A classic case: the expansion of maya farming and the collapse of their civilization.

I think this book may be really useful for you: DIAMOND, Jared (2005), "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed". He explains this case and many others (twelve, if I remember it well), and also the case of the island of Santo Domingo, showing the differences between the politics concernig this subject in Haití and Dominican Republic (I think this is particularly interesting for you).

I don't work this topic, but I met some people in Peru, in the jungle regions, probably intererested in collaborate in this research.

Javier

Thank you Javier. I am trying to set up my own case studies. Could you please tell me who the people in Peru are? I may be able to contact them perhaps. Thanks again!

This paper I co-authored with two colleagues in 2011 may be of help. I would also check out relevant organizations like FAO. I suspect that CATIE in Costa Rica would also be a good source of information on this topic.

Dear Michele there is a brutal expansión of the agricultural use (specially soy bean crops) of Semiarid Chaco región in argentina, due to deforestation of natural environments and the non tillage tecnologies and total herbicides use, in the argentine provinces of Chaco, Santiago del Estero, Formosa, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Salta y Tucuman.

Dear Michelle there an important book about this forest ecosystems in Latin America:

Emilio F Moran & Elinor Ostrom (org). Seeing the forest the trees: Human-environment interactions in forest ecosystem.

In Ecuador, the crop frontiers are "climbing" up the Andes. Potatos cropping is arriving near the Paramo (3900 m a.s.l.) ... Risking water sources and fragile environments ... The methods of cropping are questioned for their extractive technology. [email protected]

Dear Michele,

The GEPAMA (Group of Landscape Ecology and Environment) based on the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires (Argentina), may be a good source of references and potential collaborations, in particular for the Chaco Region study case, where they have been working on the expansion of agricultural frontiers since decades.

Visit the webpage of the group here:

http://www.gepama.com.ar/

You can also download one of their books (in spanish) on this topic, entitled" El Chaco sin Bosques: la pampa o el desierto del futuro" from this link :

http://www.unesco.org.uy/mab/fileadmin/ciencias%20naturales/mab/ElChaco.pdf

Good luck with your research!

Carolina

Thanks to everybody for the many answers!

Carolina, thank you so much. I have been in contact with GEPAMA, particularly the late Profesor Morello who suggested to look at el chaco seco. Could you recommend anyone in Salta or Tucuman as well?

Ross, thank you for pointing me to CATIE. I will definitively have a look!

Hernan, do you know anyone that I could approach and who would be interested in research collaboration on the issue you mention?

Jose, I actually just finished reading the book, which I found very informative indeed. Still I am struggling to find people who are willing to collaborate with me in order to write down a research proposal. If you have any name/institution in mind, please just let me know.

Marcelo, do you have some specific names I could contact?

Horacio, anyone who maybe interested in Brazil?

Michele - Many case studies regarding deforestation in Latin America's 33 countries - at least from the perspective of satellites - was included in the 2010 Latin America and Caribbean Atlas of our Changing Environment: http://cathalac.org/lac_atlas/. It can be downloaded in sections as PDF (in English and Spanish) from: http://cathalac.org/lac_atlas/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=73&Itemid=26.

Hi i suggest you to ask Embrapa researchers mainly those located in North and Center regions. Also Natiomal Institute of Amazon Research

Hi Michele, I was working in the LEAD initiatives since 2001 to 2006. We analized the deforestation drivers in different latinamerican countries. An important driver was related to public policy form local govermments, for example, in Colombia during 50-60 decade the agrarian reform policy were an important driver. It because the land distribution at poor people was done in marginal areas, mainly in amazon area.

Dear Michele

The agriculture expanding is a main cause of native forest retraction on subtropical and temperate areas of Argentina since more than 100 years ago. More recently it is growing over unfertile and/or semiarid areas while the agriculture intensification is a main problem on areas already deforested. For references in Argentina you could also contact to Jorge Adamoli (Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires); to Ricardo Grau (Universidad Nacional de Tucumán); to Alicia Barchuk (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba).

Dear Michele, using the case study method you will find the rationality that drives this situation. It means looking answers to ¿why? and ¿how? reforestatión has become a major problem by some kind of desicion taking processes; either by politicians,land owners, farmers, even consumers also. So you have to consider your research at different hierarchical levels. I recomend: Yin K. R. 2002. Case study research, design and methods. Third Edition. Sage Publications. Thousand Oaks, CA

Recently we have seen that it is possible to develop systems to combine economic and environmental benefits in tropical conditions. Please refer to our paper given below:

Efficient C sequestration and benefits of medicinal vetiver

cropping in tropical regions. Munnu Singh , Neha Guleria , Eranki V. S. Prakasa Rao &

Prashant Goswami. Agron. Sustain. Dev. DOI 10.1007/s13593-013-0184-3

Abstract: The increase of atmosphericCO2 concentration is a

major cause of global warming. This issue may be effectively

addressed through sequestration of carbon in plants and soils.

Here we studied the potential of vetiver, Vetiveria zizanioides

L., to sequester carbon in field plots in Bangalore, India.

Vetiver is a perennial and economically viable crop growing

in tropical and subtropical regions. Vetiver has medicinal and

aromatic properties. Vetiver shoot and root C amounts were

measured. Results show that vetiver sequesters 15.24 Mg

C ha−1 year−1 in shoot and roots, much higher than that for

lemongrass with 5.38, palmarosa with 6.14, and trees with

2.92. In addition the benefit/cost ratio of vetiver, 2.3, is higher

than that of rice, 1.97.We estimate that vetiver cropping could

sequester 150 Tg per year in India, which is nearly 46 % of C

emissions in India.

Michele, a bit late I guess, but I just saw your question. Here in Mexico, last year we finished a two-year project on the expansion of avocado in Southern Mexico. Among other results we found that at least 50,000 hectares of forest have been lost to the expansion of avocado during 1974-2011. We used historic (orthopothos, SPOT) and recent (World View 2) imagery. Regarding your specific questions we haven't yet assessed the role of tenure systems, but in our case most of avocado producers are not indigenous but private owners, which very likely have influenced the accelerated expansion of avocado in the last decade, and continues to do so.

If you read Spanish here is the link to the executive report (but also follow the 'Subproyecto 1, Subproyecto 2,... links, to get in-depth reports):

http://lae.ciga.unam.mx/aguacate/

Also, I have attached the draft of a paper on the issue we are just finishing.

We will be glad if we can collaborate somehow.

Best Regards

LM

Hello Michele.

A pair of papers, dealing with Tucuman, near the Chaco that could be of help.

http://www.ub.edu/geocrit/sn/sn-197.htm

Ooops.

The other one is here.

Hope it helps.

Juan.

If you haven't, you might look at With Broadax and Firebrand: The Destruction of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest by Warren Dean.

I suggest enlarging your question to include agriculture and silviculture expansion over non forest natural ecosystems, such as savana and grassland, which are actually the most threatened ecosystems in several regions. Regarding the grassland biome in southern Brazil see http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ppees.2007.07.005 and http://dx.doi.org/10.4000/cybergeo.24881.

I suggets you examine my article in

French geographers have a big contribution in this area. Please view the work of profesor Jean-Christian Tulet

Michelle, for the case of Brazil, and, in particular, for Brazilian Amazon, we have a considerable amount of new work done since the late 1980s, but my perception is that it is too soon to understand what is really relevant and what is not. There is a lot of work available, though, as mentioned by RG fellows above, and as I am sure you have already gathered.

In any case, let me point to the experience of PPG7 - the Pilot Program to Conserve Brazilian Rain Forests funded by PPG7 countries - of which I have found no reference in this thread. PPG7 multiplicity of stakeholders, articulations, coflicts, and contradictions is what makes it of interest.

The World Bank, previously responsible for PPG7's Trust Fund, has kept a variety of useful material online; see, for example:

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20757004~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html

You can find some references to PPG7 in my paper Taking Things Public (see my RG page, or access doi: 10.1098/rstb.2007.0020) (sorry for the self-reference). You may find Mahar's 2000 work, and Mello's 2006 book (this one is in Portuguese), that I cite, of interest.

If you are interested also in not too recent works concerning the 'frontier' and the concet of frontier, Otavio Guilherme Velho's Doctoral Dissertation is possibly one of the works that have achieved the status of a classic (MODES OF CAPITALIST DEVELOPMENT, PEASANTRY, AND THE MOVING FRONTIER, University of Manchester, 1973; the 1976 book, in Portuguese, cited in my paper, was based on his Dissertation). Velho's methodological, historical, and sociological insights probably remain unparalleled, as remain his views on how social stratification might evolve in new settlement areas. "His frontier", though, has considerable changed since the early 1970s, as climate change, biodiversity and forest conservation, agrarian, and land-tenure issues have grown in importance; hence, you may find his contribution somehow anachronistic in the present scenario.