Rainfed agroecosystem resilience in the Palestinian West Bank, 1918–2017

Abstract

Research has shown that rai-fed (Baʿlī) cultivation provides a resilient agroecological structure. Recent work in agroecology has refined our understanding of agroecosystem resilience, but both temporal and geographical scales are often limited. Due to largely inaccessible and dwindling water resources, an examination of change at the scale of an agroecological landscape is required to better understand how rainfed agroecosystems remain resilient over an extensive period of time. Our article examines the relationship between agroecological landscape change and resilience in the face of powerful social-economic transformations. Our study combines the novel approach of geospatial, field and interview data in order to understand the long-term resilience of an entire agroecological landscape in the Palestinian West Bank. We argue that the study area has experienced a high level of resilience for over 70 years, perhaps for as long as 100 years, and this resilience is attributed not to a stability in production practices, but to a dynamism in practices that have enabled cultivators to adapt to broader political-economic shifts. In doing so, the paper calls for attention within agroecology and food systems research to the dynamism and resilience found within rainfed agroecosystems.