Ethnobotany for Sustainable Ecosystem Management: A Regional Perspective in the Tehuacán Valley

Abstract

Different indicators of global change identify that industrial processes are principal causes of the severe human impact on ecosystems of Earth. However, although industrial processes predominate in the world, numerous rural societies with a different rationality and organization coexist with the hegemonic mode of production. In indigenous communities the traditional botanical, zoological and ecological knowledge as well as traditional technologies of local resources and ecosystem management are particularly rich, as product of hundreds or thousands of years of experience. Indigenous communities have historically built diverse forms of managing the socioecological systems and the biocultural diversity adapted to local conditions, which are generally much more environmental friendly than other intensive forms of management. In this study we document the management of plant resources by peoples of the Tehuacán Valley, Mexico. We have inventoried more than 1600 plant species used for satisfying a broad spectrum of needs. People gather nearly 90 % of those species from wild populations, but practice different forms of incipient management (tolerance, enhancing, transplantation and seed sowing) in order to increase availability of nearly 400 important plant resources. The indigenous communities may adopt some modern techniques of managing resources and ecosystems, and select those according with their conditions and views. Based on these processes people construct hybrid techniques that may be adapted to the local environments. Agroecologists and ethnobotanists have visualized the high value of traditional management systems for generating technological viable alternatives for designing forms of sustainable management adapted to satisfy local needs and conserving biodiversity and ecosystems, and the continuous innovation tested by local people. It has been recognized that, in general, the traditional management systems have higher capacity for conserving biodiversity and ensuring the resilience of socioecological systems than industrial systems and that both traditional and modern techniques may contribute to better forms of management, but the form that the process adopts is crucial. Understanding traditional management systems are therefore the opportunity to reproduce valuable experiences, models and lessons for sustainable management and participatory adoption of new techniques may help to solve problems not traditionally solved. This chapter shows a general panorama of ethnobotanical information about resources and local traditional management strategies among Nahua, Mixtec, Mazatec, Cuicatec, Popoloca, Ixcatec and Mestizo peoples of the Tehuacán Valley, in order to analyse their role in designing a future for the region based on sustainability, an experience that may be useful for this and other regions of Mexico.