21The intensity of forest degradation is linked to landowners´ decisions on

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In Mexico, REDD+ is being presented as a win-win policy enabling forest communities to benefit financially and diversify their income sources while preserving and increasing their forest carbon stocks through more sustainable management. Under the national programme, it is expected that forest communities will have opportunities to tailor their own approaches. However, to date there is little understanding about what opportunities and constraints exist in reality for forest communities to contribute to REDD+, and even less about how their members perceive these opportunities. We assess potential and constraints at community level and investigate perceptions about opportunities in REDD+ and strategies that communities are currently envisaging for participation, in seven communities in the Ayuquila River Basin and around the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve in Jalisco, and in the area surrounding the Monarch Butterfly Reserve in Michoacan. We find that there is more opportunity for reduced degradation and forest enhancement than for reduced deforestation, in all the communities; that it may be difficult to establish additionality for REDD+ activities in some communities; that the amount of forest resource per community may greatly affect the potential to participate; that the presence of people with no land rights may complicate the distribution of benefits; that communities expect REDD+ in general to follow the Payment for Environmental Services model, and that lack of information about what activities may count as REDD+ activities and what level of financial rewards may be expected mean that communities cannot at present adequately appraise whether REDD+ will be worth their while or not.

Highlights• Under REDD+, shifting cultivation should be considered degradation rather than deforestation.• Carbon stocks in old fallows (>20 years) are higher than those in old growth forests which have never been used for shifting cultivation.• Extending length of fallows increases rates of carbon emissions.• Shortened fallow cycles result in higher carbon stocks and lower emissions at the landscape level.• Cycle lengths could be optimized for carbon sequestration in a land sharing approach. AbstractThe article considers the relation of shifting cultivation to deforestation and degradation, and hence its impacts in terms of carbon emissions and sequestration potential. There is a need to understand these relationships better in the context of international policy on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). The article reviews the way in which shifting cultivation has been incorporated in global and national estimations of carbon emissions, and assembles the available information on shifting cultivation in Tropical Dry Forests (TDF) in Mexico, where it is widely practiced. It then takes the case of two villages, Tonaya and El Temazcal, which lie within the basin of the River Ayuquila in Jalisco, Mexico. Field data for the typical carbon stocks and fluxes associated with shifting cultivation are compared with stocks and fluxes associated with more intensive agricultural production in the same dry tropical forest area to highlight the carbon sequestration dynamics associated with the shortening and potential lengthening of the fallow cycles. The biomass density in the shifting cultivation system observed can reach levels similar to that of old growth forests, with old fallows (>20 years) having higher carbon stocks than old growth forests. Per Mg of maize produced, the biomass-related emissions from shifting cultivation in the traditional 12 year cycle are about three times those from permanent cultivation. We did not, however, take into account the additional emissions from inputs that result from the use of fertilizers and pesticides in the case of permanent agriculture. Shortening of the fallow cycle, which is occurring in the study area as a result of government subsidies, results in higher remaining stocks of carbon and lower emissions at the landscape level.

Many forests under community use in tropical countries become degraded and lose carbon stocks as a result of agricultural activities such as shifting cultivation and cattle grazing, although these processes rarely result in deforestation. A better understanding of processes specifically causing forest degradation may be of interest to policy makers concerned with the design of programs to conserve forests, for example under international policy on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). On the basis of data from a farmer survey carried out in the western Pacific area of Mexico, this study uses a cross-sectional regression model to identify the variables that explain variations between groups of farmers in the amounts of land temporarily cleared for shifting cultivation, which results in decreasing the density of forest biomass. We found that, contrary to common perception about shifting cultivation, within each community, many farmers, both richer and poorer, carry out shifting cultivation. Moreover, it is the wealthier farmers that are making more temporary clearances for such activities when compared with those with less resources. We conclude that, for effectiveness in the design of national programs for REDD+, intra-community differences in farmer status should be taken into account. Moreover, REDD+ interventions should consider the impacts of this program on farmers without rights to land.