Reforestation
- Believe it or not, this young agro-forest is only 3 years old. The dominant tree is the native and very fast-growing Balsa (Ochroma piramidale), which generates revenue as early as year 4
- Combining crops like banana with native hardwood trees enables the farmer to earn both short-term revenue and long-term revenue, while regenerating the forest
Reforestation is not only the best way to regenerate a severely deforested ecosystem such as coastal Ecuador. It is also an economic alternative to forest clearing. In a region that has already lost 98% of its native forest, it is essential that conservation efforts are complemented by reforestation; the future of the Pacific forests of Ecuador is dependent upon both of these strategies. Which raises the obvious question: if reforestation is superior to forest clearing, in both ecological and economic terms, then why don’t people in coastal Ecuador choose to reforest?
Obstacle #1: Revenue & Sustenance
The reason farmers don’t plant trees is because some trees won’t earn them any income. And other trees, like timber, take 20-30 years to mature before the pay-off. It’s true that cattle ranching is not great money, but it is quick - dairy and meat are ready to sell in the first year. Even if reforestation is the better investment over the long-term, the problem is during the short-term. The people clearing the forest in coastal Ecuador are small-scale farmers living at a subsistence level. This is precisely why deforestation is the preferred strategy: farmers choose income today, even if it leads to ecological and economic collapse 20 or 10 or even 5 years later.
Obstacle #2: Start-up Costs & Scale
A second impediment to reforestation is scale, and the time and resources required for large-scale reforestation projects. Even if a small-scale farmer wanted to reforest his land, he faces the physical limitations as to how much land he and his able-bodied sons can plant. And even if a family owns several hectares of land, asking them to reforest the entire parcel themselves, all at once, is a daunting proposition. Lastly, many of the most voracious loggers in coastal Ecuador only own small parcels of land.
Solution: Micro-Foresting
Third Millennium Alliance’s Micro-Foresting program addresses each of the above obstacles by subsidizing small-scale reforestation projects by small-scale farmers. It is a novel approach to the fundamental challenge of land management economics throughout the tropics, and specifically in coastal Ecuador.
