Peasant charcoal production in the Peruvian Amazon: rainforest use and economic reliance

Recent studies point to the promise of rain forest extraction for more sust ainable rural development in Amazonia but often overlook important differen ces,within traditional communities in terms of relative economic reliance u pon specific forest resources. This paper reports on a study of charcoal pr oduction among forest peasants in an Amazonian river community, near Iquito s, Peru. In-depth household interviews (n=36) provided information on house hold economic activity, demographic composition, and access to land, labor and capital as well as on the nature, role and economic importance of charc oal in the household economy. Our results indicate that peasant charcoal pr oduction - often cast as a rapacious, wasteful use of the forest - can prov ide significant cash income for forest peoples and high returns per hectare , particularly when integrated into swidden-fallow agroforestry systems, wi thout causing notable forest destruction. Low returns to labor, however, li mit prospects for peasants to prosper by charcoal production. Variations in household output of charcoal are explained by differential access to intra - and extra-household labor. Among those households most reliant upon charc oal, two subgroups are found - 'charcoal-dependent' households and 'charcoa l-specialized' households - both of which rely on charcoal production, but for different reasons and with distinct outcomes. These two sub-groups are divided by differences in nonmarket mediated access to local land and labor . Clearly, to be successful, initiatives aimed at promoting rain forest con servation and management among 'resource-reliant' households must be inform ed by careful attention to the underlying conditions that give rise to diff erential rain forest reliance. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights re served.