Land Cover in a Managed Forest Ecosystem: Mexican Shade Coffee |
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| Authors: | Allen Blackman Heidi J Albers Beatriz Ávalos-Sartorio Lisa Crooks Murphy |
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| Institution: | Allen Blackman is senior fellow at Resources for the Future, Washington, DC;Heidi J. Albers is associate professor in the Department of Forest Resources, Oregon State University;Beatriz Ávalos-Sartorio is Senior Agricultural Research Officer at the CGIAR Science Council Secretariat in Rome, Italy and former Gilbert White Visiting Fellow at Resources for the Future;and Lisa Crooks Murphy is former research associate at Resources for the Future. |
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| Abstract: | Managed forest ecosystems like shade coffee supply valuable ecological services. Yet little is known about the drivers and characteristics of clearing in such systems. We present a spatial econometric analysis of land cover in a shade coffee region in southern Mexico. We find that plots close to large cities are less likely to be cleared all other things being equal—the opposite of the pattern usually observed in natural forests. In addition, we find that membership in coffee-marketing cooperatives, farm size, and certain soil types are associated with tree cover, while proximity to small town centers is associated with clearing. |
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| Keywords: | agroforestry coffee deforestation land cover Mexico spatial econometrics |
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