Landscape and Urban Planning 74 (2006) 267284

Farmers, fires, and forests: a green alternative to shifting

cultivation for conservation of the Maya forest?
Amarella Eastmond a, , Betty Faust b,1
a

Social Science Unit of the Center for Regional Research, University Autonoma de Yucatan, Unidad de Ciencias Sociales,
Calle 61 Nururo, 525, pro 66 y 68, Merida Centro, Yucatan 97000, Mexico
b Department of Human Ecology, Centre for Research and Advanced Studies, Yucatan C.P. 97310, Mexico
Available online 13 November 2004

Abstract
When fires blazed through Mexicos forests in 1998, the country experienced a new sense of urgency in its attempts to combat
ecosystem degradation and loss of biodiversity. Secretara de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT, the federal
environmental protection agency) identified the use of fire in agriculture as a major contributor to the conflagration. Traditional
slash-and-burn systems are still widely practiced in the southeast of Mexico, and finding a substitute for burning, especially in
and near protected areas, became imperative (SEMARNAT, 2001). Experience from different parts of Central America indicated
that green manure/cover crop systems (g/cc) could increase soil fertility, reduce erosion, control weeds and raise the yield of
maize; the hope was that this system could replace slash-and-burn practices with their attendant risk of forest fires. We present the
case study of a project introducing a green cover crop to traditional, resource-poor, maize farmers in one community of the Yucatan
peninsula and preliminary results from a similar project in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, discussing the data in the light of the
on-going debates concerning both fire policy and soil erosion. We conclude that, in spite of demonstrating some advantages, adoption in the peninsula has been hindered by environmental, economic and socio-cultural factors. Mexican efforts to eliminate fire
from the forests must also be assessed with reference to the scientific literature by fire experts and historical ecologists, indicating
that prohibition of small fires may actually decrease total biodiversity, while increasing the probabilities of catastrophic forest fires.
2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Fire ecology; Slash-and-burn agriculture; Forest conservation; Maya Indians (indigenous people)

Resumen
En 1998, cuando ocurrieron los devastadores incendios forestales en Mexico, el pas se hizo mas conciente de la necesidad
urgente de combatir la degradacion de los ecosistemas y la perdida de la biodiversidad. La Secretara de Medio Ambiente y
Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT) identifico el uso del fuego en la agricultura como uno de los elementos principales que

Corresponding author. Tel.: +52 9 924 27 67; fax: +52 999 928 5115.
E-mail addresses: espencer@tunku.uady.mx (A. Eastmond), faust@kin.mda.cinvestav.mx (B. Faust).
Tel.: +52 9 981 29 60x307.

0169-2046/$20.00 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2004.09.007

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A. Eastmond, B. Faust / Landscape and Urban Planning 74 (2006) 267284

contribuyo a la conflagracion. Los sistemas tradicionales de roza, tumba y quema todava son ampliamente practicados en el
sureste del pas y el encontrar un sustituto de la quema, especialmente cerca y adentro de las a reas protegidas, se convirtio en
algo prioritario (SEMARNAT, 2001). La experiencia de diferentes partes de America Central indicaba que los abonos verdes
y cultivos de cobertura podan aumentar la fertilidad del suelo, reducir la erosion, controlar las malas hierbas e incrementar
los rendimientos de maz; se esperaba que este sistema pudiera reemplazar las practicas de roza, quema y tumba y el riesgo
que conllevan de producir incendios forestales. En este trabajo presentamos, por un lado, un estudio de caso de un proyecto que
introdujo un cultivo de cobertura a una comunidad de productores tradicionales de maz, con escasos recursos en la Pennsula
de Yucatan y, por el otro, resultados preliminares de un proyecto similar en la Reserva de la Biosfera de Calakmul. La discusion
de los datos, a la luz de los debates actuales sobre la poltica del uso del fuego y la erosion del suelo, nos lleva a la conclusion
de que, a pesar de que presenta algunas ventajas, la adopcion de sistemas de cultivos de cobertura en la pennsula, ha sido
obstaculizada por factores ambientales, economicos y socio-culturales. Tambien se enfatiza que esta estrategia para eliminar
el uso del fuego en los bosques debe ser evaluada con referencia a las publicaciones de los expertos en incendios y ecologa
historica, los cuales indican que la prohibicion de incendios pequenos puede disminuir la biodiversidad total al mismo tiempo
que incrementa las probabilidades de incendios forestales catastroficas.
2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Palabras claves: Ecologa de incendios forestales; Agricultura de roza-tumba-y-quema; Conservacion forestal; Mayas yucatecos (pueblo
indgena)

1. Introduction
In view of the growing interest in g/cc systems in
Mexico by government agencies, non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and research groups, it became
clear by the mid-1990s that an evaluation of their
effectiveness was required. Various g/cc systems, in
particular the mucuna/maize cropping system, were
being promoted as if they represented a proven alternative to slash-and-burn agriculture in the southeast of
Mexico, yet hard data to back up the enthusiasm was
missing. Thus a number of evaluation studies were
initiated. The largest, known as the Pachuca Project,
was carried out by four NGOs and two research
groups, all of which belonged to the Natural Resources
Management Network, supported by the Rockefeller
Foundation. Using a series of sustainable development indicators, these groups compared traditional
slash-and-burn with the different g/cc systems that
were being implemented in eight communities in the
southeast: one in Chiapas, three in Oaxaca, and two
in Yucatan: Sahcaba and Xnohuayab (Fig. 1). The
issues examined focused on the maize yield and economic viability of the systems, the ecological factors
(stability, resilience and reliability), adoption rates,
dependence on the exterior for inputs and equality in
terms of the distribution of costs and benefits.
An interesting aspect of the project was that it consisted of two parallel evaluations: one carried out by a

technical team and one by small farmers. In addition to

these regional evaluations, there was particular interest
from the project director in Sahcaba to analyze in detail
the reasons behind its unexpectedly low adoption rates,
in the face of high yields. It was thus that the authors of
this paper (an anthropologist and a sociologist) were
invited to examine the socio-cultural and economic
aspects of the mucuna/maize cover crop system in
Sahcaba, as part of a special evaluation project that
included agronomists. Our main objective was to understand how the individual farmers and the community
perceived the mucuna/maize system in a broad sense,
including how it was being implemented. Considering
the potential importance of this system for protected
natural areas, reference is also made to data obtained
from an evaluation that is in process in the Biosphere
Reserve of Calakmul. Based on different methodologies, data sources and time scales, it is not surprising
that various evaluations have produced somewhat distinct results. However, many of the general conclusions
are similar and tend to reinforce each other.

2. Agriculture and the environment

2.1. The debate over burning
During 1998, there were massive, catastrophic
forest fires throughout the country; 14,445 fires burned

A. Eastmond, B. Faust / Landscape and Urban Planning 74 (2006) 267284

269

Fig. 1. Map showing the communities where the mucuna/maize system was evaluated in the State of Yucatan.

at least 849,632 ha, more than the previous 4 years

combined (SEMARNAT, 2001). Many homes and
other buildings were lost, firefighters and local residents died, and the damage to rare and endangered
species was enormous. The smoke caused serious eye
and lung irritation in Mexico City and beyond the Texas
border. Mexican fire expert, Dante Rodrquez-Trejo of
Universidad Autonoma Chapingo, reported that, The
response to the fires within Mexico has been immediate
and widespread, a gamut of political alarm that has extended from villages to the presidency (Stolzenburg,
2001, 25).
The fire in El Ocote Biosphere Reserve (State of
Chiapas) is an example that has been reported in a recent issue of Nature Conservancy:
. . . helicopters, airplanes, tanker trucks and 900 firefighters were defeated. . . . The fire leapt a river chasm
1,000 feet deep and a quarter mile across . . . Aerial
surveyors declared 40 percent of the reserve burnt.
Forested ridges were incinerated down to the bedrock.
Birds crowded into the remnants of unrazed forest,
seeking shelter (Stolzenburg, 2001, 24).
Jaguars and howler monkeys are among the 90
species of mammals previously found in El Ocote, 74
of which require tree branches for habitat in order to

survive. Their survival rate is unknown. US Forest Service specialist Brian Woodbridge was supervising bird
surveys in the area before the fire started, and his team
was able to do other surveys afterwards. They found
no absence of formerly present bird species but noted
overcrowding in the islands of forest left standing (as
cited in Stolzenburg, 2001, 26). Such overcrowding of
habitat can logically be expected to affect future reproduction.
This year of intense fires resulted from extreme
drought in Mexico, due to the local effects of El Nino
(or ENSO, El Nino-Southern Oscillation), a cyclically
recurring weather event that involves warming of the
Pacific Ocean and extreme drought in the Neo-Tropics
(Meggers, 1994; Robinson, 1985). More frequent and
extreme Ninos are predicted with global warming. The
immediate and understandable response to this growing threat to humans, forests, and wildlife has been to
increase fire prevention efforts that were already part of
Mexican environmental policy. Such efforts have come
to include new programs to replace the burning in traditional slash-and-burn agriculture with g/cc regimes
that also are said to maintain soil fertility under permanent cultivation. The objectives include prevention of
fires, increasing yields for farmers and simultaneously
freeing other areas for the protection of biodiversity, including forests and wildlife (Guevara et al., 2000, 208).

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A. Eastmond, B. Faust / Landscape and Urban Planning 74 (2006) 267284

2.2. The debate over soil erosion

Much debate has occurred over the concept of the
ecologically noble savage (e.g., Posey, 1985; Crosby,
1986; Redford, 1990, 1996; Crumley, 1994; Terborgh,
1999) with references to evidence for over-hunting,
over-fishing, soil erosion, etc. However, there is no
doubt that the ecological impact of indigenous practices on the soils has been far less than that of EuroAmerican ones, which have included cattle ranching
and the clearing of large tracts of forest for monocropping with tractor cultivation (e.g., an example of the latter is a very large rice project that is well documented
in Gates (1994)). A number of analyses of modern,
theoretically permanent systems for food production
have clearly demonstrated that they tend to both erode
soils and degrade their quality over time, eventually resulting in abandonment unless extra technologies are
added specifically for soil conservation (for the US see
Worster (1994, orig. 1977, 221253), for the UK and
Europe see Pretty (1998, 6980); for Costa Rica see
Rubin and Hyman (2000, 449471). Terborgh (1999,
143144) provides a global summary of this literature:
The one renewable resource to which intensification
does irreparable damage is soil: . . . Whereas intensification of agricultural production extracts a price from
the soil, traditional slash-and-burn agriculture causes
little or no soil erosion. . . the soil is never overturned
and exposed to the elements. Unsustainable erosion
goes hand in hand with mechanization.
Myers (1997, 217) gives a vivid example from
the tropics, where the impact of tropical downpours
causes more soil erosion in deforested areas than anywhere else on earth. The most prominent instance is
probably Nepal, where the Department of Soil and Water Conservation estimates that between 30 and 75 tons
of soil are washed away from each hectare of deforested land each year. This means that the country altogether loses as much as 240 million m3 of soil annually
(citing Cool (1980)). The UN Environment Program
estimates that worldwide 63% of range lands, 60%
of rain-fed croplands, and 30% of irrigated croplands
are threatened by desertification (according to Miller
(1995, 327)). In the US, the Soil Conservation Service
was formed in reaction to a drought that lasted from
1926 to 1934. However, despite research and technical

advances in soil conservation backed by government

subsidies:
. . . the soil on cultivated land is eroding 16 times faster
than it can form. . . . the Great Plains, . . . has lost onethird or more of its topsoil in the 150 years since it was
first plowed. Parts of the western rangelands and the
Great Plains are rapidly becoming deserts from overcultivation, overgrazing, and depletion of ground water
used for irrigation. . . . Californias soil is eroding 80
times faster than it can be formed. Throughout the US,
86% of the erosion comes from land used to graze cattle
or to raise crops to feed cattle. The other 14% of eroded
soil comes from land used to raise crops for human
consumption (Miller, 1995, 328).
A new technique to conserve soil is conservation
tillage (or minimum-tillage), that uses tilling machinery to loosen the subsurface soil without turning it over
and mechanized planters to inject seeds, herbicides, and
fertilizers. This new method was reportedly in use on
about one-third of US croplands by 1995, with projections of over half by the year 2000 (Miller, 1995, 328).
Versions adapted to the tropics and small farmers have
been reported as well (Ehui, 1993).
Rubin and Hyman (2000, 460) estimate erosion in
Costa Rica at 2.6 tons/ha/year on forest lands, 4.2 tons
for pasture lands, 10.8 tons on lands used for perennial
crops and 20.7 tons per hectare per year for land used
for annual crops, for a total of 22.2 million tons/year
for the entire nation, at a total cost of US$ 2,342,000,
including both direct and indirect losses. Studies done
in Mexico indicate that 80% of the soil is eroded due
to removal of the native vegetation and excessive cultivation (Ortiz et al., 1994) and 70% of the soils have
less than 1% organic material, including the majority
of the soils in the Peninsula of Yucatan (CONABIO,
1998, 1415).
Throughout the tropics, the small slash-and-burn
fields of indigenous tradition are re-colonized very
rapidly by the surrounding forest after their agricultural
use. Natural processes of succession restore the soil. It
is colonists with agricultural traditions from other areas that tend to cut and burn areas that are too large and
also to use them for too long before allowing them to
return to bush fallow. Ewel et al. (1991, 123) have experimented with a variety of planting regimes that simulate the natural succession which occurs after small

A. Eastmond, B. Faust / Landscape and Urban Planning 74 (2006) 267284

fires, finding that 1 [planted] tree species was almost

as efficient at maintaining soil fertility as 100 (different
species of) trees, shrubs and herbs. He found trees and
perennial shrubs to be the essential factors in the natural soil rejuvenation process found in forest (or bush)
fallow because their deep roots return leached nutrients
to the surface.
The findings of forest researchers and ethnobotanists have converged in the area of prescriptive
burning. Prescriptive burning for the prevention of
catastrophic fires and the maintenance of biodiversity
in the national wildlands of the United States has been
accepted government policy since 1995 when Federal
Wildland Fire Policy was established by the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior (Glickman and
Babbitt, 1995). Included are concepts of patches or
micro-environments of different stages of succession,
the need for fire to initiate the germination and initial
growth stages of some species of trees (including some
climax species), and the provision of open patches
as necessary habitat for some species of valued game
animals.
A number of ecologists, ethno-botanists and archeologists have reported prescriptive burning by peoples
indigenous to the Americas, as part of their management of both shifting cultivation and useful wild species
(e.g., Brush, 1975, 1986; Ford, 1978; Nations and Nigh,
1980; Malin, 1984; Clay, 1988). Small fires, properly managed, can clear mid-story thorn bushes, reduce accumulations of dead wood that contribute to
catastrophic conflagrations, provide increased forage
for many species of fauna, and contribute to the rejuvenation of some climax species. A mosaic of patches in
different stages of succession combined with uncut oldgrowth forest provides maximum biodiversity. A great
deal more scientific investigation needs to be done before we will have sufficient information to know what
a Maya forest will look like without Maya agricultural
practices.
Yet growing populations, population aggregations,
and new market opportunities have combined to produce degradation of soils, deforestation, and threats to
endangered and rare native species (Faust, 1998; Faust
and Bilsborrow, 2000). Here, conservationists are between what Latin Americans refer to as the sword and
the wall, better known to English-speakers as a rock
and a hard place. They find themselves with the necessity of doing something before it is too late but without

271

sufficient scientific information to know what the consequences may be of alternative courses of action. With
educated guesses they attempt to prevent catastrophe
in the midst of chaotic, multi-factorial change.
Slash-and-burn agriculture, especially in and near
protected areas, has become an essential issue in the
fire policy and soil erosion debates. Agricultural burning can get out of control and result in very large forest
fires. When population pressures lead to shortening of
the traditional fallow period, the method is also destructive of the soil and if applied to large areas, it can
result in the destruction of wildlife and habitat, thereby
impoverishing the countrys biodiversity. In the short
and medium-term, this traditional system requires more
land to grow the same amount of food, compared to
more intensive systems. However, the more intensive
systems create more costly soil degradation and habitat
loss in the long term. They also produce more food per
hectare and per man-hour of labor, while using fossil
fuels and metals mined from the earth, as well as fertilizers that may cause water contamination and biocides that directly and indirectly kill wildlife. On the
other hand, the people are here and need to eat, so the
predicament would appear to be, pollute or starve.
The introduction of green manure/cover crops and
minimal tillage have been seen by many as a possible
solution. In order to evaluate this agricultural innovation that is currently being introduced to the Maya people of the Peninsula of Yucatan, we will begin with a
description of their traditional agricultural practices.
2.3. Shifting cultivation by traditional peoples of
the tropics
The slash-and-burn practiced by indigenous
peoples in tropical areas is not normally destructive of
the long-term health of ecosystems. (In the short term,
burning clearly destroys individuals of many species
as well as their habitats.) However, this process is
markedly distinct from that of invading colonists who
use extensive areas in inappropriate ways until the soil
is exhausted and then move on to destroy new areas in
a sequential process of destruction involving various
scenarios of degradation, depending on the local soil
type, subsoil, and the type of agriculture used. Natural
processes depleting soil quality under continuous
modern agriculture in humid tropical areas may
include one or more of the following: relatively rapid

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A. Eastmond, B. Faust / Landscape and Urban Planning 74 (2006) 267284

degradation of organic matter, laterite formation,

aluminum toxicity, compaction of soils, calcium and
phosphorous exhaustion, and acidification (National
Research Council, 1993, 5158). In contrast, the
traditional slash-and-burn, or swidden agriculture
(also referred to as shifting cultivation), is cyclical,
recycling soils through long-term fallow. This fallow
is of sufficient length that the forest is recreated in
the plot used for cropping, thus producing a landscape
mosaic with old forest interspersed with younger
forest in various stages of succession as well as small
plots planted to crops (National Research Council,
1993; Bandy et al., 1994).
2.4. The Maya version of shifting cultivation
In the Yucatan, burning has been part of a traditional agricultural system (milpa) that includes cyclical reuse of small patches in the forest. In most of the
northern Yucatan, neither plow nor tractor can be used
because of the prevalence of rocky outcroppings. The
Maya have, however, planted there for millennia, between the rocks that conserve both soil and moisture,
rather than in the lower valleys where the roots of savanna grasses are very difficult to remove. The traditional pattern has been 23 years of planting alternated
with long periods of fallow (730 years, depending on
soils and density of population) during which the forest
re-grows to include a mix of species nearly identical to
that of areas that have not been cut in living memory,
although clearly the height and diameter of trees will
be less than in older stands of forest. The thin soils
require a short period of cultivation and a long period
of rest. Roots and stones are left in the field and the
larger trees are coppiced to allow the rapid re-growth
of branches. Traditionally, strips of relatively high forest are left around each 1 ha plot and the plots are small
enough that seed rain from the surrounding forest helps
speed succession, as does re-growth from the roots and
stumps.
The crops are interspersed, including maize, beans,
squash, chilies and some root crops (including sweet
potato and manioc). The beans fix nitrogen while
squash plants shade the soil and reduce weeds. The
Maya traditionally plant enough to allow for forage
of game animals and go to their fields to hunt deer,
wild turkey and wild pigs. Root crops and fruit trees
are often planted as well and after the abandonment

of maize farming on the plot, the farmer and his family return periodically to harvest the long-term species,
as needed. Conklin (1954) found that this system was
both productive over the long term and far less damaging ecologically than any available alternative.
However, population growth and the concentration
of people in the towns (where modern conveniences
have been provided) have resulted in pressure on nearby
lands, of easy access by foot or bicycle. It is not surprising that, under these circumstances, natural resources
have been over-exploited; the number of fallow years
has diminished from over 20 to as little as 5 or 6, insufficient for the forest to reestablish itself properly and
for soil fertility to recuperate. Thus, maize yields have
fallen drastically and a vicious circle of poverty and
overexploitation has been set in motion. Reduced fallow has increased the growth of weeds in the maize
fields, and government subsidies of herbicides have
been very welcome. However, the use of systemic herbicides prevents policropping since broad-leaved plantings (such as squash and beans) are killed along with
the weeds, leaving a monocrop of maize (Faust and
Bilsborrow, 2000).

3. Permanent agriculture
3.1. Green manure/cover crop systems
The terms green manure and cover crops originate from temperate agricultural practices using leguminous plants and plowing them under to fertilize the
soil (Bunch, 2001: 1). As these practices spread to the
tropics, however, the terms remained while the different conditions produced modifications in the practices. Many tropical farmers do not use the vegetation
green, nor do they normally plow it under. The terms
now refer to a wide range of mostly leguminous plants
used for multiple purposes, one of which is the fertilization and improvement of the soil (Thurston et al.,
1994). Although g/cc systems are not new, they have
been largely neglected by the conventional agronomic
literature of the past 40 years (Sanchez and Anaya,
1994). Bunch (1994) summarizes their principles and
advantages:
1. They contribute organic matter, thus positively affecting soil structure and composition.

A. Eastmond, B. Faust / Landscape and Urban Planning 74 (2006) 267284

2. The organic matter adds nitrogen to the farming system, with no transport costs.
3. g/ccs vigorous growth helps control weeds.
4. By covering the soil they contribute to soil and water
conservation.
5. Under certain conditions, they allow farmers who
were using plows or tractors to change to a zero-till
system.
6. Under certain conditions the traditional shifting
agriculture can be replaced by a system of permanent cultivation that requires less land for agriculture, leaving more of the forest unburned.
After many years of research into g/cc systems in
the tropics, Bunch came to the conclusion that In order for humid tropical agriculture to be both highly
productive and sustainable, it must imitate the highly
productive, million-of-years-old humid tropical forest
(Bunch, 2001, 3). This is precisely what the g/ccs
promise to do, if all the recommended procedures are
followed.
Amongst the different g/cc systems in the tropics, considerable variation can be seen including differences in the leguminous species grown, the local
conditions, farmer management, availability of seeds
and changing socio-economic factors. However, one
of the most popular in Central America is the mucuna/
maize cover cropping system because of mucunas
outstanding nitrogen-fixing and weed-suppressing
capacities.
Mucuna (velvet bean) is the generic name given to a
number of closely related species from the genus Mucuna including M. deeringiana, M. utilis, M. pruriens
amongst others (Triomphe, 1996). Since the late 1800s,
mucuna was massively grown in the southeastern US
both as a feed crop for animals and as a green manure crop. It was introduced to Central America by the
United Fruit Company, which used it to feed the mules
working on the banana plantations. By the 1930s it
was being used in Guatemala and was gradually spread
by the migrant farmers to other parts of Mesoamerica
(Buckles, 1995, cited in Triomphe, 1996, 30).
3.2. Contemporary experiments with the
mucuna/maize cropping system in Mexico
This system has been seen as a promising one for
protecting forests and wildlife throughout the trop-

273

ics as it theoretically allows for the replacement of

slash-and-burn systems with permanent cultivation
by small farmers. Since the early 1990s, attempts
have been made to introduce it to protected areas
and communities with common property forests in
Mexico.
On the basis of the original encouraging results from
Central America that had intrigued local agronomists,
a conservation NGO, PRONATURA PENINSULA de
(PPY), began to introduce a mucuna/maize
YUCATAN
system in the Biosphere Reserve of Calakmul,1 in the
south of the State of Campeche. This project was financed by The Nature Conservancy as part of the Parks
in Peril program. During the year 2000, PPY collected
data from seven of the eight communities participating
in the experiment with mucuna (see Fig. 2). Although
the data must be considered tentative, a preliminary
analysis of the maize yields provided disappointing
results as there was no significant difference between
maize planted with mucuna and that planted in a
traditional way (P < 0.35 for the paired t-test). The
mean of each system, over the seven communities, was
identical.
The variation for the mucuna/maize system among
the different communities was, however, significant
(P < 0.01), probably indicating experimentation by the
farmers. Notes in the projects data base indicate
that there was great variation in the density, location and mode of planting in this system. Such variation is to be expected with agricultural innovations
introduced to small farmers. In comparison, the variation among communities in results for the traditional system was found to be insignificant (P < 0.36),
apparently due to the fact that a standard procedure has been established by previous generations of
usage.

1 The authors wish to thank M.C. Josefina Morales of

PRONATURA Peninsula de Yucatan, A.C., for providing data from
the database for the project, Parks in Peril, funded by the Nature Conservancy. The data was also reported in Morales and Camaal (2000),
Monitoreo del uso del suelo a nivel comunitario en la Region de
Calakmul, the final report of the project for Pronatura Peninsula
de Yucatan. We also wish to thank M.C. Mara del Mar Lora for
her assistance with the analysis of these data and the preparation,
together with M.C. Ligia Uc, of the graphs (M.C. in Spanish refers
to a Masters in Science, Maestra en Ciencias, and is conventionally
used as a professional title).

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A. Eastmond, B. Faust / Landscape and Urban Planning 74 (2006) 267284

Fig. 2. Maize yield in mucuna cover crop and traditional milpa in seven communities from Calakmul, Campeche.

4. Case study in Sahcaba

4.1. Outline history of the mucuna/maize cropping
project in Sahcaba
The Program for the Management and Conservation
of Tropical Natural Resources (Protropico) was created
in 1992 within the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in
the Autonomous University of Yucatan with a mandate
to look for agro-forestry alternatives for the henequen
zone of the State of Yucatan (Jimenez-Osornio, 1993).
Generously supported by the Rockefeller, Ford and
MacArthur Foundations, the program later became a
new department of the university.
The village of Sahcaba, located 56 km to the east of
Merida (see map) was chosen in 1992 by Protropico as
its site for research into agro-forestry innovations for
the henequen area because of being representative of
the marginal agricultural and economic conditions of
the region (Jimenez-Osornio et al., 1997, 19). Housing conditions are poor (running water was provided to
most houses only in the last 5 years), formal education
is almost completely restricted to elementary school,
and household incomes are very low and irregular. The
research was initiated with a rapid rural appraisal of

this community2 , that identified traditional milpa agriculture as the most important productive activity. Nevertheless, it was clearly failing to meet peoples basic
needs and appeared to be contributing to, rather than
combating biodiversity loss, due to the short fallow period. Protropico perceived this as an opportunity to introduce modifications to traditional milpa agriculture
as an initial agro-forestry strategy to enhance the conservation of natural resources in the area. The model
it introduced was the legume/maize cropping system
which was being promoted at that time around Oxcutzcab by two extension agents, one of whom had
experience of it from his native Guatemala. Since the
principal leguminous plant used was mucuna, we refer
to this innovation as the mucuna/maize system.
In 1994, Protropico took six farmers from Sahcaba
to visit farmers in two other communities, Mamita and
Vergel, who had begun to experiment with mucuna
(Mucuna spp.) and jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis).
After this visit, seeds were given to all the farmers in
Sahcaba who wanted to experiment with them and take
2 It should be noted that in the rapid rural appraisal little attention
was paid to the analysis of associated socioeconomic factors, since
the researchers involved were mostly biologists and veterinarians.

A. Eastmond, B. Faust / Landscape and Urban Planning 74 (2006) 267284

part in the project (Jimenez-Osornio et al., 1997, 26).

Some farmers offered parts of their land as experimental demonstration plots on which technical staff from
Protropico could work together with them to implement the mucuna/maize model in a participative way,
monitoring, evaluating and discussing the results as the
project developed. The first year of the project (1994,
for which no reliable yield data exist), two farmers decided to experiment with the technology on only one
mecate (20 m2 , or 0.1 acres)3 each (Castillo-Caamal
et al., 2000); however, the relatively high yields obtained (together with the projects provision of free
chicken manure) roused the interest of other farmers
and thus the technology gradually began to spread in the
community.
4.2. Steps in the mucuna/maize cropping system in
Sahcaba
According to the agronomists who introduced the
project to Sahcaba, in order to be successful in Yucatans harsh environment, the mucuna/maize cropping
system requires relatively deep kancab (luvisol) soil.
In the henequen zone, this is only available in very
small, scattered patches. The first step in implementing
the system, therefore, was to locate an area of kancab
soil. Just as with traditional milpa, the next step was to
fell the trees and burn all the wood and vegetation. In
contrast to traditional milpa, the agronomists insisted
on an extremely labor-intensive process of soil preparation, to be carried out with great care. Farmers were told
that it was necessary to remove all the roots and stones
in order to have an easily manageable surface in which
to dig the furrows. Seventeen furrows per mecate were
dug, and chicken manure (unavailable in Sahcaba but
brought in by Protropico, at no expense to the farmers,
from nearby chicken farms) was mixed into the soil. After the first rains, short cycle (90 days), improved maize
varieties (VS-528 and VS-536) were sown4 . Approximately 15 days later, mucuna was planted between the
furrows. After the maize was harvested the organic material was left to form a mulch on the ground (Lopez,
1996).
3

There are 25 mecates in 1 ha, or in 2.44 acres.

The improved varieties of corn introduced by Protropico are
reported in Guerrero-Jimenez as V-528 and H-528. However, the
agronomist in charge identified them as VS 528 and VS 536.
4

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4.3. Evaluation of the mucuna/maize system in

Sahcaba
By 1996, it was clear that the new system had very
low adoption rates in Sahcaba. The director of the
project, Dr. Juan Jimenez-Osornio, initiated an evaluation of the technical, ecological, social, cultural and
economic factors affecting farmers decision-making
with respect to the introduced system. The project
agronomists analyzed soil fertility, plant growth, incidence of pests, and other technical aspects. The authors
of this article were invited to do an independent evaluation of the social, cultural, and economic impact of
the project. One of the authors is a rural sociologist, the
other is an anthropologist. We were assisted in the field
by students and a Maya-speaking research assistant.
Project personnel provided documents of the project
and their reflections on the projects relationship with
the community. Structured interviews were done with
a random sample of 70 households by the sociologist
and student assistants; participatory research with
representatives chosen by the community was carried
out by the anthropologist with a research assistant
fluent in Maya and Spanish. The representatives were
given a short list of open questions to guide discussions
with members of the community and met once a week
with the anthropologist and the research assistant to
discuss findings and questions. Confidentiality was
assured to all participants. The final report of the
participatory research was revised by the group of
representatives before copies were given to the Project
Director and the local mayor in a town meeting,
where a summary of it was read in Maya and Spanish
and it was approved as representing the views of the
community.
4.3.1. Maize yields
The agronomists collected comparative yield data
for the mucuna/maize system and the traditional milpa
system in Sahcaba for 3 consecutive years: 19961998.
In the first documented year, 1996, the mucuna/maize
system yielded 3.9 times more than the traditional milpas but this huge difference diminished markedly in
1997 and, although it increased somewhat in 1998, the
spectacular difference seen in 1996 was not repeated
(see Fig. 3). On average, over the 3 years, the system doubled the yield obtained from traditional milpa
agriculture.

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Fig. 3. Comparison of maize yield from traditional milpa and mucuna/maize cover crop system during three annual cycles in Sahcaba, Yucatan.

4.3.2. Interpretation of yields

The yield data from Sahcaba, although encouraging,
needs to be interpreted with great caution as we have
found it to be anomalous in comparisons with the data
from similar experiments with the mucuna system in
the southeast of Mexico. In addition, the difficulties of
measuring yields in traditional agricultural systems are
well known: it is not possible to apply a ceteris paribus
methodology when working with small farmers who
are experimenting in their own customary ways. The
shortness of the time frame involved in this case is another factor that should not be overlooked. For example,
some consider 10 years to be the minimum for a longterm study of agriculture. All of these make it difficult
to compare the mucuna system with the traditional one.
A major factor differentiating the new cultivation
method introduced into Sahcaba from those implemented in other communities was the free provision
of chicken manure only for the mucuna/maize plots
and not for the comparison plots. In addition, improved
short-cycle maize varieties were planted in the mucuna
plots, while traditional varieties were planted in the
other fields. This difference could be critical because
of differential maturation times. In 1996 a short drought
occurred just at the point when the traditional variety
was still in its period of fertilization; however, the ear-

lier maturing introduced varieties had already passed

this vulnerable stage and thus produced a normal harvest (Guerrero-Jimenez et al., 2001, 70). The traditional
crop, in contrast, was considered lost by local farmers, a term generally used when the harvest is less than
half of normal (Faust, 1997). The early ears produced
in the mucuna/maize plots were cooked and sold from
house to house, bringing in excellent income, at one
peso (approximately 13 cents) per ear of corn, cooked
and ready to eat (Faust, 1997).
Another confounding factor was continuity in the
practice of burning. Farmers burned their third-year
fields in Sahcaba, after discovering the previous year
that an accidentally burned patch in one farmers
mucuna/maize field resulted in increased production
(Castillo-Caamal et al., 2000). Clearly burning of crop
residues reduces the provision of organic material to the
soil, defeating one of the stated goals of the project.
Since the large difference in yield of the first year
has not been repeated, we consider it anomalous. The
mean for the mucuna system during the other years
is slightly less than double the mean for milpa agriculture. However, even this more modest difference is
difficult to interpret, as we do not know to what extent
it is due to mucuna or to the inputs of chicken manure
and improved maize seed. These confounding factors

A. Eastmond, B. Faust / Landscape and Urban Planning 74 (2006) 267284

were noted by the farmers in Sahcaba during the evaluation done by Faust and Dorantes in 1997 and also
in the farmer evaluation conducted by the Rockefeller
Foundation (Guerrero-Jimenez et al., 2001, 71 and 73).
The degree to which the subsidization of chicken
manure confuses the comparative analysis of maize
yields becomes apparent when Sahcaba is compared
with the results from the other eight communities in
the Pachuca Project and the seven communities in the
Calakmul project. In both sets of comparative data,
there is no significant difference between the means
for the two different agricultural systems. In fact, as
will become clearer when the labor costs are discussed,
the comparison is: a subsidized system with high labor
costs delivered to farmers as a package, in contrast to
one developed by them that requires less labor and relies only on locally available inputs.
In general, results of introduced mucuna/maize systems
have been more favorable in Honduras. Bunch reports
that farmers . . . are actually INCREASING the productivity of their soil year by year, with no conservation practices except for the fact that the soil is covered
by velvet bean [mucuna] 10 months out of the year
(Bunch, 2001, 2). These results are from an area with
35% slopes and yearly rainfall of more than 2000 mm.
For hillsides in northern Honduras, Triomphe (1996,
132) reports considerable success, average maize increases of 100%. The less encouraging results from
southeastern Mexico may be explained by environmen-

277

tal differences in soils, rainfall patterns, and topography. This suggests that experimentation with local varieties of leguminous plants may be useful.
4.3.3. Adoption rates
Farmers in Sahcaba were not overly impressed in
1996 by the large differences in yields of the macuna/maize system compared to the traditional one.
Minimizing their risks of adopting an agricultural innovation, a few new farmers each year began to experiment with one or two mecates but most were reluctant
to invest time in it (Fig. 4). In 1994 the project started
with 3 farmers experimenting with the mucuna/maize
system, by 1998 18 farmers had begun to try it (CastilloCaamal et al., 2000), only 7% of the total number of
farmers listed by the 1990 government census at 258 for
Sahcaba (INEGI, 1991). The Pachuca Project reported
a large range of adoption rates from very low to nearly
100% (Guevara et al., 2000, 247). In this context, how
could the low adoption rate in Sahcaba be explained?
4.3.4. Interpretation of adoption rates
The farmers rates of adoption reflected both a lack
of communication by the technical team and the communitys perceptions of the project. This became clear
both in the reports of representatives working with
Faust and Dorantes (1997) and in interviews conducted
by Eastmond. In the latter, 68% of the people said that
they did not know the project, although 60% said
that they had heard of it. Discussions in Maya with

Fig. 4. Adoption of the mucuna/maize cover crop system in Sahcaba, Yucatan.

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A. Eastmond, B. Faust / Landscape and Urban Planning 74 (2006) 267284

the representatives chosen by the community clarified

the situation. The majority were aware that visitors
were working with a few members of the community
in an agricultural project, but they did not know what
methodology was being used. Those who did have information concerning the methodology based their decision to participate or not on the following criteria:
1. opportunity costs for land and labor;
2. labor demand in the mucuna/maize system;
3. susceptibility of maize varieties to pests and
drought;
4. scarcity of good soils;
5. availability of inputs;
6. security of land tenure;
7. lack of food or market value for mucuna.
4.3.4.1. The opportunity costs for land and labor. The
kankab soils recommended for mucuna/maize crops
are the best soils in the lands around Sahcaba and are
in very short supply. These areas are normally no larger
than a mecate or two and often are smaller. Traditional
milpas of 1 or 2 ha normally have included some of
these areas of kankab. They have been used not for
maize, but for a mixture of more highly valued crops
designated as pach pakal. The crops planted there normally include sweet potatoes, manioc, chilies, tomatoes, watermelon, and flowers. The value of these crops
is far higher than the value of the corn produced in
the mucuna/maize system. However, when herbicides
are used in milpas, internal plots of kankab cannot be
planted to pach pakal. Since herbicide use had become
very widespread, the incidence of pach pakal had already declined and seeds of some varieties had become
lost. Thus, farmers were interested in information concerning cover crops and mulching that would reduce
the need for herbicides, but not in order to use their
kankab exclusively for maize production (Faust and
Dorantes, 1997).
The price of corn that farmers received for their harvest at the beginning of 2001 was one peso a kilo (Faust,
2001); it has been declining since Mexico signed the
North American Free Trade Agreement due to elimination of government subsidies and competition from
imported maize from the US. Additionally, although
maize is still a very large part of the diet, it is only a
small fraction of most households budget. Therefore,
increasing its yield per hectare could not very seriously

improve the household economy of farmers who plant

no more than a few hectares, because they do so by
hand.
The opportunity cost of labor is due to the low price
of maize harvested compared with the wages that men
can earn by migrating to urban and tourist areas. There
is also the possibility of working in commercial chicken
farms or assembly plants (maquiladoras) in neighboring towns. All these alternatives are perceived as having
higher status and economic returns than maize farming.
4.3.4.2. Labor demand in the mucuna/maize system.
Men over 50 are too old to be employed as wage labor
and therefore rely on maize farming (often combined
with beekeeping) as their principle economic activity;
thus, for them there is no opportunity cost associated
with outside employment. Their main obstacle to adoption, however, is the large amount of labor required in
the mucuna/maize system: twice that needed for the traditional system (Guevara et al., 2000, 236; MendozaEscalante, 1997, 64). Initially, the removal of stones
and roots from the soil in order to make furrows, requires a great deal of labor. During the first weeding,
as well as in the doubling of the stalks, and the harvest,
the normal work involved is increased by the density
of the mucuna growth, slowing the movement of the
farmer through the field.
4.3.4.3. Susceptibility of the maize varieties to pests
and drought. The new varieties of maize used in the
mucuna system were found not to store well, being
susceptible to the maize weevil that lives inside seeds
and grains producing larvae that consume inner portions of the seed. Thus, varieties that are susceptible to
this insect need to be consumed shortly after harvest.
In addition, the residents of Sahcaba prefer the flavor
of foods and beverages prepared from their own traditional maize varieties. Those who have mucuna/maize
plots (usually totaling less than one-tenth of a hectare)
have not abandoned their traditional system, continuing to plant around 2 ha of the traditional maize that
stores well, lasting the year. In contrast, the ears grown
with mucuna are generally used as fresh corn or sold
cooked as corn-on-the-cob.
What the villagers would have liked was not to
eliminate burning, but rather help combating insect
invasions in maize and beans, as well as the loss of
production to raccoons, rats, mice, and birds. These are

A. Eastmond, B. Faust / Landscape and Urban Planning 74 (2006) 267284

the major competitors at harvest time, often consuming

large parts of the maize crop. The short cycle maize
provided by the project was particularly vulnerable
since the amount ripening was small in quantity and
attracted many animals. In contrast, when the main
crop matured there was a great deal of maize to
supply the same number of animals, so that the animal
damage was a smaller proportion of the total harvest.
4.3.4.4. Scarcity of good soils. In Sahcaba, there is
little of the soil needed for the mucuna/maize system
(kankab). The pockets of this soil are small and few.
It is said that they total less than 15% of the communitys land area. Furthermore, many of these pockets
are not easily accessible, being far from roads or established paths, or distant from the village itself. Carrying
chicken manure to these plots on ones back would increase labor costs to such an extent that they would far
exceed the benefits. There is also the problem of opportunity costs, since these soils can also be used for
crops with higher nutritional and market value.
4.3.4.5. Availability of inputs. Farmers came to rely
on Protropico as a source for the necessary inputs
associated with the introduced mucuna/maize system. Chicken manure was delivered free to the mucuna/maize plots by the project. While this manure
was available free of charge at the commercial chicken
farm, there were labor costs involved in bagging it and
transportation costs in delivering it to the plot. The
mucuna seed was initially provided by Protropico, although later it was harvested from local fields. The seed
for the improved varieties of maize were also initially
provided by the project, in contrast to traditional varieties that were available from local harvests.
4.3.4.6. Security of land tenure. Because of the large
amount of labor required for the mucuna/maize system,
farmers are not willing to adopt it unless they own the
land. The community of Sahcaba has not divided their
communal lands,5 and most of the private lands belonged to relatively wealthy local cattle ranchers. Only
those who had small amounts of private land near the

5 Communal lands in Mexico are registered as ejidos and since

1992 a change in Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution has made
it legal to divide, rent or sell these lands.

279

village (and were not wealthy) were interested in adopting this new labor-intensive system.
4.3.4.7. Lack of food or market value for mucuna. The
lack of any use for mucuna as human or animal food
was identified as problematic by the farmers in Sahcaba
and by the farmer evaluation in the Pachuca Project.
This perception also coincides with what the Rockefeller Foundations Green Manure/Cover Crop Exploration project (19981999) found, leading to the
recommendation that further research be implemented
on different possible uses of mucuna for human or animal consumption (Mucuna News, First Issue, January
2001).
4.4. Alternatives
The small farmer evaluation report of the Pachuca
Project concluded that mucuna did not appear to grow
well in Yucatan without chicken manure. It suggested
that for Sahcaba there are better adapted, local plants
that could be used as green manure/cover crops such as
ibes (Phaseolus lunatus), xpelon (Vigna unguiculata),
and frijol tzama (Phaseolus sp.) (Guerrero-Jimenez et
al., 2001, 73). Each of these is a leguminous crop that
the Maya traditionally planted with maize, providing
cover and fixing nitrogen in the soil, but had been forced
to abandon when they started using herbicides. Use of
mucuna to restore the soil was seen as potentially allowing for a return to policropping with these traditional
varieties. Farmers in Sahcaba (Castillo-Caamal et al.,
2000) and elsewhere (Cuanalo de la Cerda, 2001) have
begun experimenting with a return to the traditional
policropped field, using cover-crop methodologies of
mulching to control weeds with promising results.
4.5. Biodiversity loss
One of the problems with the mucuna/maize system
is its low biodiversity compared with traditional shifting agriculture. However, even without the mucuna
system, there have been serious losses of biodiversity
in this area. During the 30 odd years that herbicides
have been used, the amount of land reserved for other
crops, principally in pach pakal, has been small.
This has increased the risk and the actual loss of
many species of seeds that were formally used by
the people of Sahcaba. The evaluation done with

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community representatives indicated that obtaining

help in re-establishing varieties that had been lost was
a high priority while they felt no need to change their
traditional agricultural methods. They did not see
the burning involved in their traditional methods as a
threat to forests or wildlife. In any event, they had been
prohibited by the government from hunting and had
observed that game animals (deer, wild turkeys, etc.)
were now increasing in numbers, becoming a threat
to the maize crops. It is possible that reduction of
burning and thus of forest loss was not in fact urgent,
due to recent increases in out-migration. Furthermore,
the community had traditionally conserved a tract of
community forest, considered sacred. Therefore, it was
difficult for them to understand Protropicos concern
to limit or even stop the practice of milpa agriculture.
4.6. Expectations and misunderstandings
In addition to the obstacles to adoption already
discussed, the social scientists identified other cultural/political and historical factors involved in shaping
the villagers attitudes to and perceptions of the project
and its personnel. They saw powerful outsiders with
knowledge who seemed determined to focus on issues
that the community itself saw as unimportant, while
ignoring others that were of major concern.
4.6.1. Cattle fantasy
The most important of these was that they wanted
the project to buy them cattle. They argued that cattle
eat grass, which is free on the sides of the roads and
is growing up around the old plots of henequen. They
also eat the leaves of a tree known as ramon (Brosimum
alicastrum), as well as those of a few others. Furthermore, 9 years before a government project gave cattle
to one group in the community, who were perceived
as having become rich through it (in Chan Sahcaba).
At the time of interviews, there was expectation of a
new government project providing cattle and possibly
goats and sheep, but the individuals who wished to
participate would have to pay for half of each animal.
There was therefore hope that somehow the interviewers could become allies in convincing the university
to provide free cattle. There were also comments that
a number of people in the earlier cattle project had
sold their cattle for cash within a short period after receiving them. The anthropologist in the project was an

American and was seen by the local community and

the District President as able to persuade her countrys
government to send cattle to the community, despite repeated denials on her part. Another competing project
(associated with the local government) was rumored to
have been started by one of the original participants in
the Protropico project and was said to be bringing cattle
soon.
Cattle historically were symbols of prestige, brought
by Spanish colonizers, and have functioned as banking
accounts for relatively wealthy, small farmers for centuries. They multiply as interest in the bank does and,
given the recurrent de-valuations of the peso, may have
been historically more secure than bank accounts. They
can always be sold for cash in the event of illness or
the need to provide for a wedding or a funeral. While
commercial cattle raising in large pastures has probably
been the principle cause of accelerating deforestation
throughout Latin America in recent decades, the maintenance of a few head of cattle by small farmers who
pasture them on the roadsides and bring them leaves
and weeds may very well be a compatible component
of a sustainable agro-ecology. Evidence to the contrary
was not made clear to the villagers.
4.6.2. Veterinary assistance
Another important issue for the community was the
health of the domestic animals they did have. They reported that their chickens, turkeys and pigs were subject
to diseases for which they had no veterinary assistance.
In particular, the fowl would periodically come down
with a disease that appeared to be a respiratory infection and within a few days an entire flock would die.
Since these animals are the major source of animal protein for most families, this was a hazard not only for
the animals themselves but also for family nutrition.
4.6.3. Culture clash
A serious misunderstanding occurred in connection
with the house leased by the project. Young persons
of both sexes stayed overnight together in it without an
older person present to supervise them. This resulted in
a great deal of gossip concerning their moral character,
and that of the director of the project, who should
have made sure they were properly supervised. It was
said that young people who had been privileged with
advanced education should behave better and be more
carefully supervised by those in charge.

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Possible sexual relationships between various male

and female members of the project personnel were a
subject of continuous conjecture. The clothing worn
by personnel and their visitors was also a source of
constant curiosity. The meaning of strange clothing,
jewellery, hairdos, and equipment used by foreigners
was particularly subject to efforts of interpretation concerning the trustworthiness, seriousness, etc. of these
persons.
Another difficulty was the number of outsiders
involved in a small community unaccustomed to
outsiders. There were at least four different persons
involved with the community on a long-term basis.
The first was instrumental in setting up the project,
then there was one agronomist involved for 2 years
who was succeeded by another, and in addition there
was a woman working with the womens craft project.
There were many short-term visits by foreigners doing
a variety of tests (of soil, biomass accumulation,
etc.) that were not understood by members of the
community. While the original project was introduced
with community meetings, very few people in the
community knew anything about what was being done
on the projects plots or why (according to both the
questionnaire results and the reports by the community
representatives). There was confusion concerning
visits by a government agency (PROCEDE) that
was trying to inform rural communities of their new
rights to divide and sell their communal lands and the
processes for registering legal title.
4.6.4. Negotiating legitimacy and expectations
Finally, the perceived legitimacy of the project became subject to doubt through a series of communication difficulties. The original permission to do the
project in Sahcaba was obtained from village authorities in office in 1994. The activities of the project were
NOT successfully renegotiated with the new authorities who were inaugurated in January 1997. As a consequence of this breakdown in communication, there
was at least one attempt to deny project personnel entrance to community lands, en route to the Projects
plots (Faust, 1997).
The previous history of government subsidies of
henequen and government control of production (e.g.,
the credits from the BANRURAL), marketing etc. had
left the village with few skills to cope with the market
and with an expectation that the government would

281

solve their problems, at least at the level of subsistence.

Television, schools, outsiders, and easy transportation
to the state capitol had increased peoples desires for
modern conveniences and their conviction that they
needed to educate their children so that they could
escape rural poverty by migrating to cities. Various
government programs were providing money and
supplies, scholarships for school children, school
lunches, retirement benefits for former henequen
workers, groceries given to women attending educational meetings (through PROGRESA), a government
subsidy for planting (through PROCAMPO), etc.
However, the biggest source of cash income in
Sahcaba was undoubtedly the wages earned by the
men working away from home during the week.
4.7. Three years later
Reports from the project and from a key informant in
the community indicate that there are presently around
10 people still planting the mucuna/maize system, but
only on a very limited scale: no one plants more than
1600 m2 to the improved maize with mucuna. The few
who continue to plant do so despite the fact that they
are no longer receiving seeds or fertilizer from the University Department of Protropico.
There are still suspicions that the project gave money
to some individuals who had participated and were later
seen to have bought cattle. There is also some disappointment because of pre-existing expectations that the
project could not fulfill. Even the presence of evaluators
and visitors from foreign countries were interpreted as
potential sources of cattle. Thus, the project was an unwitting catalyst for a cattle fantasy, reminiscent of the
cargo cults of the 1950s and 1960s in the S. Pacific.

5. Conclusions
The people of Sahcaba are attempting to straddle
two worlds, searching the new one for ways to earn cash
to buy refrigerators, washing machines, factory produced tortillas, pick-up trucks, etc. However, they also
preserve a sacred forest that has never been cut (according to oral history), and continue with their traditional
agricultural activities, while struggling to educate those
children who wish to stay in school and providing the
others with the opportunities to learn work skills.

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In Sahcaba, the mucuna/maize system has been incorporated as one of a number of economic activities
engaged in by older men. Efforts are made to maintain
experience with a variety of techniques for obtaining
food within the village. Loss of traditional seeds has occurred inadvertently and is grieved, replacements are
sought and gifts of such seeds much appreciated. Thus,
there is no intent to replace the old with the new, but
to reduce risk by maintaining a variety of strategies
for survival. Probably the most economically important among those strategies is the financial assistance
from sons working in cities, assembly plants, or tourist
zones.
The small farm serves not only the father and other
local residents, but also the migrating sons when they
periodically return home after losing their jobs in a
shifting, insecure labor market. In the village, there is
always some food and a place to hang ones hammock
before starting out again on the Modern Maya Odyssey:
hunting for work in a forest of concrete, fishing for tips
from tourists on the coast, etc. These young men seek to
protect their wives and children by leaving them home,
until eventually they can find a way to buy a small house
on the outskirts of a city or in a larger town where there
is an assembly plant. The grandparents help the mother
with the children and the maintenance of food security.
The old values still undergird the extended family, sharing is obligatory and emergency help is assumed to be
always available.
The original hopes that mucuna could save the Maya
forests from the threats of slash-and-burn under contemporary conditions of poverty and overpopulation
(Vanclay, 1993, 227), now seem overly optimistic. Traditional milpa continues and the mucuna-maize system
is only utilized in small areas as a complement. Furthermore, recent reports on the internet from Honduras
indicate that, . . . the macuna-maize system has been
declining (Neill, 2001, 1) This author reports that,
Rather than one or two main reasons for the abandonment of the mucunamaize system, early results
suggest a complex set of agronomic, micro and macroeconomic factors. Among the agronomic ones are an
invasion of a weed, itchgrass (Rothboelia cochinensis),
that quickly invades any open area not covered by mucuna, is hard to eradicate, and makes maize cultivation
extremely difficult. In addition, in this area mucuna
plots are thinning; farmers report that mucuna is vulnerable both to droughts and excessive rains. Agricul-

tural . . . extensionists site the prevalence of herbicide

use, predominantly 24D and Gramaxon [paraquat], as
a major contributors (sic!) to the thinning of mucuna
plots (Neill, 2001, 1). While farmers in Sahcaba were
carefully taught not to use herbicide with mucuna, the
reports from other areas indicate that many small farmers continue to use it in conjunction with cover crops.
The susceptibility of mucuna to extremes of rainfall
had been noted in the Pachuca Project and in Sahcaba.
Substitution by local, traditional crops such as combinations of beans and squash was suggested, in part
because of the advantage of being able to eat the crop
that is serving as green manure and cover crop.
An additional concern is that the present global
economic system requires farming activities that contradict ecological imperatives of sustainability. The
policropping of small amounts of different species cannot be gotten to market economically. Monocropping
(particularly of introduced species) results in invasions
of plant pathogens whose suppression requires biocides that affect other species and human health. Even
the duo-cropping of this mucuna/maize system is resulting in susceptibility to invasion by a weed species.
Farmers wish to return to policropping and expressed
hopes that the enrichment of their soil by mucuna
would eventually allow them to interplant a variety of
different species, as they used to do in the traditional
system on soils recently cleared of high forest by fire.
The evidence does not suggest that such a g/cc system can serve as a substitute for shifting cultivation. We
conclude that the mucuna/maize system is best seen as
an additional option and possibly as an intermediate
stage to the development of a green manure/cover crop
system that will eventually be (1) based on local varieties and (2) produce food for humans and/or domestic
animals. The Pachuca Project reached similar conclusions (Guevara et al., 2000, 262; Guerrero-Jimenez et
al., 2001, 9197). At present, burning continues to be
a preferred tactic for the major crop in this tropical
environment and the g/cc experiment has only been
accepted as an interesting, small-scale addition to the
traditional practices. Because of the predicted increasing danger of forest fires in tropical areas, due to global
warming and increases in ENSO events, we suggest that
more research is urgently needed concerning the use of
controlled fires and the development of improved technical procedures for green manure/cover crops that are
native to the area.

A. Eastmond, B. Faust / Landscape and Urban Planning 74 (2006) 267284

Acknowledgment
The authors thank the Mexican Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT) for its financial support of the research project entitled, Evaluacion de
la Sostenibilidad de la Milpa Intensiva como Alternativa al Sistema de Roza-Tumba-Quema en Yucatan,
Mexico (Evaluation of the Sustainability of the Intensive Milpa [the mucuna/maize system] as an Alternative to the Slash-and-Burn System in Yucatan, Mexico),
number 498100-5-030PB.

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