Background to Sustainable Hillside Management Program
Small scale subsistence farming is prevalent on the slopes of Trinidad’s Northern Range, driven mainly by accelerated conversion of agricultural lands to housing (Northern Range Assessment, 2005). These small scale farming activities contribute to livelihoods and local food production, and are thus considered important in alleviating poverty and playing a role in Government's efforts to make Trinidad and Tobago a food secure nation. While tree crops would be recommended on such slopes, subsistence farmers favour short term crops. Farming short term crops on steep slopes with little to no investment in soil conservation measures such as mulching and terracing, broadly results in excessive water runoff, and aggravation of downstream flooding and siltation of water courses. Specifically, the intense pressure on the Northern Range due to the escalation in the numbers and activities of subsistence farmers there, is having perceptible impacts on key ecosystem services provided by the Range - such as water quality regulation, flood regulation,erosion control and soil formation. The consequences of these impacts include an increase in the frequency, severity and locations of flooding events, disruption in potable water production and distribution, and an overall decrease in quality of freshwater. The need to address the un-sustainability of many of the current hillside practices in the NR has long been recognized. And because the option of relocating farmers a the land-scarce, small island is not politically or socially attractive, focus must be placed on working with hillside farming communities to improve their practices in a manner that respects the links and tradeoffs between livelihoods and environmental concerns in the short-to-long term. In this context, applying a more landscape-based approach (which recognizes that even though farming is an individual activity, collective resilience and sustainability depend on the management of key resources for agriculture across the agro-ecosystem) is important. |
|
Copyright The Cropper Foundation, 2013