Agri-silvicultures of Mexican Arid America

Abstract

Background: Agri-silvicultures (ASC) are biocultural practices procuring either the maintenance of wild diversity in predominantly agricultural spaces or introducing agrobiodiversity into forests. In the Mesoamerican region, ASC contribute to food sovereignty and territorial conservation and provide strategies for dealing with global changes. Previous inventories of ASC identified gaps in information about these systems in the Mexican Arid America region. This article raises the general question: How have human interactions between cultural, wild, and domesticated biodiversity in this territory? The particular questions in this paper are: (i) How have historical processes shaped human interactions between wild and domesticated biodiversity in the region? and (ii) What types of agri-silvicultures have emerged in Mexican Arid America since these relationships?

Methods: We trace a methodological border where archaeologists have identified the Mesoamerican region to define our study area as Arid America northern of this line in Mexico. We analyzed agriculturalization processes in Arid America through a historical review. Then, we carry out an inventory of Arid America ASC based on academic papers and other documented experiences. We constructed a spatial database and a typology to understand what kinds of agri-silviculture occur in the region.

Results: We identified several pre-Hispanic agri-silvicultural practices in the region, like hunting, fishing, terraces, gathering, and irrigation systems. The cultivation of native species of maize, beans, and squash even was registered. The Spanish colonization forced the agriculturization in arid northern Mexico, where itinerant hunting-gathering patterns predominated. In the twentieth century, the Green Revolution adopted this area as the principal setting for industrialized agriculture. The industrialized irrigated systems expansion and other political strategies provoked the simplification of productive landscapes. The practices that integrate wild and agricultural diversity systems were marginalized and invisibilized in such a context. Our research group proposes seven types of agri-silvicultural systems (natives agrisilvicultures, the oases agroforestry, Mesquite and Huisache ASC, homegardens and other traditional forms of agroforestry or agri-silvicultures). These agri-silvicultures provide food, medicine, fodder, and other contributions, as income to the families that practice them and protect native and exotic species.

Discussion and conclusion: The agriculturization of the arid environments initiated during Spanish colonization and the subsequent modernizing projects shaped dominant actors and ideologies in the arid north of Mexico. However, aridity has favored ancestral and agroecological relationships between cultures and biodiversity, emerging and subsisting Arid American agri-silvicultures. These agri-silvicultures deserve to be understood, adopted, and adapted to new contexts. They could be essential alternatives in the context of environmental changes.

Keywords: Arid and semiarid north of Mexico; Biocultural diversity; Geohistory; Nomadic cultures; Traditional agriculture; Traditional agroforestry; Wild and domesticated biodiversity.

Fig. 1

Geohistorical criteria for delimiting Mexican Arid America. Source: Prepared based on [, , –41]. Lambert Conformal Conic Projection, Datum WGS 1984

Fig. 2

Changes in the composition of the human diet in Tehuacán, Puebla and on the southeastern border of Mexican Arid America (Tamaulipas). SI: Spanish Invasion; MA: Mesoamerica; AA: Arid America. Source: Part A: based on MacNeish [35] up to 1500 AD; and for the last date in 2022, based on data from Casas et al. [70]. Part B: based on the estimates of the composition of the diet made by MacNeish [34] in the sierra of Tamaulipas in the southeast of the state, up to 1758; and as a reference to the current composition of the diet of the native population in Mexican Arid America, the last date for 2022 correspond to the Raramuri cultural group, a native people of the Sierra Madre of Chihuahua [70]

Fig. 3

Geographical distribution of publications about agri-silvicultures in Mexico, updated to 2022. Source: Based on the inventory of agri-silvicultures for Mexico. Lambert Conformal Conic Projection, Datum WGS 1984

Fig. 4

Typology of Agri-silvicultures in Mexican Arid America. Source: Based on the inventory of Agri-silviculture for Mexican Arid America. Lambert Conformal Conic Projection, Datum WGS 1984

Fig. 5

Agri-silvopastoral. A. Rainfed maize, in the background mesquite and native vegetation, for dual-purpose cattle feed and fresh cheese production in Cobachi, Sonora, Mexico, August 2013. B Rainfed forage sorghum, in the background mesquite, for dual-purpose cattle feeding and fresh cheese production in Pueblo de Álamos, Sonora, Mexico, November 2014. Photographs by Araceli Andablo

Fig. 6

Silvopastoral. A Cows feed on nopales in the Sierra Huérfana, Pueblo de Álamos, Sonora, Mexico. May 2016. B Meadow with buffel in Tecoripa, Sonora, Mexico. March 2014. Photographs by Araceli Andablo

Fig. 7

Homegardens. A–C From Hilda's Homegarden in Pueblo de Álamos, Sonora, Mexico. July 2018. Photograph by Araceli Andablo

Fig. 8

Milpa. A, B Agricultural plots near Real de Catorce, San Luis Potosí, Mexico, December 2017. Photographs by Gerardo Hernández

Fig. 9

Oases. A and B Oasis en Baja California Sur, Mexico. Photographs by Enedely Vargas, 2017

Fig. 10

Mesquite and Huisache. A Mesquite orchards in Matamoros, Coahuila, Mexico. April 2023. Photography Ing. Samuel Atahualpa Ramírez Macías. B Pruning in mesquite orchards in Los Whiles, San Pedro de las Colonias, Coahuila, Mexico. December 2015. Photograph by Alejandro Moreno-Reséndez