Land cover change and ownership turnover in the agricultural frontier: the Maya Biosphere Reserve, Guatemala

This study investigates land cover change and land ownership turnover in an area that is both the agricultural frontier and a priority conservation zone, the Sierra del Lacandón National Park (SLNP), Petén, Guatemala. The goal is to understand how the agricultural frontier changes over time with regard to population, household characteristics, and land use. This study analyzes panel-data consisting of household interviews conducted with farmers living within the SLNP boundaries or its buffer zone in 1998 and 2009. Despite dramatic population growth, the overall trend of the area is towards the deintensification of farming practices. On average, households crop larger areas of higher value crops and less maize, but these changes have not kept pace with pasture expansion. As in Latin America overall, pasture expansion is a main driver of deforestation. The area simultaneously experiences farm parcel consolidation and splintering. Half of the landowning households in 1998 sold their land by 2009; some such land was consolidated by large landholders, while other parcels became split among multiple owners. Understanding land cover changes over time and how land ownership turnover occurs is key for crafting policies aimed at slowing further forest clearing and the impoverishment of subsistence populations.