Socioecological effects of swidden management in traditional Maya agroforests in the Selva Lacandona of Chiapas, Mexico.

For millennia, Maya farmers (i.e., milperos) throughout Mesoamerica have managed milpa: sequential agroforests initiated by slashing and burning patches of secondary forest and then cultivating a diverse polyculture of trees and annual crops. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with deforestation, the Mexican government and non-governmental organizations have urged milperos to cease burning. We collaborated with Maya milperos in several communities in the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve region in Chiapas, Mexico to determine carbon retained as char in traditional milpas, carbon loss associated with burning, and effects of burning on soil quality. We found the carbon retention of char in Maya milpas (24 ± 6.5% of C in vegetation) is 4-1400% higher than other slash-and-burn agroecosystems reported in the literature. Burning resulted in significant carbon loss of 12.6 (±3.6) t C ha-1 yr-1, but this was partially mitigated by char production (3.0 [±0.6] t C ha-1 yr-1) and incomplete combustion of woody biomass. The effects of burning on soil were minimal, with the only significant changes observed being increases in pH, potassium availability, and cation exchange capacity (2, 100, and 7%, respectively). The mean residence times of charred materials were at least double that of uncharred biomass. While there is a risk that shortening fallow periods would undermine the sustainability of Maya swidden agroecology, proper management and secure land tenure can help maintain intensive production without enduring environmental degradation. The char produced in these swiddens and successional management could allow this agroforestry system to be a long-term carbon sink.

Daños ocasionados por vertebrados silvestres al cultivo de maíz en la selva lacandona, Chiapas México / Damages caused by wild vertebrate species in corn crops at the lacandon forest Chiapas Mexico

Los propósitos de este trabajo fueron identificar las especies de vertebrados silvestres causantes de daños en la Selva Lacandona de Chiapas, México, y estimar y comparar las pérdidas en parcelas con distintas características como vegetación adyacente, disponibilidad de agua, árboles muertos, forma, pendiente, fecha de siembra, distancia a poblados y presencia de parcelas agrupadas. Entre febrero y septiembre de 2004 se muestrearon 22 parcelas de maíz en dos comunidades adyacentes a la Reserva de la Biósfera Montes Azules, estableciendo aleatoriamente 10 transectos lineales de 100m y 10 cuadrantes de 25m2 por ha. Las especies dañinas identificadas en el área de estudio fueron mapache (Procyon lotor), pecarí de collar (Tayassu tajacu), coatí (Nasua narica), tepezcuintle (Agouti paca), ardilla gris (Sciurus aureogaster), tuza (Orthogeomys hispidus), ratón mexicano (Peromyscus mexicanus), loro coroniblanco (Pionus senilis), pea (Cyanocorax morio) y carpintero lineado (Dryocopus lineatus). Las pérdidas promedio estimadas fueron de 8,9 ±1 por ciento de la cosecha de maíz, equivalentes a 90kg·ha-1. Los mayores daños ocasionados por cada especie se presentaron en parcelas con presencia de arroyos (pecarí de collar), árboles muertos (carpintero lineado), selvas secundarias (coatí), y durante las primeras siembras y distantes de la comunidad (loro coroniblanco)

Maya medicine in the biological gaze: bioprospecting research as herbal fetishism.

The relationship of human societies to territory and natural resources is being drastically altered by a series of global agreements concerning trade, intellectual property, and the conservation and use of genetic resources. Through a characteristic style of collective appropriation of their tropical ecosystems, Maya societies have created local institutions for governing access to their common resources. However, new mechanisms of global governance require access to Maya biodiversity for world commercial interests. The Chiapas Highland Maya already face this prospect in the International Cooperative Biodiversity Group drug discovery project, which proposes to use Maya medical knowledge to screen plants for potential pharmaceuticals. The ethnobiological focus of the project emphasizes the naturalistic aspects of Maya medicine, primarily the use of herbal remedies. This biological gaze decontextualizes the situated knowledge of Maya healers, ignoring the cultural context in which they create and apply that knowledge. The search for raw materials for the production of universal medical technology results in symbolic violence to the cultural logic of Maya peoples. Only the full recognition of Maya peoples' collective rights to territory and respect for their local common-resource institutions will provide ultimate protection for their cultural and natural patrimony.