Land use changes associated with the advance of forest plantations on lands previously used for agriculture generate diverse perceptions of the socio-environmental impact they entail. Despite, these perceptions are influenced by the landscape context produced by the land use changes. In last decades there has been a transformation in land use associated with the development of forestry activity in the northwest of the province of Misiones, Argentina. Considering local communities in order to improve assessment, governance and decisionmaking in sustainable management, we posed two questions: What are environmental, social and economic perceptions of tree plantations of local communities with different land-use context'? What is the role of scale of production in these perceptions? To this purpose we first described the productive matrix of the landscape mapping the forest plantation cover of the area and classifying the productive units in different Forest Management Model (large, medium and small scale).Then, we identified and selected participants from comparable rural communities in each FMM, who through a Q survey grouped phrases according their perceptions. Subsequently, emerging viewpoints were recognised. Our analysis shows that forestry activity is not poorly conceived in contrast to conceptualization of the management of larger-scale productive systems in combination with government policies promoting them.The management carried out through large areas that result in a homogenization of the landscape are perceived negatively. In general terms, the local imagination perceives that the promotion and establishment of forestry companies could be positive if it is supported on planning to protect pre-existing familiar productive systems.

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Farmers' decisions on what to grow and why can contribute in understanding the conservation of agrobiodiversity. Culture and ethnicity are indicated as first-class factors leading preservation of heirloom cultivars but this has been little considered in studies examining factors that influence the loss or preservation of agrobiodiversity. We propose that corn's ethnotaxa of less diverse uses, which are also key partners in local cultural reproduction, are usually cultivated by a few households. We analyse if there is a relationship between uses and richness of cultivated ethnotaxa at household level and describe corn's medicinal and ritual uses. We found 25 cultivated ethnotaxa, heterogeneously distributed in the region, and we also found that ethnotaxa with less diverse uses are cultivated in fewer households. We identified that, at regional scale, richness is related with food use diversity. The most frequently cited medicinal uses were urinary and tract infections, diarrhoea, and liver disorders. Medicinal recipes involve combinations with other elements. Maize is an indispensable resource in the rituals that propitiate productive activity, to augur prosperity or misfortune according to signals. We have identified the vulnerability in preserving the richness of corn in the region and the factors that shape its cultivation at different scales.