Agriculture and Environment: Orange Juice

Environmental Impacts of Production: Habitat Conversion

The citrus industry in Belize illustrates some of the important environmental issues that arise from the orange juice industry.

From 1984 to 1994 the industry expanded from an area of less than 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres) planted to oranges to some 23,000 hectares (57,000 acres), nearly doubling the total area in one decade.

As the industry has expanded it has grown out of the better-suited river bottoms up the steeper slopes along both sides of river valleys and into forested areas of the watershed.

Most of these lands had not been used for agricultural production. And even though oranges are a tree crop, the areas they are planted in are marginal, at best, for orange production.

Soil erosion, siltation, reduction in species diversity
If such lands are not managed very well there is likely to be significant soil erosion and downstream siltation, as well as little long-term orange production. And of course, conversion of natural habitat always brings a reduction in species diversity.

In one area of Belize, some 450 small farmers are involved in orange production. More than half of all the land planted on their holdings (average size of about 6.8 hectares or 17 acres) is planted to oranges. About a quarter of the farmers own their land, another quarter have short-term leases, and half have long-term leases from the government.

These farmers clear an average of 2.2 hectares (5.4 acres) per year. It is estimated that as many as 240 hectares (or some 600 acres) of mature forests on hillsides are cleared by these farmers each year. Most producers are focused exclusively on orange juice production. As prices decline, focus is shifting to other products as well.

Impacts of hillside production
It is not clear that hillside plantings are sustainable either economically or environmentally in the long term. What is clear, however, is that hillside production requires greater inputs (e.g., fertiliser and labour) than in the lowlands.

It is also clear that hillside production causes greater environmental damage because the soils are more erodible. At current prices of U.S.$3 per box, it appears that hillside farms are viable only when farms are small enough (e.g., less than 2.5 hectares or 10 acres) that all the labour can be provided by the family.