Location: |
Department of Cuzco, province and district of
Anta
|
Population: |
1,055 inhabitants
|
Land resources: |
3,047 ha, including irrigated and rainfed
|
Forests: |
Communal and private eucalyptus
|
Sources of income: |
Farming and stock breeding |
The people of Compone have long struggled with outsiders for control of local resources. They have been particularly oppressed by the large Sullupiciji hacienda. Even before Agrarian Reform the village worked successfully to defend itself against the estate, and gained land and political autonomy. The resulting improved access to land has allowed livestock breeding to be integrated into traditional farming activities of Compone, setting this community apart from the other villages studied in the series. Thanks to this mix of local sources of income, Compone can be considered one of the most well-off communities in the uplands today.
As elsewhere in rural Peru, Agrarian Reform affected Compone in both positive and negative ways. Like Equecco-Chacán, Compone was first forced to accept land in the form of a cooperative, named the Tupac Amaru 11 Production Cooperative (TAPC). By the late 1970s, frustrated with the ineffective management of TAPC, the village seized part of the cooperative's land. Eventually, the government formally handed over 731 ha to the community, consisting mostly of pasture. With this new resource the village started a communal livestock breeding enterprise and encouraged villagers to increase their livestock holdings dramatically. Not all community members benefited equally from these new developments, however. Wealthier families, better able to obtain and care for more livestock, were particularly favoured. Amid mounting dissatisfaction with the management of the village pasture, and pressure from land-short villagers, the Community Assembly decided to subdivide and distribute the communal pasture land to individual households. Once distributed, land was usually converted to farmland and planted with local staples like corn and potatoes.
Changes in land tenure also lead to a decrease in the predominance of communal work or faenas. While the village maintained some communal land, the increase in the size of personal landholdings as a result of Agrarian Reform forced family members to devote more time to their own fields. The labour available for communal cultivation steadily decreased and many communal plots were parcelled out to individual families for private cultivation on a rotating basis. Although commonly owned property still exists, communal cultivation has become increasingly rare.
Before becoming an autonomous officially recognized village, members of the Compone community were forced to organize in secret; widespread participation in early village government was extremely difficult to achieve. Legal recognition, however, encouraged participation by more community members, strengthening village cohesiveness and organization.
Most of the land handed over to Compone consisted of pasture.
Despite progress, Compone tension and conflict have hindered operation of the community organization. The problems Compone has faced include: bribery and illegal takeover of community lands by individual families; disputes over the way to secure benefits from village property for all community members; intimidation and the use of other "boss tactics" by some village leaders, and; violation of community agreements and traditions governing land distribution. The conflicts have weakened solidarity and the cohesiveness of the community's decision-making system. Democratic forces within the community have challenged such actions and attitudes. They have not, however, been able to overcome them and considerable tension still exists.
The villagers of Compone also have an acute forest resource shortage. While fallow entrada fields provide native shrubs and small trees. Trees along the borders of household plots and family fields allow ayni de palos or "pole exchange" between village members. These sources of tree products have not, however, been enough to meet local needs. Many households remain dependent on other, often distant, sources of fuel and building material.
Compone's experiences with communal reforestation can be divided into two phases.
When communal plantations were first proposed by extension workers in the early 1960s, the idea was well-received. By November 1963, the Compone Village Assembly, in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture's forestry service, had approved a contract for reforestation of 11 ha of village land, later known as the Acllahuasi forest.
Despite initial hopes of reviving communal tenure and work Compone, residents continued to strongly prefer to subdivide the Agrarian Reform land. Interest in larger family holdings rather than large communal enterprises was reinforced by a high population growth rate which made each piece of arable land even more precious. Additionally, during the same time, restrictions on the use of Sullupiciji hacienda resources loosened, and dung and shrub brush could be collected, providing a relatively reliable source of fuel. Sustained support for communal reforestation no longer existed and once the first plantation was established, many members of the community resisted expansion of the existing plantation site for the next twenty years.
An agreement to begin a new plantation with a loan from the International Development Bank was first reached again in Compone in 1983, two decades after the start of the first plantation. As in the three other villages, a decisive factor behind the proposal's approval was the fact that the original site could only be logged if a new site was approved at the same time. Given the reluctance to expand reforestation, it was not easy to agree on the location and size of the new site. While one small site was eventually chosen, a number of poor households were adversely affected and the resistance of these villagers actually limited the possibility for real progress.
In the early 1980s, villagers began to plan to sell their first communal plantation, the Acllahuasi forest, to pay off the village's debt to the State Forestry Service and fund electrification of the village's central sector. The sale did not go well. Although the proceeds did help fund electrification, the price the village received for the wood was far below the market price. As in other villages, this encouraged many in the community to demand that all communal forests be reserved first and foremost for use by local villagers.
It was not long before some villagers suggested that perhaps the only way to guarantee the benefits of the common property plantations for all residents was to allow community members to harvest the woodlots themselves. Some community members continued to argue that village woodlots were the only source of revenue for funding village improvement projects and paying-off village debts. Further disagreement arose over who would be allowed to harvest which trees. As the village agreed to reserve a major portion of the second woodlot for local use, a number of wealthier families tried to take possession of the largest number of trees, particularly those with the thickest trunks, arguing that distribution should be based on criteria such as age and number of children. The conflict crippled the village's attempt to open the woodlot to local use. Some charge that wealthier families, that have been able to sell more eucalyptus trees off of home plots, continue to resist the idea of reserving the village woodlot for local use because they want to keep local timber prices high.
Although the costs of reforestation were shared fairly equally during the first phase of plantation development, its benefits were not. As with Equecco-Chacán, the biggest winners in the first harvest appeared to be the middleman and the State Forestry Service (which was assured of 30% of the lot's market value). Since the proceeds were primarily used to fund electrification of the central sector of Compone, households living in this area , around 70% of the community, also benefited. Some families were able to electrify several buildings.
The low prices that are offered for the community's
eucalyptus have proved a consistent problem for the village.
The women of Compone support sale of eucalyptus wood to the community itself.
Electricity never reached the outlying sectors of the Compone community, composed mostly of poor households. These families obtained virtually no direct benefit from the village plantation. A few poor villagers benefited only by secretly harvesting timber and fuelwood.
Disputes over control of new communal resources and distribution of the benefits of communal resources continue to characterize Compone's plantation management. Community reforestation began early in Compone, but to this day, many conflicts remain unresolved.