Smallholder Response to Hurricane Dean: Creating New Human Ecologies through Charcoal Production

Abstract

Natural hazards challenge rural communities’ livelihoods, but they may also serve as windows of opportunity for the rural poor in the form of new livelihood strategies. In 2007, Hurricane Dean devastated subsistence and commercial agriculture in the Calakmul municipality of Campeche, Mexico. Charcoal production’s importance seems to have increased as a result of Mexican forestry policy decisions related to Dean. Household interviews were carried out to determine the livelihood effects of the storm, and results indicate that while many respondents did not acknowledge the hurricane as a driver, a notable production increase was observed subsequent to the event. This research portrays a shift from hybrid swidden and intensive agriculture to that of an alternative forest strategy, situating it as an example of the adaptive capacity to natural hazards experienced by rural people in the developing world.