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Traditional agroforestry systems of multi-crop “milpa” and “chichipera” cactus forest in the arid Tehuacán Valley, Mexico: their management and role in people’s subsistence

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Abstract

Agroforestry systems (AFS) derived from the cactus forest “chichipera” and cultivated with “milpa”, the traditional multi-crop system of maize-beans-squash were studied in the Tehuacán Valley, Mexico. Plant management types practiced by people, role of agricultural and forest resources in households’ subsistence, and consequences of changes in AFS were investigated through ethnobotanical, ecological, and economic approaches. People maintain in this AFS 122 plant species that provide useful products for 14 different purposes. Nearly 90% of useful plants are native to the region, representing 54% of all plant species recorded in the chichipera forest. Management strategies were identified occurring on 63 species at landscape, parcel, and individual plant levels. About 67% of managed plant species are left standing during clearance of vegetation; 35% are transplanted to the parcels’ surrounding area, 32% receive particular protection, and 10 species from other areas are cultivated inside the fields. During years of higher rainfall (~745 mm) AFS supply nearly 75% of the maize grain and 50% of the maize straw used as fodder by households. AFS with intermediate vegetation cover have higher economic value than monocultures and forest. However, plots with low forest cover and monocultures are progressively more common as consequence of socio-cultural processes. Local traditional ecological knowledge and management techniques are crucial for managing resilience of these AFS.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas and CONACYT for supporting posgraduate studies of the first author. We also thank financial support from CONACYT (project CB-2008-01-103551), DGAPA, UNAM, Mexico (project IN205111-3), and the Millenium Seed Bank project of the Royal Kew Gardens, UK. Also, to Selene Rangel-Landa, Edgar Pérez-Negrón and Mirna Canul for supporting field work, and Dr. Andrés Camou and Dr. Alicia Castillo for their critical comments to a preliminary version of the manuscript. Finally, we sincerely thank people of San Luis Atolotitlán (Ortega family) for their hospitality and friendship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Apartado Postal 27-3 (Santa María Guido), 58190, Morelia, MICH, Mexico

    Ana Isabel Moreno-Calles, Alejandro Casas, Eduardo García-Frapolli & Ignacio Torres-García

Authors
  1. Ana Isabel Moreno-Calles
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  2. Alejandro Casas
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  3. Eduardo García-Frapolli
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  4. Ignacio Torres-García
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alejandro Casas.

Appendix A

Appendix A

See Table 5.

Table 5 Family, local names, origin, uses, management of plant species of chichipera′s agroforestry system
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Moreno-Calles, A.I., Casas, A., García-Frapolli, E. et al. Traditional agroforestry systems of multi-crop “milpa” and “chichipera” cactus forest in the arid Tehuacán Valley, Mexico: their management and role in people’s subsistence. Agroforest Syst 84, 207–226 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-011-9460-x

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