BackgroundDocumenting the spectrum of ecosystem management, the roles of forestry and agricultural biodiversity, TEK, and human culture for food sovereignty, are all priority challenges for contemporary science and society. Ethnoagroforestry is a research approach that provides a theoretical framework integrating socio-ecological disciplines and TEK. We analyze in this study general types of Agroforestry Systems of México, in which peasants, small agriculturalist, and indigenous people are the main drivers of AFS and planning of landscape diversity use. We analyzed the actual and potential contribution of ethnoagroforestry for maintaining diversity of wild and domesticated plants and animals, ecosystems, and landscapes, hypothesizing that ethnoagroforestry management forms may be the basis for food sufficiency and sovereignty in Mexican communities, regions and the whole nation.MethodsWe conducted research and systematization of information on Mexican AFS, traditional agriculture, and topics related to food sovereignty from August 2011 to May 2015. We constructed the database Ethnoagroforestry based on information from our own studies, other databases, Mexican and international specialized journals in agroforestry and ethnoecology, catalogues and libraries of universities and research centers, online information, and unpublished theses. We analyzed through descriptive statistical approaches information on agroforestry systems of México including 148 reports on use of plants and 44 reports on use of animals.ResultsMaize, beans, squashes and chili peppers are staple Mesoamerican food and principal crops in ethnoagroforestry systems practiced by 21 cultural groups throughout Mexico (19 indigenous people) We recorded on average 121 ± 108 (SD) wild and domesticated plant species, 55 ± 27% (SD) of them being native species; 44 ± 23% of the plant species recorded provide food, some of them having also medicinal, firewood and fodder uses. A total of 684 animal species has been recorded (17 domestic and 667 wild species), mainly used as food (34%).ConclusionsEthnoagroforestry an emergent research approach aspiring to establish bases for integrate forestry and agricultural diversity, soil, water, and cultural richness. Its main premise is that ethnoagroforestry may provide the bases for food sovereignty and sustainable ecosystem management.
<p><strong>Background:</strong> The cacao agroforestry system (Cacao-AFS) is a small-scale design system with a great diversity and multiple functions; at the same time that is very vulnerable to the climatic variability. Through resilience is possible to see, how does a system respond and/or reorganize in the face of a perturbation like climate change. This work makes a review of Cacao-AFS and analyzes its potential resilience to climate change. <strong>Methodology</strong>: A review of the state of the art about the cacao system and its resilience had been organized from an analysis of 249 works consulted from bibliographic bases. The information was codified in six factors (scientific and contemporaneous knowledge, agrobiodiversity, socioecological autoregulation, capital, and social self-organization) and climate change implications, and finally evaluated through a matrix. <strong>Results:</strong> Through the review of the literature, it was found that there is a great adaptive capacity because scientific innovation and contemporaneous knowledge it generates different actions to solve some problems of the system. Also, it was found that there is a great agrobiodiversity in the system that allows the socioecological reproduction of the system (autoregulation). On the other hand, the system is low rentable and the young people don`t want to incorporate to the activity (low capital) and the social actors don´t use to cooperate (low self-organization). <strong>Implications:</strong> It was found that there are some aspects that favor the resilience of cacao system and others that need to be improved. To improve the resilience of the Cacao-AFS to climate change it is necessary to create spaces for the self-organization of the different actors and the knowledge dialogue, and to make a transition to more just and agroecological schemes. There are still some parts of the systems and their resilience that had not been totally investigated, like the local responses of the communities to climate change, the immaterial life of the cacao peasants, their inter-familiar and inter-community links, the environmental history of the cacao system, the functional and respond biodiversity and holistic economic diagnostics. <strong>Conclusions:</strong> The cacao system had some elements that indicate some degree of resilience to the climate change. The cacao system is resilient to climate change in some factors and not resilient in others. Their investigation is a fertile field to make multi and interdisciplinary studies.</p>
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