Economic strategies of families and agrobiodiversity of home gardens in the Los Ríos region, Tabasco, Mexico / Ximena Checa Rivas

Thesis Master of Science Forest and Natura Conservation Universidad de Wageningen, Forest Ecology and Forest Management 2015

Bibliografía: hoja 49-52

1. Introduction.. 2. Material and Methods.. 2.1. Study Area.. 2.2. Methodology.. 2.2.1 First phase.. 2.2.2 Second phase.. 3. Results.. 3.1. First phase.. 3.1.1. Economic activities.. 3.1.2. Clusters of families: Economic strategies.. 3.1.3. Agrobiodiversity in the home gardens.. 3.1.4 Division of labor and gender.. 3.2. Second phase.. 4. Discussion.. 4.1. First phase.. 4.1.1. Economic activities.. 4.1.2. Economic strategies.. 4.1.3. Economic strategies and agrobiodiversity.. 4.1.4. Division of labor and gender.. 4.2. Second phase.. 5. Conclusions.. 6. Literature

Acceso en línea sin restricciones

Home gardens are commonly considered as multistory combinations of trees and crops often associated with domesticate animals around the homestead. They provide products and services for the families, which motivate the shaping of the form, structure, diversity and function of the home garden by their owners through the management, selection and conservation of species. The maintaining of a diversified home garden is part of a diversified livelihood strategy that aims to continuously adapt to changing social and/or economic conditions. This strategy involves the construction of a diverse portfolio of activities that allows families to improve their living conditions and security, alleviate livelihood distress and respond to crisis. The decisions of families in this regard, will also affect the agrobiodiversity of the home gardens. We try to respond the following question: How do economic strategies of rural families influence the agrobiodiversity of home gardens? To answer this question, we applied a socioeconomic questionnaire and open questions to 66 farmer families, with known biodiversity in their home gardens. The sample of families was evenly distributed over the three main geographical conditions (mountain slopes, small hills and floodplains) in the Los Ríos region in Tabasco, Mexico. We used clustering of main economic activities to group families according to their livelihood strategies and determined if agrobiodiversity of the home garden varied between the clusters. We found no differences in species richness between the gropus of families with particular strategies. We conclude that families, the basic unit of production and consumption, manage to combine their overall economic strategy with maintaining diversity in home garden, and that the latter is an essential part of this strategy. eng

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