Risk Management of Availability of Plant and Fungi Resources Among the Purépecha in Michoacán, Central-Western Mexico

Abstract

Management is commonly directed to decrease risk and increase certainty in resources availability. Risk in access to resources may be influenced not only by ecological factors, but also by human pressures which may be higher with the cultural and economic values of resources. People manage plants and fungi according to their role in subsistence, amounts available, and their quality and demand for their direct consumption and commercialization. This study aimed to analyze the management strategies and intensity, in relation to their distribution, abundance, and demand in the Purépecha community of Cuanajo, Michoacán. We expected more complex and intense management practices in more valued but scarce species. Through 25 in-depth interviews to agriculturalists and gatherers of wild plants and fungi from Cuanajo, Michoacán, we documented management intensity and risk of availability. Then, through categorizing all variables documented and using a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) we estimated (using values of the first principal component) an index of management intensity (IMI) and an index of ecological risk (IER) for different use forms of the species of plants and mushrooms. We evaluated the relation between IMI and IER through regression analysis. We documented 50 species of plants and 23 species of mushrooms used, managed, and commercialized; nearly 71.2% of these species are obtained through simple gathering, and the rest involve silvicultural management in agroforestry systems and homegardens. Total 42 species are commercialized in regional markets, and 31 are consumed in the community. Plants with higher management intensity are those receiving higher number of practices with higher complexity, managed in several types of forest and agroforestry systems. More complex practices are carried out in plants with higher risk, restricted spatial and temporal availability; these species are in homegardens. Regression analyses were significant among higher risk and management intensity in edible, medicinal, ceremonial, and ornamental plants. Our chapter shows that the main motives for managing wild plants and mushrooms are related to pressures associated to demand in markets and for direct consumption by households, a pressure that is more pronounced in resources that are scarce. Using scarce resources causes risk, and management is a response to such risk.