Valoración biofísica y financiera de la fijación de carbono por uso del suelo en fincas cacaoteras indígenas de Talamanca, Costa Rica

We estimated carbon storage in five land uses (cocoa plantations with trees, banana plantations with trees, plantain plantations, fallows and riparian forests), the gross margin and the opportunity cost of changing the current land use towards others with higher carbon storage rates in indigenous farms of Talamanca, Costa Rica. A total of 199 permanent sampling plots were established in these land use systems and landscapes (hillsides and valleys) to estimate carbon stock. Land use systems in the hillsides stored 22% more carbon and 47% of carbon in biomass than those in valleys. The riparian forest was the system with the highest carbon storage, followed by cocoa plantations with trees, fallows, banana plantations with trees and plantain plantations. Soil constituted the highest carbon pool (27-74%), followed by aboveground biomass (15-57%). Plantain plantations was the more profitable land use system in Talamanca, with a gross margin of U$798 ha-1 year-1; however, they also had the highest production costs. Cacao plantations with trees and rice production had negative benefits (59 and 14 U$ ha-1 year-1, respectively), but they turned family labour into capital at places without alternative jobs. The feasibility of change from plantain plantation to other land use systems to increase carbon fixation is low, due to the high opportunity cost of growing plantains (20.1 - 50.1 US$ t C-1). Changing maize and rice fields into other land uses have low opportunity costs.