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Eucalypts in Agroforestry, Reforestation, and Smallholders’ Conceptions of “Nativeness”: A Multiple Case Study of Plantation Owners in Eastern Paraguay

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Abstract

Despite claims that plantations both enhance and undermine the quality, valuation and protection of natural forests, plantation forestry continues to expand worldwide. In Paraguay, changes in environmental policy, extension practices, and public perception of eucalypts (Eucalyptus spp.) have promoted a boom in plantation production of these species over the last 20 years. Smallholders, faced with the dilemma of accelerating environmental degradation juxtaposed with persistent economic need, have widely adopted eucalypt forestry due to the quick growth, low establishment cost and high commercial value of eucalypt plantations. The consequences of this recent, rapid change for smallholder land management remain uncharacterized. Mixed methods analysis of a multiple-case study of 45 families was employed to describe the evolving ecological context of small-scale eucalypt forestry in Eastern Paraguay. This study suggests that eucalypts play a complex, potentially sustainable role in the study area. Producers have integrated agroforestry into eucalypt management and report replacing crop and cattle production with eucalypts in the mosaic of regional land-use. Eucalypts are also integral to participants’ views on reforestation of deforested land and fit ambiguously into their concepts of reforestation and species’ nativeness. Understanding the evolving role of eucalypts in Eastern Paraguay is of critical importance to policymakers and foresters promoting sustainable management.

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Notes

  1. The regulatory framework includes Law 515/94, prohibiting the export and trafficking of logs, poles, and stakes; Law 536/95, strengthening (re)forestation and plantation establishment; and Law 3663/08, preventing all conversion of forested land to other forms of land-use in Eastern Paraguay (JICA 2002; Yanosky and Cabrera 2003).

  2. The Paraguayan Agriculture and Ranching Ministry (MAG 2009) reported that between 1991 and 2008, the area covered by forest plantations in Paraguay rose by a factor of 10, but the coverage of eucalypt plantations increased from 2,925 to 56,654 ha, a more than 19-fold increase. By comparison, increases in coverage of other major plantation species including pine (1.5-fold) and paraíso (Melia azedarach L.; 3.75-fold) were modest. Plantation coverage is highest in the three southeastern provinces of Caazapá, Itapúa and Alto Paraná.

  3. From 2009 to 2011, the author served as an agroforestry extension volunteer in the US Peace Corps in Community A (Caazapá province). While conducting the field research, the author was still affiliated with Peace Corps, but not with any other public or private development groups. Status as a Peace Corps volunteer certainly affected the relationship with participants in the communities. This may have been a limitation in some respects: participants may have been less likely to report negative attitudes toward reforestation efforts or community-based forestry practices including those promoted by Peace Corps volunteers. At the same time, affiliation with the Peace Corps and the positions of trust in the communities included in the study system facilitated candid, honest responses from participants.

  4. Field research was conceived of and executed while the author was affiliated with the University of Washington.

  5. For the purpose of this study, participants are identified by a code such as “A1”, consisting of a letter A-H corresponding to a home community or village (Fig. 1), and a number to distinguish between participants from that village.

  6. The eight study communities were located in seven municipalities: (1) San Pedro de Ycuamandiyú (Community F), (2) San Estanislao de Kostka (Community E), (3) Guayaibí (Community E), (4) Tobatí (Community B), (5) General Higinio Morínigo (Community A), (6) San Juan Nepomuceno (Communities C and D), and (7) Alto Verá (Communities G and H). Community E was split between municipalities 2 and 3. Villages were located in four provinces or departamentos: San Pedro (1–3), Cordillera (4), Caazapà (5, 6) and Itapùa (7). Figure 1 was adapted from images from the Wikimedia Commons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Paraguay).

  7. Following Nair (1993), silvopastoral systems (plantations of trees managed as pasture for animals) and taungya (the planting of tree seedlings in existing row crops) are treated as agroforestry systems.

  8. Arrows are scaled to reflect the percentage of the 38 participants for whom this information was available who had replaced a given land-use with eucalypts or who planned to replace eucalypts with a given land-use.

  9. Trigger et al. (2007) and Chew and Hamilton (2011) explored the wider cultural and ecological implications of nativeness and provided a framework for the present discussion of exotic eucalypts in Eastern Paraguay.

  10. None of the participants, without prompting, identified the country of eucalypt’s origin as Australia.

  11. Though the discussion here focuses on public extension, development work performed by non-government organizations and foreign governments has also contributed considerably to the popularity of eucalypt plantation forestry in Eastern Paraguay. Therefore, recommendations for public, Paraguayan extension agencies should also be extended to these organizations.

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Acknowledgments

The author wishes to foremost acknowledge the hospitality, openness and insight of the Paraguayan study participants. Additionally, the research described above was carried out with the assistance of colleagues in the US Peace Corps—Paraguay (Elizabeth Cabrera, Heather Clark, Sean Conway, Sybil England-Markum, Leah Gourlie, Greg Cooper, Matt Nesheim, Brian Pattullo and Leah Roberts) and the University of Washington School of Forest and Environmental Sciences (Ivan Eastin). The author was supported by a Lockwood Fellowship (University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences). Cyrus O’Brien and Emma Nolan-Thomas provided especially helpful feedback, as did two anonymous reviewers, and journal editors Brett Butler and Steve Harrison.

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  1. Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 100 Ecology Building, 1987 Upper Buford Circle, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA

    Jake J. Grossman

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Correspondence to Jake J. Grossman.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 2.

Table 2 Description of households from which interview excerpts were drawn
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Grossman, J.J. Eucalypts in Agroforestry, Reforestation, and Smallholders’ Conceptions of “Nativeness”: A Multiple Case Study of Plantation Owners in Eastern Paraguay. Small-scale Forestry 14, 39–57 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-014-9272-8

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