The title of this blog is a bit dry and sciency, I know. One could call it a “keyword bonanza”. Alas, it is currently my life reading and writing such gripping titles and equally enticing manuscripts. Unfortunately for you, I’ve been asked to write a science blog and by golly that is what you are going to get. But fear not, I hope this change of medium means I can break free from the shackles of dry science and fill in the monochrome with some colours that can bring it to life. Let us see how I do.
What are we talking about here?
Before we get into it, I want to just clarify some key things in the title. Firstly, when I am talking about ecosystems, I am not excluding people. Local communities have a vital role to play in their ecosystem. Research has shown that the empowerment of local communities leads to more positive conservation and social outcomes [1]. A win-win, which is the best type of win. Our aim as conservationists working in these areas must be to increase the resilience to, or the ability to deal with, climate change of both local communities and their wider ecosystem. Only by doing this will we be able to achieve our vision of a future where parrots and their ecosystems thrive and coexist with local communities.
However, the battle is not an easy one. There are forces pushing and pulling from all sides and currently, they are ripping the protective shield of biodiversity from the fabric of the ecosystem. This may seem dramatic (I promised you colour), but in regions such as Sarapiqui, where huge companies are expanding their pineapple monocultures [2], there is a perfect storm for biodiversity loss brewing.
The climate change feedback loop
Climate change is already affecting small-scale farmers here and across Central America. Increases in the frequency of extreme weather events such as floods or droughts, mean crops that people rely on are less and less reliable [3]. This insecurity, which was exacerbated by the effects of Covid-19 on global tourism, leaves people searching for alternative ways to support themselves and their families. One way is to lease or sell their land to corporate farms [4], which are social and biodiversity disasters.
The expansion of intensive mono-crop farms restricts the agricultural economy of a region, limiting the farm-based livelihoods of more traditional small-scale farmers [2]. Not only this but for those farmers that neighbour the pineapple plantations one unexpected, but extremely damaging consequence, is the explosion in the number of blood-sucking flies [4]. When I was doing my fieldwork in Costa Rica in an area near a pineapple plantation, I spoke with the owner of a small finca. He had lost his whole herd of cows to anemia and secondary illnesses caused, in his opinion, by these flies. I can assure you the small biting flies he was referring to filled the air around us as we walked through his fields.
Historically, primary forest that was rich, dense and full of life has been cut down to make space for cattle pasture and subsistence crops. These pastures were not as resource-rich as the old forest, but the few remaining trees that were left provided nest sites for Great Green macaws and meant this land was not totally bereft of life. But when this land is ripped up, drained, and standardised to provide luxury fruits for the western world, it becomes a biodiversity moonscape.
Agrochemicals, of which Costa Rica holds the unenviable title of the world’s top user with an astonishing 55kg per hectare compared to 2.5kg in the USA [5], seep into the water course poisoning the drinking water for people and animals alike [4]. By further shredding the earth’s protective layer and exposing the soil to the elements, intensification drives the loss of carbon stored in the soil and erosion of the thin layer of topsoil. This locks the system into a reliance on fertilizers, which are another knife into an already badly beaten ecosystem.
Weren’t we talking about climate change?
The title of this blog mentions climate change and you might be a little confused as I seem to have stomped angrily down another path for the last few paragraphs. Let us bring it back to the point then. Under all predicted climate change models, the north of Costa Rica is going to get wetter and warmer in the future [6, 7]. So, I am sure you can imagine with all the information I have just artfully laid out in front of you, that if the current situation continues but with more rain, higher temperatures and less reliable seasons, both local communities and the flora and fauna that make up their ecosystems are hugely threatened.
If local communities do not have climate-resilient livelihoods, then agricultural intensification will continue to expand, causing significant and increasing damage to biodiversity in the region. Fortunately for you and me, those who value nature in all its diverse and amazing glory, there are solutions. Empowering local communities and providing them with the tools to become more resilient is one of the best ways. Tools such as silvopasture, increasing the number of trees in pastures, have shown promise in other regions [8, 9]. Where this is not possible, for example when large private farms are put up for sale, another solution is land protection: the purchase of land to protect it for posterity.
Empowering local communities and protecting land. We have the solutions, we just need to do them at a scale that will make a difference.
Tom Lewis, PhD
Macaw Recovery Network Board Member
[2] Shaver et al 2015 Coupled social and ecological outcomes of agricultural intensification in Costa Rica and the future of biodiversity conservation in tropical agricultural regions, Global Environmental Change, 74-86, 32
[3] Harvey et al 2018 Climate change impacts and adaptation among smallholder farmers in Central America, Agriculture & Food Security, 7, 1, 57
[4] Rodríguez Echavarría et al. 2020 Agricultural Extractivism, Border and Migrant Workforce: The Expansion of Pineapple Monoculture in Costa Rica, Frontera norte, 32
[5] FAO, https://ourworldindata.org/pesticides
[6] Mendez et al 2020 Performance Evaluation of Bias Correction Methods for Climate Change Monthly Precipitation Projections over Costa Rica, Water, 12, 2, 482
[7] Imbach et al 2018 Future climate change scenarios in Central America at high spatial resolution, PLOS One, 13, 4
[8] Zeppetello et al 2022, Consistent cooling benefits of silvopasture in the tropics, Nature Communications, 13, 1, 708
[9] Varsha et al 2019, High density silvopasture systems for quality forage production and carbon sequestration in humid tropics of Southern India, Agroforestry Systems, 93, 1, 185-198