Abstract:
If tropical farmers cannot be provided with sustainable land-use systems, which address their subsistence
needs and keep them gainfully employed, tropical forests will continue to disappear. We looked at the ability
of economic land-use diversification ? with reforestation of tropical ?wastelands? as a key activity ? to
halt deforestation at the farm level. Our ecological?economic concept, based on land-use data from the
buffer area of the Podocarpus National Park in southern Ecuador, shows that stopping deforestation after 10
years is possible without violating subsistence demands. Tropical, farm-level diversification may not only
reduce total deforestation by 45%, but also increase farmers? profits by 65%, because the formerly unproductive
wastelands have been returned to productive land use. We therefore conclude that a ?win?win? scenario
is possible: the subsistence needs of people can be reconciled with conservation objectives. However,
inexpensive microcredits (at interest rates below 6%) and experience on alternative land-use opportunities
must be offered to farmers.
