Agriculture and Environment: Bananas
Better Management Practices: Preserving Riparian Buffer Zones
Most countries have laws that protect riparian areas in areas of banana production.
Maintaining native vegetation in riparian areas reduces soil erosion and filters pesticides and fertilisers from runoff.
Strict enforcement of riparian lawsWhile the laws vary (e.g., in the distance that must be protected), few if any existing laws are actually enforced. One of the best ways to reduce the overall impact of banana plantations, and to maintain a firewall between them and neighbouring rivers or coastal wetlands, is to insist on the enforcement of riparian laws. Where riparian areas have been cleared, they should be replanted at the owner's expense.
Some banana producers are beginning to see riparian areas as nutrient banks. Companies throughout Latin America, at least, are planting trees in riparian areas. These areas are used to trap nutrients that would otherwise have bee washed off cultivated soils into freshwater and marine systems.
Managing riparian areas efficiently
The riparian areas can be managed as nutrient banks that are cropped or thinned periodically of commercially valuable trees or other plant species. The harvest yields organic mater that can be used in its own right or applied in one form or another back onto banana plantations.
The strategy of nutrient capture makes the riparian area a potential site of ecologically sustainable economic activity in addition to providing flood protection. Viable riparian areas create wildlife habitat that serves as home to many species. They can also act as corridors between other wildlife areas (Rainforest Alliance 2000). Finally, because they tend to trap nutrients and chemicals, such areas protect fragile freshwater systems.
Generating income from carbon sequestration
If managed properly for carbon sequestration, producers could probably receive payments from companies that want to offset the levels of carbon that they produce. EARTH University currently receives payments for carbon sequestration from the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Planting legumes
Another strategy is to ensure that canals and waterways work more efficiently to trap and remove chemicals. This can be accomplished by making sure that they are covered with vegetation. EARTH University plants flemingia (Flemingia macrophylla), a legume, on its commercial farm to cover waterways and canals.
