Coffee, Migration and Climatic Changes: Challenging Adaptation Dichotomic Narratives in a Transborder Region

Abstract

The narratives of migration as adaptation and in situ adaptation are well established in mainstream adaptation policy and are usually presented as independent and opposing trends of action. A common and fundamental element of such narratives is the depoliticized conception of both migration and adaptation. Using a trans-scalar approach, we address the migration–coffee–climate change nexus: first at a regional scale, at the conflictive border of Guatemala–Mexico, to show the contradiction between the current Central American migratory crisis and the narrative of migration as adaptation; second, at a local scale and from an ethnographic perspective, we focus on the process of in situ adaptation in shade-grown coffee plots of smallholder coffee farmers in the Tacaná Volcano cross-border region, between Chiapas and Guatemala. We argue that the dichotomy “in situ adaptation” versus “migration as adaptation” is not useful to capture the intertwined and political nature of both narratives, as illustrated in the case of the renovation of smallholders’ coffee plots in a context of climatic changes. We provide elements to contribute towards the repolitization of adaptation from an integral perspective.

Agricultural Shocks, Coping Policies and Deforestation: Evidence from the Coffee Leaf Rust Epidemic in Mexico

“…We exploit the late implementation of the program and the comparison between coffee and non-coffee municipalities to try to disentangle the impact of CLR from that of PROCAFE. Consistent with qualitative or field evidence (Ruiz-de Oña et al, 2019;Valencia et al, 2018), our findings suggest a drift from agroforestry practices and shade coffee production towards monoculture plantations through the combined effect of a massive outbreak of a persistent fungal disease and a short-term government response. While we are not able to measure the counterfactual deforestation that would have resulted from the disease alone, our results suggest that the PROCAFE program contributed to magnify the impact of CLR on deforestation and forest degradation by promoting CLR-resistant hybrid coffee varieties.…”

Migration as an Adaptation Strategy: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…However, 'in situ adaptation' policies such as diversification of crops, farming methods, innovation of drought-tolerant crop variety, land management system development, and short-term coping practices are also inevitable for capacity building to combat climate change-induced vulnerabilities. The household-level adaptation strategies differ from the individual-level adaptation strategies based on purpose, timing, and time scale (Ruiz-de-Oña et al, 2019;Antwi-Agyei & Nyantakyi-Frimpong, 2021;Carman & Zint, 2020). In literature, climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction (DRR), migration, and sustainable development are also analyzed (Sudmeier-Rieux et al, 2017).…”

A retrospective analysis of plant and human epidemics for COVID-19 comprehension

“…Migración local y trasfronteriza, problemas de seguridad alimentaria e incremento de enfermedades en comunidades cafetaleras como consecuencia de pérdida productiva de café, estimadas entre 10 -55%, fueron los efectos del brote epidémico de Roya en Centroamérica. (Mora-Aguilera et al, 2021a;Lynch, 2019;Ruiz-de-Oña et al, 2019;Cerda et al, 2017). Colombia y Brasil, países con una mejor infraestructura y tecnología productiva, incluyendo programas para generar variedades resistentes contra H. vastatrix, nematodos, sequias, heladas, etc.…”