Environmental and Economic Aspects of Agro-forestry and Agricultural Systems in Chiapas, Mexico

Since traditional cost-benefit analysis does not include environmental variables in consideration, the concept of emergy was used to measure all direct and indirect energy to produce a product. In emergy analysis, environmental, social and economic variables are included and indexes are calculated for comparison for several systems. In this paper, emergy and financial ratios are used to determine the sustainability of agro-forestry and agricultural systems in Chiapas, Mexico. Emergy and economic analysis are calculated for: 1) 400 hectares in forest extraction, 2) 1 hectare in shaded coffee cultivation, and 3) 1 hectare for industrialized sugar cane production. Wood extraction from tropical forests is the system with less dependence on external inputs (purchased/free=0.41) and with a high profitability (net revenue/cost=1.93). Industrialized sugar cane production is one of the most productive activities in the region (net revenue/cost=1.5). Coffee cultivated under the shade is a sustainable agroforestry system because it maintains part of the original forest. However, the use of chemical on coffee production makes coffee economically unattractive. (net revenue/ cost=0.47).