Abstract
Today humanity faces several complex problems, two of which are global warming and the loss of biological diversity. An agroecological matrix approach, conceives the territory as patches of natural and cultivated vegetation, interconnected to maintain watershed integrity. Many ethnic groups maintain a high biological heterogeneity as in the case of the agrological matrix. This study analyzed features and trends in a specific agroecological matrix, integrating local and scientific knowledge with environmental and social information, as a complex system. For the last 15 years we studied agroecological spaces used by the Ntaj’uy (Zoque-Popoluca) people in Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico. Participatory methods were used to understand social interactions and land management decisions. Ecology field methods allowed us to assess soil loss, litter production, water quality, and vegetation structure. Soil erosion, vegetation fragmentation and social marginalization are the most important problems in the region; the tropical sub-evergreen forest has decreased by about 60%, the deciduous forest is down by 80%, and cultivated pastures have increased over 400%. Coffee and milpa agroecosystems could be improved, through product diversification, along with interconnectivity among vegetation patches, to prevent environmental degradation, and improve conditions to reach food sovereignty and income diversification, in a context of Ntaj’uy self-determination in their territories.
Highlights
Humanity faces crucial challenges for the preservation of our environment
That transformation has carried out phenomena such as global warming and the loss of biological diversity, in the context of globalization
Richness and equitability are essential elements of the agroecological matrix, which can be understood as the set of spaces covered by connected patches of vegetation, natural or cultivated, facilitating gene flow between populations, the preservation of diverse groups of species, different trophic chains, and biogeochemical cycles that allow for a dynamic equilibrium in the ecosystem [5]
Summary
Humanity faces crucial challenges for the preservation of our environment. Societies have changed, that transformation has carried out phenomena such as global warming and the loss of biological diversity, in the context of globalization. A large island may be a source of seeds and propagules for smaller islands, this will depend on the distance between them, as well on their rates of migration and extinction; a small, isolated island may have a large amount of endemism, yet many of its populations will become extinct if they are small (as an effect of endogamy) and form metapopulations (a population derived from another, larger one, in which each local population occupies different patches) [6] In many cases, this leads to studies on the particular conditions of each population, and constitutes, in areas dedicated to agriculture and forestry production, an important effort to communicate each space or island. These species could play different roles and eventually settle in the most complex patches of the matrix
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