Turning to manufacturing, in Table 6, the subgroups that were in surplus in 1980-82 accounted for 31.82% of the value of normalized agricultural trade in 1994-96. Of these goods, 4.93% of trade moved to balance by 1994-96 and 0.81% moved to deficit. Adding up the diagonal elements in Table 6, we find that 65.5% of the trade in manufacturing was persistent, from 1980 to 1996. These results suggest almost as much persistence in manufacturing trade compared to agricultural trade. As a statistical measure of trade persistence, we can use a transformation of the standard chisquared test, Cramer’s C-statistic, suggested by Carolan et. al.. The C-statistic lies between zero and one, with one representing complete association between the beginning and the ending trade balance. From Tables 7, 8 and 9 we find the C-statistic is 0.66 for agriculture, 0.39 for other primary products, and 0.54 for manufactures. These results suggest there was the least change in the trade balances over the 1980-1996 time period for agriculture, because the C-statistic is relatively high. For manufacturing and other primary products the results suggest there was relatively more change in the trade balances over the time period studied, because the C-statistics are lower.9 Rather than just comparing the beginning and ending time periods, we can construct histograms for agriculture and manufacturing, based on the number of years each subgroup runs a surplus . Figure 3 shows histograms for agriculture, “other” primary products, and manufactures. Figure 3 classifies subgroups indicating how many years the subgroup was in surplus. This means, that a subgroup that was in surplus for each of the 18 years would be in the cell at the extreme right of the histogram. The histogram for agriculture displays the strongest evidence of bimodality,plastic planters bulk which indicates persistence in trade flows. These histograms are therefore consistent with the C-statistic results, suggesting more persistence in the composition of agricultural trade, compared to the other two groups. Finally, the results of an additional test for association are reported in Table 6.

We regressed NB1994-96 on NB1980-82. The regression coefficients for all three groups are all statistically significant, but the coefficient for other primary products is smaller than for agriculture or manufacturing. Similarly, the R2 is relatively small for other primary products compared to either manufacturing or agriculture . These results support the conclusion that the trade patterns appear to change the most for “other” primary products, and the least for agriculture. The major finding of this paper is that China’s agricultural trade structure has not changed dramatically since 1980. China’s agricultural trade may loosely correspond to the basic principles of comparative advantage, but that in itself is not such a big achievement. Even under central planning, the obviousness of comparative advantage was such that in general terms, China’s agricultural trade corresponded to basic principles of comparative advantage. What is more striking is the modest and limited way that agricultural trade has expanded along comparative advantage lines, despite an increase in foreign trade overall, and the implicit evidence this provides of foregone opportunities for benefit from agricultural trade.Belize is a country in Central America and the Caribbean that is best described as a melting pot of diversity and culture. The biodiversity and natural heritage of the country is safeguarded through a system of terrestrial and marine protected areas under the National Protected Areas System Act regulating protected areas in Belize. There are 13 categories of protected areas in Belize, each with its own set of policies and procedures regulating permissible socioeconomic activities. The Forest Department manages terrestrial protected areas, while the Fisheries Department manages marine protected areas. Given the very large number of protected areas—approximately 100 in the NPAS—the aforementioned government departments often enter into comanagement agreements with conservation nongovernmental organizations or community-based organizations to accomplish effective management. Belize’s economy has been based on the exportation of raw products to the European Union and the United States of America. Traditional crops such as sugarcane, banana, and citrus products have been the main foreign exports. As global prices for these products change, so does the focus locally.

For example, the number one foreign exchange earner presently is tourism. For this industry to continue, the protection of the environment has become a top priority. This is because one of the main reasons tourists visit the country is for its rich flora and fauna, much of which still thrives in the mosaic of protected areas all over the country. Consequently, Belize really is prioritized as a system of protected areas maintaining interconnectivity from north to south as a wildlife corridor. Small but growing, Belize’s economy is very susceptible to the changes in global economic trends and since most of its foreign exchange is agriculture-based, climate change exacerbates that reality. This requires that climate-smart agricultural practices be adopted to mitigate the effects of changing weather patterns. This is important for continued local and foreign exchange earnings, but more importantly, for food and water security for the Belize population, as many communities still practice and rely on subsistence farming. As a response to changing weather patterns and a need to protect natural resources for both tourism and food security, an agroforestry concession system in the Maya Mountain North Forest Reserve has served as a pilot forest governance model that can be replicated in other forest reserves. Such system allows for greater attention on local communities who rely on granted access in protected areas to enhance their livelihoods. Access to the forest reserve has also created additional opportunities for women farmers of the Trio community, such as incentivizing honey production, an alternative nontimber forest product, as a socioeconomic activity. Apiculture complements the income generated from the sale of cacao beans and other crops and allows women to take a leading role in income-generation for the family in a traditional Maya community.“Forest reserve” is a category of terrestrial protected areas that allows communities to access natural resources in the conserved area. The MMNFR ranks 12th out of 56 protected areas that were evaluated for the National Protected Area Prioritization exercise of 2012, and is recognized as a key biodiversity area , prioritized for increased management effectiveness, under the Global Environment Facility–World Bank “Key Biodiversity Areas” project from 2015 to 2020 . This significant status was a contributing factor in formulating a conservation agreement that allowed for the first agroforestry concession within MMNFR. As a critical wildlife corridor in the Maya Golden Landscape —a large area of protected areas, agricultural and private lands, and communities—access to lands in the form of a concession creates a management presence that requires effective communication and coordination.

Population increase further adds to the pressures on Belize’s natural resources, increasing the priority to develop innovative approaches to provide for Indigenous and local communities who depend on the forest for food, housing materials, medicine and other necessities for their sustenance. This requires a landscape approach to natural resources management that puts forest-dependent communities at the center of the decision making process to implement adaptive ecofriendly extractive measures to ensure forest and livelihood sustainability. The community forest concession model is one of the tools that has been used to ensure that these communities become stewards of their surrounding natural resources. The Trio Farmers Cacao Growers Association from the community of Trio in Belize’s Toledo District is pioneering this community forest governance initiative . This local, organized group of 31 Maya farmers is registered under the Belize’s Company Registry, under Chapter 250 of the Companies Act . Villagers who were seeking access to farmland to continue their traditional farming practices formed TFCGA. In 2015, they signed the first-ever community forest concession in Belize. This is an agreement between the Forest Department and Ya’axché Conservation Trust , on behalf of TFCGA, the associate. The establishment of the conservation agreement grants the group rights to access the MMNFR for cacao-based agroforestry, beekeeping,collection pot and cultivation of annual crops, putting into practice sustainable climate-smart measures. Maya communities have traditionally used slash-and burn as a method of land clearing for agriculture. With the concession agreement and their access to a forest reserve, the organized group has been encouraged to cease this practice by adapting and practicing sustainable farming methods. The cacao-based agroforestry farming practice enhances the production of cacao beans while protecting standing forests and their biodiversity, and maintaining a healthy vegetation cover. This farming system is a long-term investment, as cacao production does not generate immediate income for the farmer, taking up to 4–5 years for the cacao plots to start to generate economically viable yields . This initiative, as part of a Community Outreach and Livelihoods program, targets socioeconomic challenges faced by a local, Indigenous forest community. The main focus is on food security, water conservation, and agricultural good practices, ensuring that anthropogenic disturbances do not continue to encroach on the remaining natural forests of the wild landscapes sought to be conserved. As a result, an annual crops section was considered and integrated as part of the agroforestry concession model.

Crops such as corn, beans, pepper, pumpkin, plantain, and root crops—staples of the Maya culture—are produced and surpluses are marketed locally. The adaptation of the cacao-based agroforestry system helps to ensure that our forests are managed sustainably. Cacao is emerging as a new foreign exchange earner, as there is a shift in the consumer demand for sustainably produced products. Through local observations, Ya’axché noted that most of the cacao currently being produced in Belize is within an agroforestry system. This is important since such an approach to production has minimal impact on the environment. This approach to farming curbs deforestation, creating an opportunity to manage natural forests in such a manner that shade-loving crops, like cacao, can be cultivated. Cacao is culturally important as it can be traced back to the ancient Maya civilization, where it played an important role as a currency and drink of the royal class. Although TFCGA has limited experience in growing cacao and farming within an agroforestry system, progress has been made, especially in shifting from the predominantly slash-and-burn farming practices common in many Maya communities.Empowering forest communities in the MGL to effectively manage their own natural resources fosters an innovative culture to learn and adapt best practices from success stories around the globe. Nontimber forest products are an integral part of Indigenous communities’ dependence on the forest, where beekeeping is placed as a high priority in the MGL for honey extraction. MMNFR has been considered as a location where apiaries can be maintained to boost the production of chemical-free “organic” honey. Seven female farmers from Trio have participated in capacity-building workshops, receiving technical assistance and material support from Ya’axché to continue the expansion of their apiaries. There is an opportunity to diversify the number of products that can be harvested, which can include pollen, wax, and royal jelly, among others. This group of women is a great proponent for the conservation of natural forests within MMNFR and other protected areas. Apiculture is complementing forest communities’ income, while fostering the development of a heightened stewardship of natural forests through an integrated management approach. Cacao has been a traditional crop in Maya communities, being used as a local drink for cultural activities such as communal planting and feasts, and as an offering during ritual ceremonies. To retain this traditional livelihood based on the harvesting of cacao, market demands have prompted initiatives to venture into local investments to increase cacao production as a supplement to the incomes of forest communities who continue with this practice. Ever since Ya’axché started to promote cacao-based agroforestry in the MGL, this climate-smart agricultural measure has gained traction as a response to the deforestation that occurred during Hurricane Iris in 2001 and the fires that followed. The Cacao Conservation Agreement of January 2016 was established after a forest concession was granted by Forest Department in June 2014. This led to the drafting of the 2014–2019 Agroforestry Concession Management Plan for the MMNFR, a conservation tool to oversee the cacao-based agroforestry model . Policies and procedures have been outlined to guide the effective management of the concession in the forest reserve.