Smallholder Eucalyptus plantation forestry in Eastern Paraguay: A case study of silvicultural, economic, and environmental context

Background/Question/Methods

Over the last decade, smallholder eucalyptus (Eucalyptus sp.) plantation forestry has become increasingly common among rural farmers in Eastern Paraguay.  Though allelopathic and highly consumptive of groundwater, fast-growing eucalypts are attractive to smallholders because they meet domestic wood needs and generate income more quickly and uniformly than all other exotic and native forestry species.  It has been widely asserted that such plantations substitute for and thus remove pressure on natural forests, yet there has been no systematic study of the 1) silvicultural practices, 2) economics, or 3) environmental context of smallholder eucalyptus plantations in Eastern Paraguay. In response, I conducted a case study drawing on semi-structured interviews of 45 farmers and visits to their eucalyptus plantations. I analyzed field data using both quantitative (descriptive and inferential statistics) and qualitative (descriptive and evaluation coding) methods. The resulting case study characterizes: the silvicultural and economic management of these plantations, their role in structuring land use, and their possible promotion or mitigation of deforestation in the imperiled Alto Paranà Atlantic forests ecoregion. I also examined the effects of technical extension offered by the Paraguayan government, private businesses, and NGOs in promoting eucalyptus forestry and farmers’ perceptions of deficits in extension resources.

Results/Conclusions  

I encountered considerable diversity in the silvicultural management of the plantations surveyed: most smallholders weeded (96%) and pruned (71%), but few fertilized (38%) or thinned (11%) their stands. 73% of surveyed plantation owners planted eucalyptus in agroforestry systems, most often with corn, cassava, and the pasture grass Brachiaria brizantha.

Two-thirds of surveyed households planned on selling wood from eucalyptus plantations, though few had successfully commercialized their eucalyptus yet. Domestic use of eucalyptus wood was fairly common, with many families planning on using eucalyptus as domestic firewood.

Plantation owners felt ambivalent about eucalyptus, valuing its wood, but also noting its tendency to dry out the soil and compete with nearby crops and trees. Eucalyptus plantations frequently replaced subsistence crops (36%), cash crops (18%) and pasture (23%), but never natural forest, as a form of land use. Though eucalyptus growers almost universally accepted eucalyptus plantations as a form of reforestation, they were ambivalent about its capacity to "replace" natural forest.