Ecosystems Services in swidden agriculture in the Peruvian tropical Andes : the Kechwa-Lamas farm-forestry system

Abstract: In the Amazon, life supporting services are importantly associated to forest areas. Nevertheless, the connection of ecosystem services to agricultural systems it is also of great importance, because agriculture is one of the most important causes of degradation and loss of these areas. Management decisions and agricultural practices can influence directly these impacts and sustain either supporting or degradation processes, that will impact on the larger landscape. This research focuses on understanding how Amazonian swidden agricultural knowledge and practices, from the Kechwa-Lamas of the San Martin region in Peru, contribute to sustainability via ecosystem services (ES). For this, agroecological management practices of innovative farmers are identified and analysed in relation to ES provision, in their national and regional context. A qualitative exploratory approach was applied in an ecosystem-service conceptual framework in cooperation with the local grassroots organization Waman Wasi and five Kechwa-Lamas communities. A mix of desktop gathering of regional data and fieldwork techniques were applied for data collection, including Rapid Rural Appraisal participatory tools, participant observation and interviews with key actors. It was found that Kechwa-Lamas agricultural tradition, deeply embedded in their identities, stands as a resisting force that maintains multifunctional agricultural systems that provide food security and enhance provisioning, supporting and regulating ecosystem services. This contribution is critical in the context of rapid land use change in San Martin, where there are signals of growing environmental impact of agriculture. Using centrally trees, fallows and high levels of agrobiodiversity Kechwa- Lamas manage a dynamic provision of different on-farm and off-farm ES. Farmers combine farm and forest in their fields, in different sequential and simultaneous agroforestry arrangements. In these rotational farm-forest systems, innovative farmers perform and adapt the traditional swidden management, intensifying agroecological practices based in ecological processes. Improved fallows, intercropping, water conservation practices and degraded land recovery are some of the strategies, used along the swidden cycle to enhance and regenerate ecosystems services such as: soil fertility, nutrient cycling, hydrological services and carbon storage, among others. Nevertheless, farmers face many challenges to secure their land, practice their traditional agroforestry and maintain their ecological knowledge. Swidden is often perceived as negative for forest conservation, as usually implied in technical and authorities’ discourse, while, bypassing farmers’ agroecological and adaptive management suited to the tropics, which even allow farmers with high ecological knowledge recover degraded soil. The regional and local government require rearranging priorities and strategies to improve socio-environmental dimensions of agricultural sustainability and adequately support farmers. Kechwa-Lamas agricultural and ecological knowledge must be taken in consideration to contribute to formal knowledge systems to confront environmental risk and climate change. It is acknowledged that further research is needed, perhaps backed by quantitative and agrotechnical data, to strength even more the beneficial impacts of Kechwa-Lamas practices in ecosystems and communities.