Abstract
México is a cultural and biological megadiverse country with an increased anthropogenic pressure on its tropical landscapes. The study area was the ejido “Los Ídolos”, Misantla, Central Veracruz, Mexico. The main objective of this research was to identify how the woody plant diversity of agroforestry systems contributed to the cultural, economic, and subsistence security of local farmers. Five different agroforestry systems were identified: forest gardens (FG), home gardens (HG), plantation crop combination with perennial cultivates (PC), plantation crop combinations with annual cultivates (AC), and trees on pastures (TP). FG systems had the highest floristic diversity, followed by HG and TP. Interviews with farmers showed that FG, HG, and PC systems were important for maintaining cultural identity and secure subsistence needs, while PC and TP systems were important for improving the economic situation of farmers. The FG systems contained only native species, while the proportion of exotic plants differed among the other systems. Useful exotic plants were found in the HG system. This study demonstrated that agroforestry systems such as FG were not used to their full potential, despite their high diversity of useful plants. It is recommended that farmers—assisted by institutions and representatives of local product chains—conduct feasibility studies on the marketing and promotion of products derived from specific agroforestry systems.
Highlights
México is a country with diverse heterogenic landscapes reflecting the presence and anthropogenic history of the contrasting socio-economic development of many cultures within a time span of a few thousand years [1]
We focused on the description of the agroforestry systems within a representative ejido of the southern state of central Veracruz México named “Los Ídolos”
The transect data showed that forest gardens (FG) had the highest floristic diversity of all the studied systems and formed a habitat for at least 40 different species, which coincides with the findings of Lascurain et al [36] and López-Acosta et al [37]
Summary
México is a country with diverse heterogenic landscapes reflecting the presence and anthropogenic history of the contrasting socio-economic development of many cultures within a time span of a few thousand years [1]. Natural landscapes in Mexico are currently in threat by rapid antropogenic changes such as deforestation, inadequate land tenure regulation or the intensive agricultural and livestock farming to produce products for human consumption [2]. These landscapes still have the potential to fulfil a broad range of ecosystem services and functions to satisfy the needs of local, national, and global involved stakeholders [3]. In the case of México, increased conflicts over land tenure and foreign and local policies that marginalized the economic position of farmers in the past, are the current causes of deforestation. Indigenous farmers occupy 14.3% of the total land surface in México [5] and are generally considered as the poorest group of land dwellers [7]
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