José Blancas Vázquez

• PhD
• Research at Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos

Background The commercialization of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) provides income for rural indigenous households. The integration of NTFPs into formal markets tends to intensify management practices to ensure production and monetary benefits. However, more research is needed to understand the motivations for managing of commercialized species...

Antecedentes: Los sistemas agrosilvícolas (SA) integran diversidad agrícola, forestal y cultural. En regiones costeras de México han sido poco estudiados, particularmente los manejados por mixtecos y afromexicanos de la costa de Oaxaca. Preguntas: ¿Qué SA se encuentran en comunidades mixtecas y afromexicanas?, ¿Cuáles son las especies útiles, form...

The ecological mechanisms that contribute to maintaining plant populations have been exhaustively examined worldwide, but the relative quantification of the effects of anthropogenic processes on these mechanisms in tropical dioecious tree species has not yet been performed. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of debarking on the sex ra...

Wildlife Conservation, Management and Sustainable Use Units (UMAs in Spanish) integrate strategies for wildlife management and social participation in Mexico. There are 25 UMAs within Sierra de Huautla Biosphere Reserve in Morelos state. Two decades after their implementation , there is not much information on their performance. We analyzed human p...

This study focused on the use and management of Ceratozamia totonacorum leaves during the Day of the Dead in Santiago Ecatlán, an Indigenous Totonaca community located in the Sierra Norte of Puebla, Mexico. Ethnographical, ethnobotanical, and ecological methods were utilized to document the ritual use and traditional management practices of C. toto...

Antecedentes: Los Sistemas Agroforestales Tradicionales en México son diversos y constribuyen a la conservación de la vegetación y también al bienestar de las personas de comunidades rurales. Sin embargo los Sistemas Agroforestales Tradicionales del Bosque Tropical han sido poco documentados, particularmente los de la Reserva de la Biosfera Sierra...

Homegardens (HF) are traditional agroforestry systems that favor interconnection with the natural vegetation surrounding the home and provide multiple benefits to people. This study valuated ecological attributes as richness, structure and floristic diversity in HF of the southeast in Morelos state and analyzed the relationship between management p...

The Sierra Negra region is a rich mosaic of ecosystems and cultures in interaction. There, people practice a pattern of multiple use and management of the different plant species and vegetation types occurring in their communitarian territories and, through interchange, those of other communities of the region. Due to a complex socio-ecological his...

Archaeological studies have revealed that humans have inhabited the territory that today is Mexico for more than 20,000 years, while ethnobotanical research has identified that these peoples have made use of more than 7,000 plant species, according to current information. More than 2,000 species are edible plants, that were and are included in thei...

Background Traditional mycological knowledge (TMK) is complex, not distributed equally among the entire population, and constantly adapting to current social situations. There are sociocultural factors that could influence the fact that some people retain a greater wealth of knowledge, for instance, cultural affiliation, migration, occupation, leve...

Ethnobotany is an integrative, multidimensional research field, whose main purpose is understanding interactions and relationships between humans and plants, and their cultural, ecological, and evolutionary consequences throughout history. This pur�pose is linked with the general interest of science for analyzing interactions between human societie...

Plant reproductive biology encompasses the study of sexual and asexual reproduction, as well as morphological, physiological, ecological, and genetic aspects influencing these processes. Management can influence reproduction of plants and associated attributes. For economically and culturally important species, it is known that exudates affect biom...

This chapter introduces the whole book. It is dedicated to analyze interactions between peoples and plants in the mountain regions of an eminently mountainous country: Mexico. Most of the Mexican territory are mountains that for thousands of years have harbored an extraordinarily high diversity of plants, human cultures , and ecosystems. Richness o...

This chapter shows a general panorama of ethnobotanical research and information generated during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries among Mexican cultures, according to the database Base de Datos Etnobotánicos de Plantas Mexicanas (BADEPLAM) of the Botanical Garden at the Institute of Biology, UNAM. This is the most complete database with et...

Synonyms Myrtillocactus cochal (Orcutt) Britton and Rose: Cereus cochal Orcutt; Cereus geometrizans var. cochal (Orcutt) K. Brandegee; Myrtillocactus geometrizans var. cochal (Orcutt) W.T. Marsha Myrtillocactus geometrizans (Mart. ex Pfeiff.) Console: Cereus geometrizans Mart. ex Pfeiff.; Cereus pugioniferus Lem.; Myrtillocactus pugionifer (Lem.) A...

The knowledge and use of plant resources are constantly evolving. In this work, the socio-cultural and economic factors that influence the traditional botanical knowledge of a mestizo community in Mexico were analyzed, and the correspondence of two cultural indices that asses the theoretical and practical ethnobotanical dimensions was determined to...

Este artículo corresponde a un número especial publicado en La Jornada del Campo: "El bosque y su gente", en el cual se pretende, mediante la visibilización de diversos artículos interconectados, expresar la variabilidad en las respuestas locales-regionales asociadas al uso y manejo de los recursos forestales maderables y no maderables a lo largo y...

Este artículo corresponde a un número especial publicado en La Jornada del Campo: "El bosque y su gente", en el cual se pretende, mediante la visibilización de diversos artículos interconectados, expresar la variabilidad en las respuestas locales-regionales asociadas al uso y manejo de los recursos forestales maderables y no maderables a lo largo y...

The interactive effects of anthropogenic disturbance and climatic variables can shape the demography of plant populations, but they remain poorly understood especially for long-lived species like tropical trees. Understanding these interactions is critical for designing forest management strategies in the face of both growing anthropogenic pressure...

The greatest diversity of culturally relevant fungi in Mexico has been recorded in temperate forests. Likewise, it has been proven that people who live in such environments possess greater ethnomycological knowledge, compared with people in the lowlands. In this study, we investigated whether the uses and perceptions of fungi were different between...

Las infografías aquí presentes tienen un propósito múltiple: Primero, 1) como material didáctico, 2) herramienta pedagógica y 3) vehículo de comunicación en la consulta previa, libre e informada y, finalmente, 4) como vehículo gráfico de apoyo en el diálogo de saberes.

“Eco-symbiotic complementarity” refers to mechanisms of reciprocal support among people settled in different ecological zones to access zone-specific useful products. We evaluated eco-symbiotic complementarity and how socio-spatial marginality influences the exchange of natural products between Nahua communities in the municipality of Coyomeapan an...

Across the process of domestication, human selection produces changes in target attributes as well as changes that are not necessarily desired by humans due to pleiotropic or linked genes. In this paper we addressed, correlated changes between genetic diversity, damage level, defense mechanisms (resistance and tolerance), and fitness due to the dom...

Key message Anatomical traits and features of Amphipterygium adstringens wood and hydraulic properties, both linked to sex, explain the performance of the species in its ecological niche. Abstract Androic and gynoic dioecious species respond structurally and functionally to the environmental conditions where they live. How are adaptive advantages...

Background The use and knowledge of medicinal plants play an essential role in community health in rural Mexico. Medicinal plants are part of the local heritage and provide a source of economic income. Nevertheless, knowledge of their use has declined due to factors like accelerated urbanization. Some authors have proposed that by reducing natural...

Background: Use and knowledge of medicinal plants play an essential role in community health in rural Mexico. They are part of the local inheritance and constitute an economic alternative. Nevertheless, knowledge of their use has declined due to factors like accelerated urbanization processes. Some authors have proposed that by reducing natural spa...

Commercial harvests can threaten tree species harvested for their bark. Amphipterygium adstringens is a dioecious tree, endemic to the tropical dry forests of Mexico, where it is intensively harvested for its medicinal bark. Limited information hinders developing sustainable management strategies for A. adstringens. We assessed bark regeneration fo...

Background: Pollinators are key for the survival of a great percentage of angiosperm species and 75 % of production from cultivated species is expected to decrease in the absence of pollinators. Questions: The goal of this study is to understand the role of agricultural management and local knowledge on pollination for the conservation of differen...

The Neolithic Revolution narrative associates early-mid Holocene domestications with the development of agriculture that fueled the rise of late Holocene civilizations. This narrative continues to be influential, even though it has been deconstructed by archaeologists and geneticists in its homeland. To further disentangle domestication from relian...

Las plantas medicinales son aquellas que contienen principios activos en alguno de sus órganos, los cuales se administran en dosis suficientes para curar o prevenir enfermedades. El conocimiento sobre su aprovecha-miento y aplicación como remedio se adquirió a lo largo del tiempo, y forma parte de la historia y de la cultura de los pueblos indígena...

El estado de Morelos pertenece a una de las regiones fisiográficas que más contribuyen al uso y comercialización de plantas medicinales a nivel nacional. En esta entidad la riqueza de flora medicinal se calcula en el orden de 818 especies, aunque por lo focalizado de los estudios, probablemente este número esté subestimado. Particularmente la regió...

En este capítulo se abordan distintos aspectos del manejo forestal en la entidad, desde una perspectiva histórica. Asimismo, se hace énfasis en los distintos aspectos del aprovechamiento con fines comerciales, de 1996 a 2016, con el objetivo de reconocer la evolución del manejo, las oportunidades, y las limitaciones para su sostenibilidad.

Copal is a resin of ritual uses in Mexico that is extracted from several species of trees of the genus Bursera. The effect of traditional management on phenotypical traits of copal trees has not been sufficiently studied. This research analyzed the traditional management and human selection on populations of Bursera bipinnata, and it also examined...

Urban collective gardens (UCG) are considered alternatives to face the environmental problems generated by urbanization, contributing to the sustainability of cities. This study aims to characterize UCG and its contributions to the local sustainability in Mexico City (CdMx). From bibliographic searches, consultation on social networks, and expert s...

Background Copal is a resin of ritual uses in Mexico, extracted from several species of trees of the genus Bursera. The effect of traditional management on phenotypical traits of copal trees has not been sufficiently studied. This research analyzed the traditional management and human selection on populations of Bursera bipinnata, and their influen...

Se documenta la estructura poblacional y el patrón de distribución y correlación espacial entre etapas de desarrollo de Hintonia latiflora, especie amenazada en México por la cosecha comercial de su corteza. Se establecieron seis unidades de muestreo (tres cosechadas y tres no cosechadas) de 20 m × 100 m para el censo de todas las plantas y se cate...

Resumen La intensidad de manejo en plantas está influida por factores socioecológicos, destacando el valor económico y la disponibilidad espacial de los recursos. Agave karwinskii es un recurso cultural, económica y ecológicamente relevante, con alta diversidad morfológica, la cual se refleja en la compleja nomenclatura tradicional. Algunos etnotax...

Background: Interactions between humans and fauna lay in the heart of the history of human subsistence. In Mesoamerica, the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley (TCV) harbours a high biodiversity with archaeological and ethnoecological evidence of its use by people inhabiting the area since at least 12,000 B.P. It is recognized as one of the most ancient are...

Palm plants provide important benefits for rural communities around the world. Of the 95 native palm species in Mexico, Brahea dulcis (Soyate palm) has been tagged as an important resource for many Mesoamerican ethnical groups. Scientific and empirical knowledge concerning Soyate is thematically fragmented and disassociated, meaning that sound sust...

La presente contribución pretende aportar al conocimiento de un grupo de PFNM ampliamente utilizado y por lo general biológicamente susceptible bajo aprovechamiento, las cortezas. Así, este documento que se intitula: “Las cortezas como Productos Forestales No Maderables en México: Análisis Nacional y Recomendaciones para su Aprovechamiento Sostenib...

p> Background: The genus Agave L. is recognized for its wide distribution in Mexican ecosystems. Species have been described as multipurpose as part of agroforestry systems (AFS). There has not been a systematized, detailed analysis about its richness in AFS nor their ecological, economic and cultural relevance. Questions : What is the Agave richn...

Ethnoecology is the study of the relationship between humans and their environments and components, including fungi. México is an exceptional setting for studying the interactions between humans and fungi, since most of the native cultures have interacted with these organisms for thousands of years. The state of Michoacán is particularly relevant,...

Vegetation maps have been key tools for synthesizing large amounts of information and supporting geographical location of biodiversity. Traditional vegetation map development demands acquisition and processing of expensive supplies, expertise of qualified interpreters and extensive fieldwork; nevertheless vegetation maps are crucial in areas where...

Mexico is an exceptional setting for ethnomycology since human cultures have interacted with fungi for thousands of years; the state of Michoacán is particularly important since nearly 11% of the fungi species recorded in Mexico occur there, 139 species being edible. This study aimed to analyze the taxonomic diversity and use forms of fungi, their...

Resumen Se estudió la recuperación en riqueza, composición, estructura y diversidad arbórea en 3 condiciones de bosque tropical caducifolio secundario con diferente tiempo de abandono (C35, C45 y C65 años) en el sureste del estado de Morelos. En cada condición se establecieron 3 unidades de muestreo de 50 × 50 m (2,500 m 2) y se midieron a todos lo...

The Balsas River Basin (BRB) area is the major source of wild medicinal plants commercially sold in Mexico; thus, the region is important in the conservation of these high-demand resources. We studied wild medicinal plant species extracted from the BRB to document the species richness of traded plants and analyze the commercialization dynamics and...

Sustainability science proposes including in research and actions knowledge and management techniques constructed by different sectors of the society. Such proposal recognizes that complexity of environmental problems exceeds approaches and rhythms of the predominant scientific research and provides the possibility of shortening time for action, ma...

En el 2016 bajo los auspicios del Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT), un grupo amplio de académicos, estudiantes, miembros de ONG´s y productores rurales conformamos la Red Temática Productos Forestales No Maderables: aportes desde la etnobiología para su aprovechamiento sostenible. Nos propusimos abordar el estudio de los Productos...

Mesoamérica es una región de alta diversidad biocultural y una de las áreas reconocidas como centro de origen de la domesticación y la agricultura. Aunque ha sido una zona cultural que ha cambiado a lo largo del tiempo, en general, se reconoce que su territorio cubrió la mitad meridional de México y hasta el noroeste de Costa Rica. Los contactos e...

Sustainability science proposes including in research and actions knowledge and management techniques constructed by different sectors of the society. Such proposal recognizes that complexity of environmental problems exceeds approaches and rhythms of the predominant scientific research and provides the possibility of shortening time for action, ma...

Desde hace aproximadamente seis millones de años, los ancestros más antiguos del linaje evolutivo de los humanos modernos, Orrorin tugenensis y Australopithecus spp. vivieron de la recolección de plantas y carroña dejada por los grandes carnívoros. Hace aproximadamente dos millones de años el Homo habilis y algunos australopitecinos fabricaban ya h...

EDITORES Se reúne en este volumen material de lectura para apoyar el curso " Domes-ticación y Manejo in situ de Recursos Genéticos " , organizado desde 2006 por la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) y la Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina (UNALM). Incluye reflexiones y teorías sobre los procesos de domesticación a escala de poblacio...

La diversidad biocultural (forestal, agrícola, faunística, edáfica y cultural) en México es afectada por procesos como la intensificación de la agricultura, cambios en el uso de la tierra, acaparamiento y degradación de suelos, agua y vegetación, entre otros, mostrando un panorama muy riesgoso para el futuro de la soberanía de nuestro país. Se reco...

Ensayos Resumen Abstract Résumé Variables sociodemográficas y su relación con el número de recursos forestales no maderables en dos comunidades zapotecas de la Sierra Juárez de Oaxaca Los recursos forestales no maderables (RFNM) tienen diversos usos de acuerdo con las características sociodemográfi-cas y culturales de los recolectores. Esta investi...

The Tehuacan-Cuicatlan Valley (TCV) is a region with a human presence of more than 12 000 years and agriculture records about 9000 years. As agriculture developed, Agroforestry Systems (AFS) evolved in crop field located outside the villages, and established homegarden near the houses. The AFS have been recognized for their high production potentia...

Ethnobotany is a research aimed at understanding what people know about plants, how plants form part of their systems of beliefs and conceptions of the world, and how humans make use and manage plants for reproducing their social and cultural life. This chapter shows a general panorama of the historical use of ethnobotany in Mexico from pre-Columbi...

Ethnobotany is defined as the study of the traditional botanical knowledge of different cultures, the techniques utilized in the use and management of plant resources, and the place they have in their cultural Cosmo vision. This study aimed to review the development and perspectives of ethnobotany in Mexico, based on an extensive review of all ethn...

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 communit...

We analysed the diversity of forms in which human communities of the Tehuacan Valley manage their plant resource, as well as the motivations and factors influencing how such management forms are and how intensely held. We explored and identified ecological, sociocultural, economic and technological factors that influence how the management forms an...

Human cultures that occupied the area currently known as Mesoamerica developed a broad repertory of technologies for managing the biotic resources and ecosystems of the surrounding areas they lived. These technologies emerged from early experiences and had long time, enough for leading to the first forms of agriculture of the New World. Mesoamerica...

Etnoagroforestería en México compila el esfuerzo de 40 investigadores (en su mayoría mexicanos y de diversas universidades del país) quienes comparten el interés y la preocupación por mantener viva la rica expresión de la diversidad biocultural de México. Sus estudios etnoagroforestales se construyen como una aproximación transdisciplinaria capaz d...

Evolutionary ethnobiology studies the evolutionary processes derived from interactions between humans and biotic elements (mainly plants, animals, fungi, and some micro-organisms) that form part of the ecosystems the manage. Such interactions may have evolutionary consequences on: (1) the organisms interacting with humans, (2) the humans themselves...

Mescal production is the main economic activity associated to agaves in Mexico, which involves 53 species mostly harvested from forests. The increasing mescal demand has influenced risk in both agave populations and mescal production, but other social and ecological factors also intervene. We hypothesized that the greater the risk the greater the c...

Con base en información etnobotánica, ecológica y mediante análisis estadísticos multivariados se analizaron diez variables morfológicas de árboles, hojas, recimos y frutos asociadas al manejo tradicional del capulín. Se encontró que en un gradiente de mayor a menor intensidad de manejo se encuentra un gradiente de menor a mayor diversidad de varie...

Ethnobotany is a multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary research field concerned with the study of interactions between people and plants throughout time and different cultural and ecological contexts. Such apparently simple concept involves a number of questions related with complex processes that require a broad spectrum of meth- ods to be underst...

Humans include several species of the genus Homo that are able to design strategies for transforming ecosystems. The oldest remains of this process is the fabrication of tools, approximately 2.5 millions of years before present. Humans originated from Primate relatives through evolutionary processes whose principles explain evolution of all living...