlier. Most of these seedlings were completely shaded out by takuapi. As a gap species that needs moderate to full sunlight these seedlings should respond well to the removal of the surrounding bamboo. In a fallow field on Virginio's farm is another Yvyra paje stump with dozens of seedlings surrounding it. We found these seedlings to be connected with lateral roots, apparently associated with the single large stump. We dug up many of these seedlings to plant in other woodlots. At least one other farmer transplanted some in his own yerba mate plantation.

Various techniques tried

After some paths had been cut through the bamboo understory, small scale enrichment plantings were tried with various species and with various propagation techniques. All the farmers in the group had experience with producing tree seedlings, especially citrus and yerba mate, in their own small nurseries. All the bare root seedlings were wildings obtained from nearby forest parcels owned by foreign agribusiness, already logged over and slated for conversion to mechanized agriculture. Some species, particularly timbo, were planted as tall pseudostakes. The containerized seedlings were grown from seed either locally collected or provided by the technical forestry school Centro Forestal Alto Parana near Ciudad del Este.

In addition direct seeding was tried in mid-July of tajy hu, timbo, yvyra pyta, and yvyra ro, in both woodlots. Some research reports recommended direct seeding of timbo and yvyra pyta in degraded forests. However, it is too early to know whether this is a feasible method of forest enrichment for the farmers in Puerto San Lorenzo.

In June Virginio felled a ygary in his forest to build a canoe for use in the river which borders his property. A few days later we cut nine short stakes from the crown of the felled tree and planted them along an existing forest path in his woodlot. By July at least a couple of these stakes were beginning to sprout. Subsequently Virginio expressed interest in forest enrichment with peterevy. Heavy frosts had killed natural regeneration of peterevy on his cropland and he felt that small trees planted in the forest would be somewhat protected.

Different structures to the enrichment plantings were also tried. Everyone thought that straight paths, two meters wide and several meters apart would facilitate subsequent care and maintenance of the enrichment plantings. Therefore, line plantings may be most effective for systematically introducing specific species through a given parcel. However a group planting was also tried in Domingo's woodlot in a particularly open area after takuarembo had been cleared to see if this would allow for better utilisation of all the available space.

Domingo and his neighbour Juan Sortelo were interested in planting banana in the forest to protect it from the heavy frosts common in the region. Domingo also planned to plant tomato and pineapple in the newly cut paths in his woodlot for protection from the intense solar radiation of the summer months. These types of plantings would provide him with some short term cash returns and at the same time allow him to work towards his long term goals.

In time the feasibility of these various techniques will become clear. However there is already a growing interest in this kind of on-farm experimentation. The parcel of forest on Domingo's farm which now contains specimens of the most valuable timber species is being used for study visits by other farmers. In July 1993 Virginio Benitez, Salud Cuerva and Antolin Villalba and I walked through Domingo's woodlot. We talked about the labour costs of the liberation treatment and about the sources of seedlings, as well as the feasibility of small scale tree seed collecting. This joint walkthrough generated much discussion among the farmers regarding their own remaining forest resources.

Any conclusions?

Our tentative conclusion at this point is that such off-season silvicultural techniques are useful and feasible and can make an important contribution to the rehabilitation of degraded woodlots. The employment of regular silvicultural practices can increase forest land value to smallholder farmers and in this way open opportunities for finding alternatives to forest clearance. Interestingly, although operating a sawmill requires cutting trees, the group's sawmill can help promote forest conservation. These farmers are contributing to the search for new ways to conserve Paraguay's remaining forests. However, given the present social and economic environment, such efforts by small-scale farmers to rehabilitate their own woodlots are only dealing with the symptoms and do not impact directly on the important underlying causes to deforestation in the country. Can providing support to farmers and their efforts to sustainably use their resources also have important implications in the long term? Given Paraguay's political history, even small technical advances can help empower these farmers in small ways. In Paraguayan as in any society, empowerment is critical to a more proactive role that is necessary if all the people in Paraguay are to help to form a more equitable and sustainable society.

But indeed these farmers cannot stand alone.

Because most ecological problems have their roots in social/political problems, our learning about how to deal with these problems will require a very wide approach including active participation of all the various interest groups. Not only researchers but also policy and decision makers as well as farmers, industrialists, traders, etc. and all of these in their multiple roles as professionals, citizens, consumers and producers will need to be actively involved. Integrated as it is in international markets, the price of cotton in Chicago affects how much forest will remain in Paraguay. I, as a North American, and all people who consume Paraguayan cotton (or pick your favorite export crop and country) all share responsibility for the fate of the forests.

Bil Grauel lived and worked for two years with farmers in Natalio, about 50 km south of Puerto San Lorenzo, and then moved to work with CCI farmer's group in 1993. Presently he is a researcher at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica and hopes to return to people-oriented forestry activities.

You can contact him at the following address: Organization for Tropical Studies, La Selva Biological Station, Apartado 676, 2050 San Pedro, Costa Rica.