Agricultural decline
Over the past 25 years, El Salvador has transformed from a predominantly rural economy to an urban, sweatshop based economy – a shift that has severely impoverished rural communities. El Salvador’s economy was once based on large-scale agricultural exports, such as coffee, sugar cane and cotton; however, during the civil war of the 1980’s, “the rapid expansion of industrial agricultural, peasant farming, and livestock frontiers sharply declined as the countryside became too perilous, rife as it was with periodic carpet bombing and massacres” (Hecht & Saatchi, 2007). The civil war and the resulting economic rearrangements and emigration have shifted the economy away from agriculture and towards a remittance-driven economy that favors the financial sector, maquila exports, and urban-based economic activity. The economic rearrangements “emphasized market- rather than state-led forms of development…which undermined returns for small farmers” (Hecht & Saatchi, 2007). By the mid-1990’s, the profits that subsistence farmers earned for their staple crops fell sharply and were driven down to merely one quarter of their 1978 profits (Kandel, Rosa, et al., 2006). Agricultural communities are suffering as economic reforms and increased competition from agricultural imports are making it very difficult for small farmers to earn enough money to meet their basic needs.

To cope with these adverse economic changes, many families have migrated away from their farming lifestyles to find work in the United States. Remittances have replaced land property as the new source of economic power in El Salvador. At the end of the 1970’s, traditional agricultural exports generated 81 percent of foreign exchange; however, in 2002, agriculture exports comprised a mere six percent of foreign exchange. Remittances, on the other hand, went from eight percent of total foreign exchange in 1978 to 67 percent in 2002 (Kandel, Rosa, et al., 2006). Agricultural based livelihoods are eroding more and more every year. 

As family income from agricultural laboring and sale of surplus produce continues to erode, the need for sustainable, subsistence farming becomes more of a necessity. Unfortunately, on average, the rural population relies on less than two acres for their subsistence. Most are landless and forced to rent land which is often steeply sloped, unsuitable for farming and subject to severe erosion as the natural vegetation is removed. Because of steep slopes and infertility, 40 percent of El Salvador’s land is considered unsuitable for cultivation and it is recommended that this land be left to grow natural vegetation. Unfortunately, the majority of the rural poor are forced to cultivate this infertile land, while the most fertile land is being used for the construction of maquilas (CESTA, 2006).

Environmental Destruction

Much of El Salvador’s land degradation has resulted from farming land that is unsuitable for agriculture and from the use of agrochemicals, which were introduced in the 1950’s. Together with Haiti, El Salvador has the worst environmental destruction in the American continent, resulting from a development model based on the exploitation of natural and human resources. The UN estimates that El Salvador has already lost an astronomical 95 percent of its natural forest, which is the second highest rate of deforestation in the world. Additionally, more than 75 percent of El Salvador’s soil has been severely affected by erosion. Erosion depletes 20 percent of the country’s topsoil every year and has left up to three-fourths of the land useless. Additionally, farmland is only half as productive as it was 30 years ago and soil fertility is increasingly being lost as it washes into streams, rivers, and lakes. In the worst case, soil erosion has buried communities in landslides and floods have submerged huge areas of flat land. The soil is also unable to retain humidity causing drought conditions in the dry season. Most agricultural soil has been acidified due to the irrational use of inorganic fertilizers, pesticides, and other forms of pollution (Kandel, Rosa, et al., 2006). In addition to the degradation of the soil, 95 percent of El Salvador’s lakes and rivers are contaminated with agro-chemicals, untreated sewage, and refuse and industrial waste.

Effects of the Civil War
The civil war has had a major impact on environmental sustainability as well as community stability. After the war, the rural populations of El Salvador experienced massive displacement. In conflict zones, such as Morazán, populations were forced to flee to other parts of the country and to Honduran refugee camps. When people returned, they found that their community infrastructure was totally destroyed. Their land was poisoned with armaments and they were confronted with vast incidences of deforestation and soil erosion. In other areas of the country, people leaving internal refugee camps were forced to create entirely new communities in isolated areas where the land was steep and arid. These communities were given little or no support to build housing and other essential infrastructure and now are suffering from a lack of basic amenities, such as drinking water, electricity, and agricultural training.

Unsustainable Subsistence Farming
The government’s abandonment of the agricultural sector has left many farmers practicing the destructive agricultural farming practices that they learned during the 1950’s. Many of the farmers are still using the slash and burn method, destroying all vegetation, and are also liberally applying toxic weed killers and pesticides. The majority of farmers are illiterate and unable to read the health warnings printed with these toxic chemicals. As a result, the farmers take no protective measures and wash their spraying equipment in the local rivers that supply their communities with water. These farmers also rely on hybrid seeds for their staple food of maize and beans that demand high levels of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides and which are difficult to reproduce. An additional cost has been the loss of local varieties of seed and the rapid degradation of land, which demands more agrochemicals at ever increasing costs. Eventually, the farmer is forced to abandon the land, migrate to cities, or start this destructive method elsewhere.

Climate Change
Between 1961 and 1990 the temperature in El Salvador increased by an average of 1.2 centigrade, and it is estimated that by 2020, the average temperature will rise by an additional 1.1 degrees. Increasing temperatures will cause a rise in the sea level of up to one meter by 2100, which will result in a loss of 10 percent of biodiversity in El Salvador´s coastal region. Global warming has also intensified the effects of El Niño, leading to severe droughts and flooding. Between 1970 and 2002, studies have shown that during the dry season many rivers are drying up when before they were permanent rivers. Predicted decreases in rainfall levels are also expected to severely affect the availability of drinking water as groundwater reserves decrease.  Climate change is expected to diminish the production of basic grains on which families depend, and at the same time, it creates an ideal environment for the reproduction of insects that carry endemic diseases (Ibarra & Amaya, 2003). Additionally, climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of hurricanes in the Atlantic, the effects of which in El Salvador are heavy rains and flooding. During the first week of October 2005, El Salvador, along with other countries in Central America, was hit by Hurricane Stan.  In five days, we received twice the normal rainfall for the whole of October.  The result was one of the worst disasters in living memory. When the hurricane hit, the maize was in the process of drying on the stalks in the field and the beans were beginning to flower. The rain was so heavy that it penetrated the corn cobs and caused the grains to rot.  At a delicate moment in their growth, the bean plants turned yellow and died.

Contaminated Water and Lack of Sanitation

Rural communities in El Salvador have been greatly affected by their lack of infrastructure and basic amenities, especially when it comes to their access to drinking water and sanitation facilities. Only 25 percent of the rural population has access to potable water. In a recent survey of the communities we support, each identified potable water as one of their highest needs and not one of these communities had a safe drinking water supply. Their sources of water varied: 24 percent obtain water from local rivers, which are often contaminated by agrochemicals and sewage from upstream. Fifty-two percent pipe untreated water from local springs, which is also insufficient for their needs. The remainders rely on community wells – water that is also untreated and in some cases contaminated by nearby pit latrines. Additionally, over half of the communities rely on unsanitary pit latrines and within these communities many families have no toilet facilities at all. The remaining communities have benefited from projects to build compost latrines but often communities report that they are badly designed and unused. Contaminated water supplies and insufficient sanitation facilities have contributed to high incidences of illness in many of these communities, most commonly diarrhea but also renal failure that has resulted in death. In El Salvador, 12 thousand children a year die from gastro-intestinal causes and every week a child dies from being poisoned by agro-chemicals; many more are left with incurable illnesses. Unfortunately each year pesticides banned in the north continue to be imported into El Salvador, killing thousands of people.

Lack of Grassroots Empowerment
Recently emerged from a violent struggle for the most basic of democratic and human rights, participative democracy and grass roots empowerment are still in an early stage of development. El Salvador´s history has been one of a rigidly vertical power structure in which economic and political power has been in the hands of the very few. Opportunities for organic growth of participative popular organizations were brutally denied by the power elite – a policy which led to the death and disappearance of tens of thousands of people in the civil war of the 1980´s.

As part of the various land reforms which came out of the civil war, the government forced the formation of co-operatives as the only way for landless peasants to gain access to land. These cooperatives were, however, never provided with the skills or resources necessary to succeed and the majority are now inoperative.  The most common form of community organization is now the Community Association, a legal structure which (amongst other things) enables communities to express their needs and manage projects.  With insufficient training and support, these Associations struggle to have a real voice.  Often manipulated by political parties, powerful individuals or families, the Community Associations frequently fall into disuse or conflict. Traditional development approaches which followed the peace accords have often exacerbated the problem as NGO´s brought readymade packages of material aid with rarely any thought for building the capacity of the communities themselves.

References

CESTA, Propuesta de Principios, Estrategias y Lineamientos de la Agroecología, 2006.

Hecht, S.B. and Saatchi, S.S., Globalization and Forest Resurgence: Changes in Forest Cover in El Salvador, September 2007. 57.

Ibarra y, A.M. y  Amaya, L.B.,  Cambio climático global: reflexiones desde El Salvador San Salvador, 10 de octubre de 2003

Kandel, S., Rosa, H., Gómez, H., García, M., Dimas, L, & Cuellar, N., Escaping Poverty’s Grasp: El Salvador, Earthsear, 2006.

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