Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS)

Ich Kool: Mayan milpa of the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico

GIAHS since 2022
©Alejandro Diaz San Vicente

Summary

Detailed Information

Partners

Annexes

Global Importance

The Peninsular Mayan milpa has sustained the population of the Yucatan Peninsula for more than 3,500 years until today, favoring the flourishing of the Mayan culture of the southern lowlands. and Thanks to its proper management, it has been able to conserve the jungle and biodiversity, even amid stony karst soils and poor in nutrients and great climate variability.

The Yucatan Peninsula is currently the portion of Mexico with the largest number of milpa and represents the second largest forest of the American continent. The jungle has been maintained thanks to the Milpa Maya as it integrates the forest into the system, which through sustainable use can ensure its conservation, and hence the carbon sequestration, contributing to biodiversity.

Besides, the system is characterized by high climatic resilience, considering that it is in an area with frequent natural disasters such as hurricanes and forest fires. Some fires result from regulated agricultural burns that are part of the agricultural process but they can be seen as a strategy to avoid great forest fires that occur naturally after hurricanes and to protect biodiversity.

Lastly, the milpa has not only produced food, but also fostered identity and culture, it has offered complete and quality nutrition and has allowed evolution with the productive diversity of home gardens. Its gastronomy represents an outstanding contribution to world cuisine, being an important part of Mexican gastronomy.

Food and livelihood security

The milpa contributes to the sustenance and food security of local communities. Indeed, through the three main crops – maize, beans and squash – its diet contains a large part of the food requirements that the human body needs, which has favored both community consumption and the transfer of surpluses outside the community through the milpa agro-food polyculture, in addition to being strengthened through the diversity of productive activities that make up the system.

Besides, the diversity of activities associated with the Maya Milpa includes different means of livelihood such as hunting, forest gathering (for firewood, charcoal or construction materials), solar gardens, livestock breeding and medicinal plants. . Today, diversification through beekeeping, agrotourism and gastronomy are also being explored to tackle the rural exodus and promote attractive opportunities for younger generations.

Agrobiodiversity 

The milpa system has favored the cultivation of domesticated species and variants, some of them native to the Maya area and others such as maize from the Mesoamerican area. . The selection in each milpa has promoted the enrichment of the cultivated genetic resources, for example through the selection and conservation of seeds. To date, the current agrobiodiversity includes 160 species grown and harvested, 40 species of animals and 600 species of medicinal herbs. Native maize is used by 86% of producers with over 10 varieties.

In addition, forests are sustainably managed to ensure their conservation and regeneration. In the GIAHS core zone, there is a smaller proportion of milpa plots open to cultivation (10%), compared to the area occupied by Medium Forest (13%) and Secondary Vegetation (64%), made up of plots in disuse and in vegetation recovery, which exist thanks to the predominance of milpa under slash and burn. These practices are recognized in the area to contribute to biodiversity conservation, natural hazards impacts reduction as well as forest regenerative capacity.

Local and traditional knowledge systems

The milpa system in the Yucatan Peninsula is rich and composed of different activities all linked to the forests. First, it has relied on slash and burn technology as it would not have been possible to apply any other technique. Indeed, it is necessary not only to open up space in the vegetation for crops and allow the sunlight to penetrate , but alsoto incorporate the nutrients accumulated in the vegetation into the stony, poor and thin soils of the Yucatecan Forest.

Moreover, it would be impossible to imagine the milpa practices (artificial plant selection, adaptation to ecological characteristics) and the slash-and-burn practices, without an effective knowledge of meteorological phenomena and landscape features. Local farmers are the custodians of a unique ecological knowledge passed down through generations, relying on a refined typology of rain and clouds (16 types), the xok k’iin, show knowledge of almost 20 types of soils andan impressive range of different vegetation.

Lastly, besides the core species (maize, beans, squash and lima beans), sown in association in the same hole, there are many other species that have been sown in the milpa itself. These are intercropped, as are other beans and cucurbita species, and those sown in the so-called pach pakal, where vegetables and roots are grown, taking advantage of the best soils of the milpa.

Besides the production of milpa and the natural products that grow and are gathered in the bushes, the family garden Tankab or Kuch called Solar in Spanish is the other essential productivespace for the milperos. A greater diversity of plants is grown in these home gardens than in the fields, together with the raising of animals.

Cultures, value systems and social organizations

The milpa not only produces food, but it also fosters identity and culture, which reinforces the global relevance of the polyculture. The worldview and ceremonies resulting from the relationship established with nature through milpa management has been fundamental to the system’s way of existence. The conservation of living genetic resources is embedded in the Maya’s culture through language, food, knowledge of the bush, cosmovision and rituals.

For this reason, the Maya have had a deep respect for nature since time immemorial and this respect is the foundation of their identity. There are traditional, community and family rules for the use of the forest ,and management of its resources, based on a collective heritage. For instance, the forest is considered to have spiritual guardians but also its own consciousness. For this reason, they organize rituals and ceremonies to ask permission and give thanks for the use of nature to the supernatural powers that possess and care for natural resources.

Landscapes and seascapes features

The Milpa landscapes, a mosaic of plant strata, are discontinuous areas of vegetation which have been modified due to agricultural use. They are composed of secondary plant communities in various stages of succession, which over time become secondary forests; and if conditions are favorable and are supported, they can become restored as forests of native species.

Besides, the management has contributed to forest regeneration and the buffering of the effect of fires, the aftermath of hurricanes. The Maya milpa landscapes have been preserved with apparent stability, yet they are also very dynamic, and are part of the traditional landscapes of the region, as well as the Maya ruins and subterranean karst landscapes (cenotes and caverns), also forming part of the world’s biocultural heritage.