Typology of the main socio-economic pressures, factors and agents of change in Cachoeira catchment and Central Costa Rica

Abstract

The present report aims at presenting the typology of main pressures for the two study areas of ECOMAN: Cachoeira Catchment (Bahia), in Brazil; and Central Volcanic Mountain Range Conservation Area, in Costa Rica. In both study areas tropical deforestation drives land cover and land use changes, migratory processes, biodiversity changes, erosion processes. Nevertheless, the two case-studies are somewhat different. In the Cachoeira Catchment, the decrease of cocoa production in the last decades, without sustainable socio-economic alternatives, produced significant human pressures both on rural areas (land use changes and forest fragmentation) and urban areas (increase of built-up areas with few measures of territorial planning). On the other hand, the Conservation Area of Central Volcanic Range (Costa Rica) reflects the implementation of a solid forest conservation policy, which faced the strong deforestation rates felt in this country since the middle of the 20th century. This analysis is structured in three parts. The first two chapters concern some socio economic variables (Population, Households and Agrarian Structures) for both case studies. The third chapter presents a typology of administrative units according with the main socio-economic pressures identified in the previous chapters.