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Persistence of Swidden Cultivation in the Face of Globalization: A Case Study from Communities in Calakmul, Mexico

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Abstract

Over the last decades, political, economic and environmental pressures have encouraged changes from swidden to more intensive agricultural practices, resulting in the hypothesis that swidden cultivation systems are disappearing. In Calakmul, southeastern Mexico, communities decreased the area under milpa, the traditional maize swidden system, but a collapse did not occur. To document and explain the persistence of swidden we employ a variety of data: (1) 59 standardized household surveys from 2003 and 2010 in five villages, (2) in-depth interviews in one village, and (3) coupled human–environmental timelines in this same village. Droughts, hurricanes, and remittances were important drivers of decreases in milpa cultivation. Market crop profitability and conservation programs were also reported to affect the area under milpa. Off-farm employment and governmental transfers have tended to stabilize household economies and decrease dependency on agricultural production, but have also allowed households to maintain their milpas for subsistence and cultural reproduction. Findings in Calakmul point to the need to consider swidden as an evolving and active response to changing policy, economic, and environmental conditions.

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Notes

  1. For the sampling methods of the original 2003 survey, see Schmook and Radel (2008).

  2. As wealth differences are minimal among the sampled households, we did not include an analysis on how variations in household wealth relate to use of swidden or other strategies.

  3. Although the interviewees did not mention timber extraction, we know from the literature and local experts that intensive logging for mahogany and Spanish cedar was carried out in the 1950s in southeastern Campeche by the parastatal company, Caobas Mexicanas/Impulsora Forestal Peninsular. By 1983, the last of the parastatal forest concessions ended without being renewed because of depleted mahogany and cedar reserves, and rising pressure for land and logging rights by ejidatarios in the region (Bray and Klepeis 2005).

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the families interviewed in the communities for their hospitality and patience. We would also like to thank to Crisol Mendez, Griselda Venegas and Malloni Puc Alcocer for their support during fieldwork, workshops and focus groups. Funding support was provided by the Danish Social Science Research Council to Birgit Schmook, María de Jesús Manzón-Che and Nathalie van Vliet (Project: “Transition of shifting cultivation systems at the agriculture/forest frontiers – sustainability or demise”).

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  1. ECOSUR (El Colegio de la Frontera Sur), Av del Centenario Km 5.5, Chetumal, Q. Roo, CP 77014, Mexico

    Birgit Schmook & María de Jesús Manzón-Che

  2. Department of Geography and Geology, University of Copenhagen, Oster Voldgade 10, 1350, Copenhagen K, Denmark

    Nathalie van Vliet

  3. Department of Environment and Society, Utah State University, 5215 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT, 84322, USA

    Claudia Radel

  4. Global Diversity Foundation, P.O. Box 194, Bristol, VT, 05443, USA

    Susannah McCandless

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Schmook, B., van Vliet, N., Radel, C. et al. Persistence of Swidden Cultivation in the Face of Globalization: A Case Study from Communities in Calakmul, Mexico. Hum Ecol 41, 93–107 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-012-9557-5

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