Scholarlink

<p>Studies of land use change in coastal regions provide important baselines for assessing coastal landscape vulnerability, as well as informing sustainable development policies and strategies. Over the last decade, El Salvador’s Balsamo Coast has emerged as a popular surf and nature-based tourism destination in Central America, intensifying processes of development and landscape change that remain poorly understood. This paper integrates approaches in land change science and political ecology to analyze dynamics of coastal land use change and their implications for socioecological vulnerability in the region. Drawing on a mix of geospatial and qualitative methods, the study finds that patterns of tourism-driven urbanization and export-oriented sugarcane expansion are tied to the loss of forest cover and small-scale agriculture in coastal areas. These patterns are influenced by a combination of neoliberal market and policy forces operating at multiple scales, including declining institutional support for environmental regulation and conservation at local and national levels. Harmful development dynamics are exacerbated by inequalities in access to land and power faced by poor coastal residents, which intensify patterns of forced displacement and land use conversion. Together, land use changes on the Balsamo Coast&#xa0;have adverse impacts on local livelihoods and biodiversity while undermining regional resilience to climate change. To enhance coastal resilience and make good on sustainable development objectives, the paper offers several recommendations for policy, planning, and governance.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Social-ecological implications of land use change on the Balsamo Coast of El Salvador

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2025年6月12日

查看全文
  • Ruchi Patel,
  • Abel Alexei Argueta Platero

摘要

Studies of land use change in coastal regions provide important baselines for assessing coastal landscape vulnerability, as well as informing sustainable development policies and strategies. Over the last decade, El Salvador’s Balsamo Coast has emerged as a popular surf and nature-based tourism destination in Central America, intensifying processes of development and landscape change that remain poorly understood. This paper integrates approaches in land change science and political ecology to analyze dynamics of coastal land use change and their implications for socioecological vulnerability in the region. Drawing on a mix of geospatial and qualitative methods, the study finds that patterns of tourism-driven urbanization and export-oriented sugarcane expansion are tied to the loss of forest cover and small-scale agriculture in coastal areas. These patterns are influenced by a combination of neoliberal market and policy forces operating at multiple scales, including declining institutional support for environmental regulation and conservation at local and national levels. Harmful development dynamics are exacerbated by inequalities in access to land and power faced by poor coastal residents, which intensify patterns of forced displacement and land use conversion. Together, land use changes on the Balsamo Coast have adverse impacts on local livelihoods and biodiversity while undermining regional resilience to climate change. To enhance coastal resilience and make good on sustainable development objectives, the paper offers several recommendations for policy, planning, and governance.