Use and management of wild fauna by people of the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley and surrounding areas, Mexico

BACKGROUND

Interactions between humans and fauna lay in the heart of the history of human subsistence. In Mesoamerica, the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley (TCV) harbours a high biodiversity with archaeological and ethnoecological evidence of its use by people inhabiting the area since at least 12,000 B.P. It is recognized as one of the most ancient areas of agriculture in the Americas, and a broad spectrum of management practices aimed to ensure the availability of desirable plants has been documented, but it has not been analysed for animals. This study aimed to investigate the use and management practices directed to wild animals along current settlements within the TCV and neighbouring areas.

METHODS

We conducted an extensive search, review and analysis of documental sources for the period between 1967 and 2018. We found 38 documents providing information about the presence of animal species and 15 describing their use and/or management. We included our own observations from four case studies among the Ixcatec, Cuicatec, Nahua and Mestizo people, as well as from regional studies of biodiversity. We used unconstrained multivariate data analysis to describe the management typology of the animals in the region.

RESULTS

Hitherto, 652 vertebrate species and 765 species of insects have been recorded in this area; and until present, 107 wild animal species have been reported to be used in 11 use-type categories, mostly for food (65.42%), ornamental (27.52%) and medicinal (21.10%) purposes by the Nahua, Cuicatec, Popolocan, Ixcatec, Mazatec and Mestizo people. Their extraction entails manual capture and gathering as well as hunting and trapping strategies, some of them involving planning in time or space and communitarian regulations; in addition, relocation actions and care in captivity were recorded. Nearly 178 of the species distributed in the region with no reports of local use are used in other localities of Mesoamerica. Ethnozoological information is still lacking for the Mixtec, Chinantec and Chocholtec people in the area.

CONCLUSIONS

Wild fauna is still a valuable resource for the inhabitants of the TCV. Animals are obtained through extractive practices, which vary from one another in their qualitative attributes. With this work, we provide a context for further research priorities on fauna management in a region of high biocultural significance.

Cultural, economic, and ecological factors influencing management of wild plants and mushrooms interchanged in Purépecha markets of Mexico

BACKGROUND

Traditional markets outstandingly contribute to conservation of biocultural diversity, social relations, and cultural values. These markets reflect life strategies and forms people of a region interact with their biodiversity and territories, as well as traditional ecological knowledge and management practices. To understand the factors motivating plant and mushroom management, we analyzed the resources cultural and economic values, their role in people's subsistence, and the relation of these values with the resources spatial and temporal availability. Our study based on the supposition that traditional markets are settings of interchange of resources with the highest importance for people's life in a region. Also, that the cultural, economic, and ecological factors influence values of the resources, and the demand on them determine pressures on the most valuable resources which, when scarce, motivate management innovation, otherwise become extinct.

METHODS

We documented cultural, economic, and ecological aspects, as well as management techniques of wild and weedy plants and mushrooms interchanged in three traditional markets of the Pátzcuaro Lake region, in central-western Mexico. For doing that, from February 2015 to March 2018, we conducted 175 visits to markets and 89 semi-structured interviews to producers, gatherers, and sellers of wild and weedy plants and mushrooms. Based on participant observation and interviews, we identified variables related to culture, economic, and ecological aspects, as well as management regimes of resources and management systems, which were documented and used as indicators for quantitative analyses. Through principal components analyses (PCA), we determined the indexes of cultural and economic importance (ICEI), management intensity (IMI), and ecological risk (IR) of the resources studied. For conducting that, we classified plant and mushroom species according to their cultural, economic, ecological, and technological indicators, respectively. The score of the first principal component was considered as the index for each group of variables, respectively. To identify relations between cultural importance and risk, we performed linear regression analyses between ICEI and IR indexes.

RESULTS

We recorded 57 species of wild and weedy plants used as food, medicine, and ornamental, and 17 species of edible mushrooms. The variables with the highest weight in the ICEI are related to the need of a resource according to people, its recognizing, the number of communities and markets offering it in markets, its explicit preference expressed by people, the effort invested in obtaining it, and the form it is interchanged. Gathering is practiced in all mushrooms and wild and weedy plants from forests and agricultural areas; 11 species in addition receive 1 or more forms of management (enhancing, selective let standing, propagation through seeds or vegetative parts, transplantation, and/or protection). The management intensity and complexity are explained by variables related to management practices and systems. Plants receiving selective management have the higher management intensity. Silvicultural management (in situ management in forests) was recorded in all species of mushrooms, as well as in more than 80% of medicinal, ceremonial and ornamental plants, and in more than 50% of the edible plants. In agricultural systems, people manage more than 90% of the edible plants recorded to be under a management regime, 25% of the managed medicinal plants, and 30.7% of the managed ceremonial and ornamental plants. In homegardens, people manage 41.6% of the medicinal plants recorded and 26.6% of the edible plants, to have them available near home. Nearly 63% of the species interchanged in the markets studied are gathered in forests without any other management form. In this group are included all mushroom species, 61.5% of ceremonial/ornamental plants, 50% of medicinal, and 33.3% of edible plants. The linear regression between ICEI an IER is significantly negative for edible species with high management intensity R² = 0.505 (p = 0.0316), because of their management. But in medicinal and ornamental plants, the risk is high if the cultural importance increases, even when management practices like transplanting and propagation in homegardens are carried out.

CONCLUSIONS

Traditional markets are settings of interchange of products, knowledge, and experiences, where the ongoing factors and processes motivating management innovation can be identified and documented. This approach allows documenting processes occurring at regional level but would be benefited from deeper studies at local level in communities.

Sociocultural and ecological factors influencing management of edible and non-edible plants: the case of Ixcatlán, Mexico

BACKGROUND

Identifying factors influencing plant management allows understanding how processes of domestication operate. Uncertain availability of resources is a main motivation for managing edible plants, but little is known about management motives of non-edible resources like medicinal and ceremonial plants. We hypothesized that uncertain availability of resources would be a general factor motivating their management, but other motives could operate simultaneously. Uncertainty and risk might be less important motives in medicinal than in edible plants, while for ceremonial plants, symbolic and spiritual values would be more relevant.

METHODS

We inventoried edible, medicinal, and ceremonial plants in Ixcatlán, Oaxaca, Mexico, and conducted in-depth studies with 20 native and naturalized species per use type; we documented their cultural importance and abundance by interviewing 25 households and sampling vegetation in 33 sites. Consumption amounts and preferences were studied through surveys and free listings with 38 interviewees. Management intensity and risk indexes were calculated through PCA and their relation analyzed through regression analyses. Canonical methods allowed identifying the main sociocultural and ecological factors influencing management of plants per use type.

RESULTS

Nearly 64, 63, and 55% of all ceremonial, edible, and medicinal wild plants recorded, respectively, are managed in order to maintain or increase their availability, embellishing environments, and because of ethical reasons and curiosity. Management intensity was higher in edible plants under human selection and associated with risk. Management of ceremonial and medicinal plants was not associated with indexes of risk or uncertainty in their availability. Other sociocultural and ecological factors influence management intensity, the most important being reciprocal relations and abundance perception.

CONCLUSIONS

Plant management through practices and collectively regulated strategies is strongly related to control of risk and uncertainty in edible plants, compared with medicinal and ceremonial plants, in which reciprocal interchanges, curiosity, and spiritual values are more important factors. Understanding how needs, worries, social relations, and ethical values influence management decisions is important to understand processes of constructing management strategies and how domestication could be started in the past and are operated at the present.

Ethnoagroforestry: integration of biocultural diversity for food sovereignty in Mexico

BACKGROUND

Documenting the spectrum of ecosystem management, the roles of forestry and agricultural biodiversity, TEK, and human culture for food sovereignty, are all priority challenges for contemporary science and society. Ethnoagroforestry is a research approach that provides a theoretical framework integrating socio-ecological disciplines and TEK. We analyze in this study general types of Agroforestry Systems of México, in which peasants, small agriculturalist, and indigenous people are the main drivers of AFS and planning of landscape diversity use. We analyzed the actual and potential contribution of ethnoagroforestry for maintaining diversity of wild and domesticated plants and animals, ecosystems, and landscapes, hypothesizing that ethnoagroforestry management forms may be the basis for food sufficiency and sovereignty in Mexican communities, regions and the whole nation.

METHODS

We conducted research and systematization of information on Mexican AFS, traditional agriculture, and topics related to food sovereignty from August 2011 to May 2015. We constructed the database Ethnoagroforestry based on information from our own studies, other databases, Mexican and international specialized journals in agroforestry and ethnoecology, catalogues and libraries of universities and research centers, online information, and unpublished theses. We analyzed through descriptive statistical approaches information on agroforestry systems of México including 148 reports on use of plants and 44 reports on use of animals.

RESULTS

Maize, beans, squashes and chili peppers are staple Mesoamerican food and principal crops in ethnoagroforestry systems practiced by 21 cultural groups throughout Mexico (19 indigenous people) We recorded on average 121 ± 108 (SD) wild and domesticated plant species, 55 ± 27% (SD) of them being native species; 44 ± 23% of the plant species recorded provide food, some of them having also medicinal, firewood and fodder uses. A total of 684 animal species has been recorded (17 domestic and 667 wild species), mainly used as food (34%).

CONCLUSIONS

Ethnoagroforestry an emergent research approach aspiring to establish bases for integrate forestry and agricultural diversity, soil, water, and cultural richness. Its main premise is that ethnoagroforestry may provide the bases for food sovereignty and sustainable ecosystem management.

Ixcatec ethnoecology: plant management and biocultural heritage in Oaxaca, Mexico

BACKGROUND

Studying motives of plant management allows understanding processes that originated agriculture and current forms of traditional technology innovation. Our work analyses the role of native plants in the Ixcatec subsistence, management practices, native plants biocultural importance, and motivations influencing management decisions. Cultural and ecological importance and management complexity may differ among species according with their use value and availability. We hypothesized that decreasing risk in availability of resources underlies the main motives of management, but curiosity, aesthetic, and ethical values may also be determinant.

METHODS

Role of plants in subsistence strategies, forms of use and management was documented through 130 semi-structured interviews and participant observation. Free listing interviews to 38 people were used to estimate the cognitive importance of species used as food, medicine, fuel, fodder, ornament and ceremonial. Species ecological importance was evaluated through sampling vegetation in 22 points. Principal Components Analysis were performed to explore the relation between management, cultural and ecological importance and estimating the biocultural importance of native species.

RESULTS

We recorded 627 useful plant species, 589 of them native. Livelihood strategies of households rely on agriculture, livestock and multiple use of forest resources. At least 400 species are managed, some of them involving artificial selection. Management complexity is the main factor reflecting the biocultural importance of plant species, and the weight of ecological importance and cultural value varied among use types. Management strategies aim to ensure resources availability, to have them closer, to embellish human spaces or satisfying ethical principles.

CONCLUSION

Decisions about plants management are influenced by perception of risk to satisfy material needs, but immaterial principles are also important. Studying such relation is crucial for understanding past and present technological innovation processes and understand the complex process of developing biocultural legacy.

Influence of traditional markets on plant management in the Tehuacán Valley

BACKGROUND

The Tehuacán Valley, Mexico is a region with exceptionally high biocultural richness. Traditional knowledge in this region comprises information on nearly 1,600 plant species used by local peoples to satisfy their subsistence needs. Plant resources with higher cultural value are interchanged in traditional markets. We inventoried the edible plant species interchanged in regional markets documenting economic, cultural and ecological data and about their extraction and management in order to: (1) assess how commercialization and ecological aspects influence plant management, (2) identify which species are more vulnerable, and (3) analyze how local management contributes to decrease their risk. We hypothesized that scarcer plant species with higher economic value would be under higher pressure motivating more management actions than on more abundant plants with lower economic value. However, construction of management techniques is also influenced by the time-span the management responses have taken as well as biological and ecological aspects of the plant species that limit the implementation of management practices. Plant management mitigates risk, but its absence on plant species under high risk may favor local extinction.

METHODS

Six traditional markets were studied through 332 semi-structured interviews to local vendors about barter, commercialization, and management types of local edible plant species. We retrieved ethnobotanical information on plant management from ten communities in a workshop and sampled regional vegetation in a total of 98 sites to estimate distribution and abundance of plant species commercialized. Through Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) we analyzed the amount of variation of management types that can be explained from socioeconomic and ecological information. A risk index was calculated relating distribution, abundance, economic value and management of plant resources to identify the most vulnerable species.

RESULTS

We recorded 122 edible plant species interchanged in the main regional markets. CCA explained significantly 24% of management variation, spatial distribution and plant parts used being particularly important in management decisions. The indeterminate 76% of variation suggests that management decisions depend on particular variables that are not explained by the ecological and socioeconomic factors studied and/or their high variation in the context at the regional scale. The risk index indicated that management was the factor that mostly influences decreasing of risk of interchanged plant species. We identified Clinopodium mexicanum, Pachycereus weberi, Dasylirion serratifolium, Disocorea sp., Ceiba aesculifolia, Neobuxbamia tetetzo, Lippia graveolens, Litsea glaucescens, L. neesiana, Jatropha neopauciflora, Agave potatorum and other agave species used for producing mescal among the more endangered plant species due to human pressure, their relative scarcity and limited or inexistent management.

CONCLUSION

Spatial distribution and plant parts used are particularly meaningful factors determining risk and influencing management actions on edible plant species interchanged in the region. Limited or inexistent management may favor extinction of local populations under risk. Local management techniques synthesize knowledge and experiences crucial for designing sustainable management programs. Traditional management techniques supported by ecological information and environmental management approaches could make valuable contributions for sustainable use of plant species, particularly those becoming economically important more recently.