Application of participatory methods to explore changes in land use of a tropical dry forest basin

Tropical hydrographic basins have undergone significant landuse change processes in recent decades and correspond toareas of high population growth and development of economicactivities. This article explores the causes of land use changein a tropical dry forest watershed, taking the Canalete riverbasin as a case study. For this purpose, stakeholder analysistechniques and participatory methods were applied. Theresults showed that the main causes of land use change inpastures were associated with biophysical factors, while forestsshrubs and crops were associated with direct and subyacentssocioeconomics factors respectively. The participatory mappingallowed obtaining a desired land use scenario for the year2030, observing a decrease of more than 16.2 ha of pasture,compensated by an increase of almost 2.4 thousand ha ofcrops and 13.8 thousand ha of forests and shrubs. Similarly,the hydrological impact of changes in land use was observed,especially in terms of flooding. [Publisher's text]