Heritage of the milpa

An ancient farming practice is key to forest conservation in Yucatán 

53-year-old Ofelia lives in the village of Oxkutzcab on the Yucatán peninsula and has always been practicing milpa farming. The milpa, a traditional farming system practiced by the indigenous Maya people of Central America and southern Mexico, involves rotating agricultural plots – usually with corn, beans, squash, and other vegetables – within a forested area. This rotation involves the planting of multiple crops and allows for natural forest regeneration in previously cultivated plots. As a result, these “forest gardens” maintain high levels of biodiversity and soil fertility by preserving a mosaic of forest and agricultural habitats. A variety of plant and animal species in Yucatán depend on the diverse environments created by this ancient agricultural practice.  

“The recovery of knowledge present in the milpa system, both agricultural and cultural, as well as an international recognition, plays a very important main role because it is to dignify the activity –  it's an important message, especially for women and for the young people – because if anyone can do something to preserve the legacy of the milpa agricultural system, it's the young people and the women who have been incorporating themselves into the milpa work,” says Terán.  

Supporting milpa farmers to prevent deforestation  

By maintaining a mosaic of forest and agricultural lands, the Mayan milpa system reduces the overall pressure on primary forests, which are vital carbon sinks, and thus helps to prevent large-scale deforestation. “The Mayan Forest (Selva Maya) has mostly been managed as a landscape, being a territory where the Mayan milpa abounds – through 3500 years of rotational management in plots with an average size of two hectares, the forest has been revitalized and conservation has been promoted at the same time. In the milpa system, you let rest or what we call fallow for 20, 50 years even, and you manage it again. So that leads to a healthy recovery, to orderly management,” says Minneth Medina García, Director of the Intermunicipal Board of the Puuc region (JIBIOPUUC). Together with Yucatán’s Ministry of Sustainable Development (SDS), WWF Mexico and other partners, she leads a project in the last remaining forest reserves of the state of Yucatán, the Región Biocultural del Puuc, which forms part of a larger biocultural corridor extending into Central America. The project works on the reserve’s forest management program and is strengthening sustainable production alternatives through beekeeping, payments for environmental services and the support of milpa farmers: “We need to strengthen the milpa producers, so that they can have greater profitability and are not rotating or logging the forest,” says Minneth Medina.

"We are convinced that the Mayan milpa is a system that has adapted and adapts to the challenges presented at the humanitarian level, as a result of a conventional development model, and thanks to the hard work done by the milperas and milperos on a daily basis, this system remains and it is up to all of us to make it continue," underlines the Secretary of Sustainable Development of the State of Yucatan, M.I.A. Sayda Melina Rodriguez Gomez.