Grasslands to Tree Plantations: Forest Transition in the Andes of Ecuador

Abstract

Abstract Over the past four decades the establishment of pine plantations in high altitude páramo grasslands has been a growing land use change in Ecuador. As a result, plantation forestry has transformed some highland landscapes from grasslands to ones dominated by exotic trees. This transformation is analyzed in the context of forest transition theory, which provides a framework for explaining scenarios of increasing forest cover. Forest transition theory predicts that reforestation and afforestation, encompassing the establishment of secondary forests and plantations, respectively, occur when economic development leads to the abandonment of agricultural land or when forest scarcity prompts increases in plantation establishment. This research demonstrates that projected forest scarcity has played an important role in páramo to pine transitions. However, it also indicates that, in Ecuador, afforestation has been seen as a potential means to economic development rather than a consequence of it. Furthermore, this case brings into question some of the assumptions of forest transition theory with respect to the environmental benefits of transition. The evidence presented indicates that, in the case of páramo to pine transitions, the biophysical response includes a loss of soil carbon, nitrogen, and water retention capacity, implying important trade-offs between the ecosystem services provided by páramos and those provided by pine plantations. These results suggest that both the existing land cover prior to forest transition and the type of forest cover established during transition merit more attention in forest transition theory. Key Words: ecosystem servicesforest transitionland use changepáramo grasslandpine plantation Notes Notes: MAG=Ministry of Agriculture; FONAFOR=Fondo Nacional para la Forestación; IDB=Inter-American Development Bank; PLANFOR=Plan Maestro de Forestación; PROFAFOR=Programa FACE (Forests Absorbing Carbon Dioxide) de Forestación; n/a=information on the goals of this project were not specified in any of the documents reviewed. 1. Such valuation is by no means universally applauded and has been characterized by some as an attempt to have nature "earn its own right to survive in a world market economy" (CitationMcAfee 1999, 134; for criticisms of the ecosystem services approach from an ecology perspective, see CitationMcCauley 2006). In the context of this article, the framing of ecosystem processes and functions in these terms is intended as a means to compare the "services" that society obtains from different landscapes, whether those services have actually been ascribed a monetary value or not. 2. The ACOSA plantation was chosen, in part, due to the fact that it included a variety of age classes. However, there were no stands younger than 5 years old or between 10–15 years old, so these age classes could not be included. 3. An estimated 80 percent of activities in the forestry sector are informal, so they are not recorded in official statistics and the role of forestry in the economy is probably substantially underestimated (CitationPonce 2000). 4. These rates are based on FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) model estimates of the change in forest cover during these time periods. 5. As an example of this type of view, in their discussion of land reform in the Ecuadorian highlands, CitationHaney and Haney (1989, 74) describe one-third of the land in the province of Chimborazo as "páramo and wasteland" and one-third as pasture, most of which was "unimproved."