Marginalizing a Vulnerable Cultural and Environmental Landscape

Abstract

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Increasing social-ecological resilience within small-scale agriculture in conflict-affected Guatemala

“…The Pan-American Highway, built in 1956-1957, was a key infrastructure project of the postcoup government (McAllister 2009). More recently, there has been an increase in smallholder farmer production of higher value vegetable crops for the export market and in some cases illicit poppy cultivation (Steinberg and Taylor 2007). The contribution of this export agriculture to wider poverty reduction has, however, been questioned (Krznaric 2006), not least because it often leads to a reduction in cultivation of maize (Steinberg and Taylor 2009), a loss of maize varieties, dependence on agrochemicals (Isakson 2014), and, in some cases, more food insecurity (Webb et al 2016).…”

Maize Diversity, Market Access, and Poverty Reduction in the Western Highlands of Guatemala

“…These livelihood changes are already affecting maize diversity. Some farmers, especially in the department of San Marcos, have turned to the illegal production of poppy (Steinberg and Taylor 2007). Since the 1980s, development organizations have promoted the cultivation and marketing of highvalue vegetables, including broccoli, cauliflower, and snow peas, which have a market in the United States (Immink and Alarc on 1993;Julian et al 2000;Krznaric 2006).…”

Geographers And Drugs: A Survey Of The Literature

“…ERADICATION Eradication and crop-substitution efforts have received particular attention from geographers. Steinberg and Taylor (2007) and Chouvy and Laniel (2007) discussed the negative impacts of defoliant use on water and soil quality, human and livestock health, and legal subsistence crops. Messina and Delamater (2006) analyzed satellite imagery demonstrating how geo-technologies helped examine unintended consequences of defoliant spraying of coca fields.…”

“…LeBillon () posed a similar question about the role of natural resources, including drugs, in armed conflict, arguing that competition over lucrative products can stimulate competition over production areas, populations, and trading networks, changing both the motives and aims of belligerents. For example, according to Steinberg (, 266), Colombian insurgents no longer employ violence to initiate political change; rather, they “engage the state on the battlefield in an effort to protect the enormous sums of money generated by their participation in the drug trade.” In the highlands of Guatemala, Steinberg and Taylor () wrote that rural violence and criminal activity surged to new heights because of drug‐trafficking conflict and crime. Regardless of place, Chouvy (, 122) argued, as did LeBillon, that vertical local‐global links meant “… the money generated from drug production and trafficking… has always been divided iniquitously, in Afghanistan and elsewhere, among farmers (who receive the smallest share), warlords, who condone or encourage production in their territory, and local and regional traffickers (who get the biggest share).”…”