THE FARM IN THE FOREST: Recoding Agrosilvoecological Practices in Coffee Production in El Salvador

Abstract

Coffee plays an essential part in shaping the economy, landscape, and culture of El Salvador. Over the past 100 years, social and economic shifts across the country have profoundly altered the maintenance and production of coffee. For this legacy to be updated to the 21st century, there is a need to design landscapes that are constantly adapting to environmental and socioeconomic volatility. Buena Vista, a 155-hectare coffee farm situated between the edge of the Apaneca-Ilamatepec Biosphere Reserve and a chain of towns, serves as a testing ground for a new design of an agroecological coffee landscape. The two primary interventions include the development of a matrix of planting strategies with different maintenance levels and the creation of a visitor route through the farm that illustrates the ecological, the productive and the social importance of coffee. By connecting and diversifying the vegetation and the economic activities at the site, the overall landscape becomes more robust and resilient to economic, environmental, and cultural changes now and into the future.