Interrelationships between land abandonment and land degradation: A case from the Ecuadorian Andes

Although accelerated rainfall runoff and soil erosion in inhabited mountain regions are often linked to cultivation practices on steep hillsides, fields that have been abandoned can pose an even greater risk of rapid runoff and soil erosion. This paper presents new evidence of land degradation resulting from land abandonment in the Ecuadorian Andes and examines the Andean case in light of recent research on land abandonment from the Pyrenees and Himalaya. The Ecuadorian data, based on 109 field rainfall simulation experiments, indicate that runoff and erosion rates on abandoned/fallow fields are significantly higher than those of cultivated lands. Analyses of total percent carbon show abandoned/fallow field soil samples to contain significantly less organic matter than those under other land uses. Continued degradation and high runoff coefficients in abandoned/fallow fields in both the Andes and the Pyrenees are linked to the ongoing, informal use of these lands for grazing. Active management strategies are required to reverse the resulting scenario of increasing land degradation.