the economy in the Central American countries than it is for Latin America generally. While agriculture only contributed 8% of GDP in 1998 in Latin America overall (Dixon et al., 2001), in Central America in 2000 agriculture contributed from a low of 7% of GDP (in Panama) to a high of 36% (in Nicaragua). The importance of agriculture as a generator of foreign exchange is even more significant. In 2000, agricultural exports ranged from a low of 30.8% of total exports of goods in Costa Rica, to a high in Belize of 69.4% of total exports (Harvey et al., 2005). Finally, in most Latin American countries, agriculture represents a subsistence way of life for millions of people, including indigenous communities (IPCC, 1996).
     Recent research has shown exhaustively that agricultural activities are diminishing in rural areas from the standpoint of the number of people involved and the income generated, while non-agricultural activities are on the rise, in particular those linked to the provision of services. For these reasons, the families that live in areas defined as rural are increasingly abandoning exclusively agricultural activities to seek out other opportunities (Da Silva, 2004; Dirven, 2004). These phenomena are responsible in part for the migrations from the countryside to the cities, but are not the sole cause. The expansion of the large transgenic monocultures in the countries of the Southern Cone is transforming the agrarian structure, increasing the concentration of land and the migration of peasants (Fearnside, 2001ab; Pengue, 2005). In addition, violence due to territorial interests are causing massive forced displacement, as in Colombia and Ecuador.

     Parallel to this difficult context, fishing is also developing; it continues to be one of the key components of certain local economies in many places in Latin America, especially the Amazon region, both in terms of the value of production and in terms of employment. Bernal and Agudelo (2006) cite figures from the FAO according to which there are more than 38 million people directly engaged in fishing and fish farming on a full- or part-time basis; and the developing countries now provide 70% of the fish for human consumption. Marine fishing is also an important economic activity in LAC, generating employment and incomes; most of
the fish offloaded is accounted for by the Southern Cone countries.

     The current status of agriculture in LAC, in terms of production and productivity of goods and services in relation to expectations for attaining the millennium goals, is not uniform across the region. The heterogeneity in levels of agricultural knowledge is due in part to the effect of the structural reforms carried out in the region. In the last 25 years most of the countries of the region began or intensified their processes of adjustment and structural reforms, as a result of which they experienced major changes in their structure of production, productivity, competitiveness and in the profitability of various activities, including agriculture (David et al., 2001).
     It should be noted that it is practically impossible to establish typologies of development models by country, as one finds the coexistence of very different and more complex situations than in the rest of the economy, given the major differences between and within the countries. The differentiation of the growth model has occurred within the

countries, with repercussions both on the specially located dynamic poles and on the type of activities and actors.
1.6.2 Characteristics and trends in production in Latin
America and the Caribbean

1.6.2.1 Available resources
Natural resources. Agriculture produces unprocessed agrifood products using natural resources (land, water, biodiversity) as one of the factors of production and the process may involve “cultivation” (planting, aquaculture, stockraising, forestry) or “gathering” (hunting, fishing, forestry) (Dirven, 2004). The peoples of LAC live in a territory with abundant resources in terms of land, water and biodiversity (OSAL, 2005). The water and soil, key elements in agricultural production, may or may not be considered renewable resources, depending on their degrees of cultural management. In any event, they constitute the main limitations and potential for agriculture at this level (León, 2007).

Land. Latin America and the Caribbean is the region with the largest reserves of arable lands in the world. It is estimated that 30% of the territory in LAC has agricultural potential (Gómez and Gallopin, 1995). The region had 160 million ha of land under annual and perennial crops in 1999 and another 600 million ha dedicated to grazing and pasture (Dixon et al., 2001). Nonetheless, due to the mismanagement
of the soils and to the use of marginal areas for agriculture, the region has approximately 300 million ha of degraded agricultural area (FAO, 1998), while another 80 million ha of arid lands are threatened with desertification due to overgrazing, overexploitation of the vegetation for domestic uses, deforestation and the use of inappropriate irrigation methods. This represents more than 50% of the total agricultural area (including grazing areas) affected by degradation. Erosion, acidification, loss of organic matter, compaction, impoverishment of nutrients, salinization and soil contamination are a result of the intensification of agriculture through the intensive use of agrochemicals, fertilizers, and pesticides, as well as the use of inappropriate irrigation technologies and agricultural machinery (see 1.7) (UNEP, 2006).
     Erosion is the main cause of land degradation in LAC and affects 14% of the territory in South America and 26% in Mesoamerica (UNEP, 1999a). This problem is especially serious in steep areas such as the Andean region (central and northern), as well as the maize and bean zone of Mesoamerica. In these areas erosion is causing low levels of production and is affecting the migration of small-scale producers to the cities or the agricultural frontier in forested areas, contributing to soil degradation there (FAO, 1998). This process is also taking place in other steep areas such as the Chiapas highlands in Mexico (Richter, 2000).
     Nutrient attrition is another very serious problem that results from the intensification of agriculture and synthetic fertilizers. In South America nutrient attrition affects at least 68 million ha (Scherr and Yadav, 1997). Nutrient attrition may also be a consequence of deforestation in moist tropical zones. The conversion of forest to cropland in these areas has brought about the loss of organic matter and has accelfromCK