Change in land use in agricultural-forest landscapes: spatial analysis in five Kichwa communities of the Ecuadorian Amazon Region

This research work was conducted in the south of the province of Napo, canton Tena. On the banks of the Napo River, specifically in the parishes: Puerto Misahualli, Chonta Punta and Ahuano. This is an area of global significance for being part of the transitional areas of the Sumaco Biosphere Reserves and Yasuni. Five communities were selected by means of intentional sampling in order to comply with the following parameters: i) Location of the community with regard to the path traveled (near or far); ii) Ethnic group (Kichwa), size of the community (large: greater than 40 homes /small: less than 40 households) and availability to provide information. The methodology also uses five categories for land use: forest, which refers to native and secondary forest and agroforestry system (SAF), which includes the areas of enhancements, and the category of grasses and short-cycle crops. The results show average annual deforestation rates between 1.17% and 3.67% at the community level, relatively high figures considering the annual deforestation rate reported by the national forestry authority in Ecuador. The results also show that farms larger than two hectares have forest areas between 20% and 84% depending on the size. The paper concludes with some recommendations for better forest management at the community level.

• Egile nagusia: Torres Navarrete, Segundo Bolier (author)
• Beste egile batzuk: Andrade, Lucy (author), Torres Navarrete, Alexandra (author), Vasco, Cristian (author), Robles, Marco (author)
• Formatua: article
• Hizkuntza: spa
• Argitaratua: 2018
• Gaiak: Tasas de deforestación; comunidades indígenas; rates of deforestation; indigenous communities
• Sarrera elektronikoa: https://revistas.uea.edu.ec/index.php/racyt/article/view/94