The aim of this paper is to explore how social relations influence land use
and natural resource management at the local level. Through empirical analysis
that tracks changes in land use and environment over 40 years, we present evidence
of a process of agrarianization based on commercialization of crops and expansion
of cultivated land. With the concept of livelihood strategies as an analytical framework,
subcommunity processes are analyzed for their impact on intensification and
degradation. Accumulating strategies are linked to expansion, commercial crop
production, and selective intensification through high-value inputs, while at the
other end of the scale, peasant-labor households endure exhausted or marginal
potential land resources combined with lack of flexibility in input consumption.
The article shows how degradation and intensification occur simultaneously and
how incomes may increase even during processes of land degradation. We argue
that a livelihood approach can be useful in uncovering and explaining these
processes.