How Socio-Economic Differences between Farmers Affect Forest Degradation in Western Mexico
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Empirical Specification
2.2. Data
2.3. Hypotetized Effect of Variables Included in the Model
2.4. Study Area
2.5. Land Use Practices of Farmers in the Sample
2.5.1. Permanent Agriculture System
2.5.2. Shifting Cultivation System
2.5.3. Cattle Grazing Practices
2.6. The Sample
3. Results
3.1. Distribution of Farmers in the Sample by Land Use Types
3.2. Multivariate Regression Models of Forest Degradation by Farmer Group
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Variable | Definition | Mean | SD | Hypothesized Sign |
---|---|---|---|---|
Main independent variables | ||||
Ln_Pole | Log of total annual fencing poles extracted by farmer | 2.52 | 2.07 | Positive |
Cattle | Number of cattle per farmer | 8.83 | 14.73 | Positive |
Control variables | ||||
Tot_Pop | Total population in the sampled communities | 873.09 | 970.77 | Positive |
Marginalization index (MI) | Marginalization index (based on income, education levels, and living conditions) | 7.91 | 2.62 | Positive |
Road | Dummy variable, 1 if a road exists in less than 1 km from the land; 0 otherwise. | 0.77 | 0.41 | Positive |
Slope | Dummy variable, 1 parcel is located on the hillsides; 0 parcel is located on flat lands | 0.59 | 0.49 | Positive |
Tropical dry forest (TDF) | Total area of tropical dry forest owned by farmer (ha) | 13.87 | 24.21 | Positive |
Fam_Size | Number of members in the household | 4.09 | 2.04 | Positive |
Dependent variable | ||||
Shifting cultivation (SC) 1 | Total amount of land temporarily cleared for shifting cultivation in the past year (ha) | 1.92 | 2.98 |
No Land Cleared | Land Cleared | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Landless | Landowners | Temporary Clearance for Shifting Cultivation | Permanent Clearance | Temporary and Permanent Clearance | ||
Sub-sample size | 29 | 99 | 94 | 13 | 66 | |
Age (years) | 48 | 63 | 77 | 59 | 67 | |
Gender (percentage male) | 100 | 90 | 90 | 100 | 95 | |
Education (years) | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 5 | |
Household members | 5 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 5 | |
Firewood users (percentage) | 76 | 73 | 90 | 70 | 73 | |
Landowners (percentage) | 0 | 100 | 52 | 95 | 85 | |
Working years in agriculture | 23 | 43 | 39 | 43 | 36 | |
Head of cattle | 2 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 17.5 | |
Type of land use | ||||||
Cultivated area (ha) | 3 | 6 | 1.2 | 7 | Permanent | 9.5 |
SC | 4 | |||||
Pasture (ha) | 0 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | |
TDF (ha) | 0 | 5 | 3.3 | 2.5 | 16 |
Variable | Shifting Cultivators’ Group | Permanent Agriculture and Shifting Cultivators (PA&SC) Farmers Group |
---|---|---|
Ln_Pole | 0.1477 *** (0.0396) | |
Cattle | 0.0110 *** (0.0054) | |
Tot_Pop | 0.0002 *** (0.0000) | 0.0000 (0.0000) |
MI | 0.0764 *** (0.0302) | 0.0162 (0.0448) |
Road | 0.0159 (0.1793) | −0.1902 (0.2313) |
Slope | 0.5853 ** (0.2977) | −0.0557 (0.3030) |
TDF | 0.0103 *** (0.0049) | 0.0089 *** (0.0030) |
Fam_Size | 0.0099 (0.0384) | −0.0209 (0.0502) |
Intercept | −1.6126 (0.6636) | 0.8842 (0.7197) |
R2 | 0.31 | 0.21 |
p-value | <0.001 | <0.05 |
Sample | 89 | 66 |
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Borrego, A.; Skutsch, M. How Socio-Economic Differences between Farmers Affect Forest Degradation in Western Mexico. Forests 2019, 10, 893. https://doi.org/10.3390/f10100893
Borrego A, Skutsch M. How Socio-Economic Differences between Farmers Affect Forest Degradation in Western Mexico. Forests. 2019; 10(10):893. https://doi.org/10.3390/f10100893
Chicago/Turabian StyleBorrego, Armonia, and Margaret Skutsch. 2019. "How Socio-Economic Differences between Farmers Affect Forest Degradation in Western Mexico" Forests 10, no. 10: 893. https://doi.org/10.3390/f10100893