Response of Coffee Farms to Hurricane Maria: Resistance and Resilience from an Extreme Climatic Event

Abstract

Resistance and resilience have become important concepts in the evaluation of disturbance events, providing a framework that is useful in light of the expected increase in frequency and occurrences of hurricanes as a consequence of climate change. Hurricane Maria landed on Puerto Rico as a category 4 storm in September of 2017. Among the affected elements were agricultural systems, including coffee agroecosystems. Historically, coffee has been a major backbone of the island’s agricultural sector. Grown with a range of management styles, the coffee agroecosystem provides an excellent model system to study the resistance/resilience of agroecosystems faced with hurricane disturbance. Sampling 28 farms and comparing pre-hurricane data (2013) with post hurricane data we find that management style had only a small effect on either resistance or resilience, likely due to the especially strong nature of the storm. Rather, the socio-political context of individual farms seems to be a more useful predictor of resilience.

Puerto Rican Farmers' Obstacles Toward Recovery and Adaptation Strategies After Hurricane Maria: A Mixed-Methods Approach to Understanding Adaptive Capacity

“…The study found that coffee farmers' recovery after Maria was potentiated by assistance from their social and community networks of support. And that management style may come secondary in a catastrophic context (Perfecto et al, 2019). Nevertheless, our qualitative analysis suggests that farmers may have been constrained in accessing such networks, which likely affected their overall capacity for recovery.…”

“…Furthermore, our analysis suggests that farmers also faced challenges when accessing social networks of support, likely further challenged by the lack of material resources and technology. Perfecto et al (2019) assessed how coffee farms' management, whether incorporating agroforestry or performing an intensive style, related to the degree of damages experienced and farm recovery after Maria. The study found that coffee farmers' recovery after Maria was potentiated by assistance from their social and community networks of support.…”

Awareness of climate change's impacts and motivation to adapt are not enough to drive action: A look of Puerto Rican farmers after Hurricane Maria

“…Farmers in Latin America [ 67 , 68 ], and the Caribbean [ 70 , 71 ] have been noted to lack institutional structures of support. In Puerto Rico, Perfecto and colleagues (2019) found that social capital and support networks were pivotal for Puerto Rican coffee farmers’ recovery after Hurricane María, and that their agroecological practices, such as agroforestry, and other management styles were not sufficient for farms to be resilient and resistant within the catastrophic context of Hurricane Maria [ 54 ].…”

“…Such agricultural gains were important since Puerto Rico, like the broader Caribbean, was experiencing a steady decline in farms since the 1990's due to trade liberalization, globalization, and other external and local forces [18,49,50,51,52]. Nevertheless, such gains were erased when both Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria, two of the strongest in the Atlantic's history, hit Puerto Rico in September 2017 [46,[53][54][55].…”

Puerto Rican Farmers' Psychological Awareness of Climate Change, and Adaptation Perceptions after Hurricane Maria

“…have been noted to lack institutional structures of support. In Puerto Rico,Perfecto and colleagues (2019) found that social capital and support networks were pivotal for Puerto Rican coffee farmers' recovery after Hurricane María, and that their agroecological practices, such as agroforestry, and other management styles were not sufficient for farms to be resilient and resistant within the catastrophic context of Hurricane Maria[70]. Hurricane María affected all of Puerto Rico, causing 2,975 deaths[71], and decimated the archipelago's agriculture.…”