The role of alternative coffee production network actors in creating a climate-resilient producer community in northern Peru

Abstract

This thesis critically examines climate change adaptation in Peru. By considering the case of the coffee-growing region of San Ignacio, northern Peru, it seeks to address the following central research question: “In what ways does participation in alternative trading networks shape smallholder coffee farmers’ ability to adapt to climate change?” The study draws upon the Global Production Networks (GPN) analytical framework, in addition to bodies of knowledge in the arenas of climate change adaptation and voluntary certification standards, in order to evaluate the power relations, knowledge and practices through which smallholder coffee farmers in Peru are adapting to challenges associated with climate change. The methodological approach used in this research is qualitative, drawing on field diaries, ethnographic observations and farm visits. Fieldwork took place between October 2013 and March 2014 and included interviews with coffee farmers and co-operative staff members from three different cooperatives, farmer field schools, local and national government representatives and NGOs. The thesis makes three key contributions. First, it demonstrates how the challenges of climate change are tackled by coffee producer communities in the context of power relations operating through contemporary trading networks, neoliberal private standards and civil society projects on environmental justice. Second, it places lived experiences of the coffee farmers centre stage, in order to evaluate how environmental and economic risk is, and could be, managed in this particular sector and in this specific locality. The latter has unique characteristics in terms of the terrain-, climate- and socio-political-based contexts inherent with a country which is so diverse and home to so many microclimates. Third, it argues that being embedded in an alternative trading network benefits farmers’ ability to adapt to climate change through both upgrading and strategic coupling. However, power dynamics, tensions and knowledge flows within the network are inhibiting the farmers’ agency and ability to reduce their vulnerability to climate change, to adopt adaptation practices effectively and ultimately to create a climate-resilient producer community. It is argued that such tensions, power dynamics and knowledge flows contributed to the coffee leaf rust crisis in 2012/13. These contributions raise important issues of interest for production network actors involved in designing climate change adaptations for – and channelling support to – smallholder coffee farmers, as well as for farmers affected by climate change in other localities