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Relational values and management of plant resources in two communities in a highly biodiverse area in western Mexico

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Abstract

In many cultures, interactions between humans and plants are rooted in what is called “relational values”—values that derive from relationships and entail reciprocity. In Mexico, biocultural diversity is mirrored in the knowledge and use of some 6500 plant species and the domestication of over 250 Mesoamerican native crop species. This research explores how different sets of values are attributed to plants and how these influence management strategies to maintain plant resources in wild and anthropogenic environments. We ran workshops in two communities (one Indigenous, the other non-Indigenous) in a highly biodiverse region in western Mexico, to ascertain the values and management activities related to important plant resources. The relationship between values attributed to plants and management activities was examined through redundancy analysis. A total of 180 plant resources were mentioned during the workshops, with a broad spectrum of values attributed to them, including material, non-material, and regulatory dimensions. We divided plant management strategies into three general categories of increasing intensity and complexity. We found that participants in the Indigenous community value and manage more wild plant resources than people in the non-Indigenous community. We also identified relationships between plant resource values and the type of management performed; for example, more intensive forms of management, such as sowing seeds, were used for seasonal plants that had a food value. By valuing and managing different sets of plant resources from forest, agricultural plots, and home gardens, people enabled multi-functional landscapes to form, illustrating a key feature of relational values in agroecosystems, which promotes both conservation and domestication of plants.

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Notes

  1. These figures add up to over 100% because some resources were located in more than one place. The same is true for the management forms.

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Acknowledgements

The first author acknowledges the Graduate Program in Biological Science of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and CONACYT for the PhD scholarship received, to support the realization of this study. We are very grateful to the people of the ejido Pabelo and the community of Cuzalapa who participated on the workshops and from whom we learn more than expected. We also thank to the fieldwork team for their exceptional support to run the workshops, to Anna Paizanni, Azucena Mastache and Georgina Torres. Special thanks to David González-Jiménez for his conceptual insights and recommendations and to Sarah Bologna for the English editing of the manuscript.

Funding

This research was funded by UNAM-PAPIIT IN300514 and IN302517.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro 8701, 58190, Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico

    Sofía Monroy-Sais, Eduardo García-Frapolli, Alejandro Casas & Francisco Mora

  2. Centro de Investigaciones en Geografía Ambiental, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro 8701, 58190, Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico

    Margaret Skutsch

  3. Departamento de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Centro Universitario de La Costa Sur, Universidad de Guadalajara, Av. Independencia Nacional 151, Centro, Autlán de Navarro, 48900, Jalisco, Mexico

    Peter R. W. Gerritsen

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  1. Sofía Monroy-Sais
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  2. Eduardo García-Frapolli
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  3. Alejandro Casas
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  4. Francisco Mora
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  6. Peter R. W. Gerritsen
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Correspondence to Eduardo García-Frapolli.

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Monroy-Sais, S., García-Frapolli, E., Casas, A. et al. Relational values and management of plant resources in two communities in a highly biodiverse area in western Mexico. Agric Hum Values 39, 1231–1244 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-10313-6

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