Bird conservation status and cultural values in Indigenous Mexican communities: towards a bioculturally informed conservation policy.

BACKGROUND: We summarize comparative ethnoornithological data for ten Mexican Indigenous communities, an initial step towards a comprehensive archive of the avian diversity conserved within Mexico's Indigenous territories. We do so by counting highlighted species listed for bird conservation status on widely recognized "red lists" and their cultural value to build biocultural policies in Mexico for their conservation. METHODS: Indigenous bird names for each study site were determined to allow calculation of the "Scientific Species Recognition Ratio" (SSRR) for high cultural value birds obtained across communities. This demonstrated patterns of cultural prominence. A matrix of 1275 bird versus seven biocultural values was analysed using a correspondence analysis (InfoStat/L-v2020) to illustrate patterns of concordance between bird conservation status and cultural values. RESULTS: This paper contributes to quantitative and qualitative data on the role of ethnoornithology and ethnobiology in biocultural conservation. The areas studied provide refugia for almost 70% of the Mexican avifauna within a fraction of 1% of the national territory, that is 769 bird species recorded for all communities. The global correspondence of regions of biological and linguistic megadiversity is well established, while linguistic diversity is widely accepted as a good proxy for general cultural diversity. Our correspondence analysis explained 81.55% of the variation, indicating a strong relation between cultural importance and bird conservation status. We propose three main categories to establish a bioculturally informed public policy in Mexico for the conservation of what we described as high, medium, and bioculturally prominent bird species all include cultural value in any material or symbolic aspect. High are those species appearing on any threatened list, but also considered in any endemic status, while medium include threatened listed species. The last category included species not necessarily listed on any threat list, but with a wide range of social and cultural uses. We suggest that the concept might be extended to other species of biocultural importance. CONCLUSIONS: We argue that bird conservation policies should be biocultural, that is they should recognize birds of cultural value on a par with bird species "of special interest" because they are most critical for biodiversity conservation. The desire of local people to protect their traditional community lands and livelihoods can be an effective biodiversity conservation strategy, which should be recognized in national biocultural policies.

Nahua biocultural richness: an ethnoherpetological perspective.

BACKGROUND: Mexico harbours one of the greatest biocultural diversities of the world, where multiple social and natural elements and systems form complex networks of interactions in which both culture and nature are mutually influenced. Biocultural states and processes are studied by ethnosciences, among them ethnoherpetology, which seeks understanding material and non-material expressions of the interactions between humans, amphibians, and reptiles. Herpetofauna has been part of the magic-religious world and source of goods for Mesoamerican cultures. This study aims to document and analyse the complex body of knowledge, beliefs, and practices on these vertebrates in the Nahua culture, the factors that have influenced progressive risk and loss of culture, habitat, and species, and the potential contribution of contemporary Nahua knowledge to biocultural conservation. METHODS: Through 15 workshops with children and young people, and 16 semi-structured interviews to people 27 to 74 years old, we documented the contemporary Nahua knowledge in the communities of Aticpac and Xaltepec in the Sierra Negra, Puebla, central Mexico. Biological and ecological knowledge, use, management practices, legends, and perceptions on herpetofauna were emphasised in the study. RESULTS: We obtained an ethnoherpetological checklist, grouping species into four general classificatory categories: kohuatl (serpents), kalatl (frogs and toads), ayotsi (turtles), and ketzo (lizards and salamanders), which included 21, 10, 1, and 11 ethnocategories respectively, based on the local Nahua knowledge of herpetofauna. Serpents, used as medicine, are the most culturally relevant. Due to perceptions of danger, beliefs, and actual snake bites, the main interaction with serpents is their elimination; however, some snakes are tolerated and maintained in captivity. The remaining species of local herpetofauna recorded are tolerated. Cultural aspects of reptiles and amphibians in the Nahua worldview were documented to influence the regulation of interactions of people with these vertebrates, but for younger generations, such aspects are less frequent or absent. CONCLUSIONS: Interactions and cultural relationships between the Nahua people, amphibians and reptiles are complex, maintaining some aspects of the local worldview but also influenced by external factors and being constantly recreated and re-signified. Documenting and understanding the contemporary relations is essential to generate strategies in biocultural conservation of herpetofauna.

Home gardens' agrobiodiversity and owners' knowledge of their ecological, economic and socio-cultural multifunctionality: a case study in the lowlands of Tabasco, México.

BACKGROUND: Home gardens (HGs) are hotspots of in situ agrobiodiversity conservation. We conducted a case study in Tabasco, México, on HG owners' knowledge of HG ecological, economical and socio-cultural multifunctionality and how it relates to agrobiodiversity as measured by species richness and diversity. The term multifunctionality knowledge refers to owners' knowledge on how HGs contribute to ecological processes, family economy, as well as human relations and local culture. We hypothesized a positive correlation between owners' multifunctionality knowledge and their HGs' agrobiodiversity. METHODS: We inventoried all perennial species in 20 HGs, determined observed species richness, calculated Shannon diversity indexes and analysed species composition using non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS). Based on literature, semi-structured interviews and a dialogue of knowledge with HG owners, we catalogued the locally recognized functions in the ecological, economic and socio-cultural dimensions. We determined the score of knowledge on each function in the three dimensions on explicit scales based on the interviews and observed management. We determined Spearman rs correlations of HGs' observed species richness, Shannon diversity index (H) and of HGs' scores on NMDS-axis and multifunctionality knowledge scores. We dialogued on the results and implications for agrobiodiversity conservation at workshops of HG owners, researchers and local organizations. RESULTS: HG agrobiodiversity and owners' multifunctionality knowledge in the study area showed large variation. Average richness was 59.6 perennial species, varying from 21 to 107 species, and total observed richness was 280 species. A total of 38 functions was distinguished, with 14, 12 and 12 functions in the ecological, economic and socio-cultural dimensions. Total multifunctionality knowledge scores varied from 64.1 to 106.6, with an average of 87.2. Socio-cultural functionality knowledge scores were the highest, followed by scores in the ecological and economic dimensions. Species richness and Shannon H were significantly correlated with ecological functionality knowledge (rs = 0.68 and P < 0.001 in both cases), and species richness was also correlated with economic functionality knowledge (rs = 0.47, P = 0.03). Species composition scores on the first and second axes of NMDS was significantly correlated with knowledge of ecological multifunctionality, with rs = 0.49 resp-0.49 and P = 0.03 in both cases. Other functionality knowledge scores showed no correlation with NMDS scores. Dialogue in workshops confirmed the interwovenness of multifunctionality knowledge and agrobiodiversity. CONCLUSION: The rich agrobiodiversity of home gardens cherished by rural families in Tabasco relates with the knowledge about HG functionality in the ecological and economic dimensions. Also, species composition relates with ecological functionality knowledge. The socio-cultural functionality knowledge, which includes many elements beyond the individual HG, is not correlated with agrobiodiversity, but had the highest scores. Our results show that multifunctionality knowledge provides many opportunities for the participative conception and planning of policies and actions necessary to conserve agrobiodiversity.