Social-ecological traps hinder rural development in southwestern Madagascar

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The semiarid Mahafaly region in southwestern Madagascar is not only a unique biodiversity hotspot, but also one of the poorest regions in the world. Crop failures occur frequently, and despite a great number of rural development programs, no effective progress in terms of improved yields, agricultural income, or well-being among farming households has been observed. In addition to the severe development challenges in the region, environmental degradation and the loss of biodiversity are prevailing issues. This paper takes a social-ecological systems perspective to analyze why the region appears locked in poverty. Specifically, we address the socialecological interaction between environmental factors such as low and variable precipitation, the lack of sustainable intensification in agriculture resulting in recalcitrant hunger, and several environmental degradation trends. The study is based on (i) longitudinal data from 150 farming households interviewed at high temporal resolution during the course of 2014, and (ii) extensive recall surveys from the southwestern Madagascar project region. The analysis reveals a complex interplay of pronounced seasonality in income generation due to recurrent droughts and crop failures making local farmers highly risk averse. This interplay results in a gradual depletion of environmental assets and hinders the accumulation of capital in the hands of smallholder farmers, and improvements in agricultural production even where environmental conditions would allow for it. As a result, households are insufficiently buffered and insured against repetitive income and food security shocks. This can be understood as a set of interacting, partly nested social-ecological traps, which entrench the Mahafalian smallholder population in deep poverty while the productivity of the environment declines. We provide new insights on the interplay between hunger, poverty, and loss of environmental assets in a global biodiversity hotspot. Finally, we propose a set of key issues that need to be considered to unlock this severe lock-in and enable transformation toward a more sustainable development in southwestern Madagascar.

Why fishers end up in social-ecological traps: a case study of Swedish eel fisheries in the Baltic Sea

“…The dependence has grown over time through interactions in opportunities, capacities, and motivations to fish, and these interactions made the trap progressively more difficult to escape. The shrinking potential to change the situation indicates rigidity, which is a common feature of SE traps in general (Scheffer and Westley 2007, Cumming 2018, Haider et al 2018 and of SE traps in the fisheries context (Steneck et al 2011, Laborde et al 2016, Hanh and Boonstra 2018. In what follows, we first elaborate on the possibilities to escape the trap and then suggest a management strategy to avoid this situation in other place-based fisheries.…”

“…It is frequently suggested that place-based fishers and other placebased resource users tend to use resources sustainably (e.g., McGoodwin 1990, Masterson 2016. However, in cases where opportunities to diversify income activities or access to other resources are limited, bonds to a specific place may represent a barrier for sustainable resource use (Hanh and Boonstra 2018). Second, Swedish eel fisheries represent a relatively small part of the total anthropogenic pressure to which the eel is exposed (Dekker et al 2018).…”

“…SE traps are situations in which interactions between humans and their environment reinforce unsustainable outcomes (Cinner 2011, Enfors 2013, Haider et al 2018. Many studies of SE traps describe and explain these interactions in one particular moment in time (Steneck et al 2011, Hänke et al 2017. Insights from these studies can be used to create typologies of traps (see Cumming 2018 for an example) and to develop management strategies of how to escape traps.…”

A Framework for Tracing Social–Ecological Trajectories and Traps in Intensive Agricultural Landscapes

“…Causal loop diagrams are tools used to represent interactions among system entities and how entities and interactions are affected by external factors [9,26]. In regard to rigidity traps, causal loop diagrams may be particularly useful for identifying social-ecological feedbacks that encourage and discourage rigidity traps, as well as the influences of different forms of context (e.g., spatial, historical, and socioeconomic) on rigidity traps and feedbacks.…”

“…Causal loop diagram A tool for visualizing relationships among system variables and external factors [9].…”