Illusions, hunger and vices: smallholders, environmentalism and the green agrarian question in ...

225 Pages·2015·7.5 MB·English

Illusions, hunger and vices:
smallholders, environmentalism and the green
agrarian question in Chiapas’ biofuel rush
Antonio Castellanos-Navarrete
Thesis committee
Promotors
Prof. Dr C. Leeuwis
Professor of Knowledge, Technology and Innovation
Wageningen University
Co-promotor
Dr C.E.P. Jansen
Associate professor, Knowledge, Technology and Innovation Group
Wageningen University
Other members
Prof. Dr B.E. Büscher, Wageningen University
Prof. Dr P. Woodhouse, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
Prof. Dr J.M. Baud, University of Amsterdam
Dr A. Nygren, University of Helsinki, Finland
This research was conducted under the auspices of the Wageningen School of Social
Science.
Illusions, hunger and vices:
smallholders, environmentalism and the green
agrarian question in Chiapas’ biofuel rush
Antonio Castellanos-Navarrete
Thesis
submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of doctor
at Wageningen University
by the authority of the Rector Magnificus
Prof. Dr A.P.J. Mol,
in the presence of the
Thesis Committee appointed by the Academic Board
to be defended in public
on Wednesday 16 December 2015
at 11 a.m. in the Aula.
Antonio Castellanos-Navarrete
Illusions, hunger and vices: smallholders, environmentalism and the green
agrarian question in Chiapas’ biofuel rush,
224 pages.
PhD thesis, Wageningen University, Wageningen, NL (2015)
With references, with summaries in English
ISBN 978-94-6257-609-4
A mi padre

‘Because we are full of illusions, hunger and vices’
Rural leader on the question of why people plant oil palm
Interview, 13 January 2013, Colonia Hidalgo (Villa Comaltitlán)
viii
Abbreviations
CBMM Mesoamerican Biological Corridor - Mexico
CONABIO National Commission for Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity
CONANP National Commission for Natural Protected Areas
IRBIO Institute for Productive Reconversion and Bioenergetics
MOCRI Regional Independent Peasant Movement
NGOs Nongovernmental organisations
PRD Party of the Democratic Revolution
PRI Institutional Revolutionary Party
PROFEPA Federal Attorney’s Office for Environmental Protection
RSPO Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil
SAGARPA Secretary of Agriculture, Cattle, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food
UCABED Peasant Union Belisario Domínguez
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Table and illustrations
Tables
1. Characterisation of the study regions
2. Class condition of surveyed oil palm growers in Soconusco and the southern Lacandon
rainforest
3. Rural producers by type before their shift to oil palm
4. Rural producers by type after their shift to oil palm
5. Net economic returns for mature oil palm in social sector farms in 2012
6. Government agricultural projects in the southern Lacandon region
7. Aboveground carbon stored in biomass used as input for the PalmGHG calculator
8. Average agrochemical inputs per producer type and region
9. Greenhouse gas sources and emissions estimated with the PalmGHG model
Figures
1. Maps of the study regions
2. Maps of the study regions in Chiapas
3. Oil palm hectares in Soconusco and southern Lacandon rainforest, 2007 to 2013
4. Land transactions in each study region
5. Crops demanding highest agrochemical usage according to oil palm producers
6. The southern Lacandon rainforest
7. Cattle ownership before and after oil palm cultivation
8. Land use changes to oil palm in Soconusco, in the southern Lacandon rainforest and in
the Western NTS
9. Area under oil palm in Soconusco in 2013
10. Area under oil palm in 2013 in the southern Lacandon rainforest and in the Western NTS