Subsistence Agriculture and Resource Management in

Guajiquiro Municipio, Honduras

The Lenca were the largest pre-Columbian indigenous group in what became Honduras. This map shows their distribution in 1780. They remain a people of the highlands.

Here are some Lenca at the Sunday Guajiquiro market.

As you read in the article. Guajiquiro Municipio includes a cloud forest protected area, “area protegida”.

Physical Geography • Tropical highlands

Tierra fresca (>1700m)Cloud forest: Broadleaf

Tierra calida (<1700m)Tropical dry forest: pine, oak, savanna

Tropical wet/dry climate: Invierno = May-October wet seasonVerano = November-April dry season

• Old, highly weathered volcanic soils• Steep slopes

I took this pic from Tierra Calida, looking north into the moister highlands of Tierra Fresca.

Tierra fresca: Cloud forest

Tierra fresca: Cloud forest

We get credit for this?

Tierra calida: scrubby pine forest

Tierra calida

Tierra calida: Pine and savanna

• Traditional Resource Use: Soil, Water, Vegetation• Communal management: Municipio, Ejido• Settlements

• Pueblo and aldeas

– Agropastoralism• Agriculture

– Swidden agriculture: maize, beans, squash– Bosque, milpa, guamil

• Animal Husbandry– Transhumance:

Verano = Tierra frescaInvierno = Tierra calida

– Forest Use• Aserrio manual

– Houses• Bajareque• Adobe• Bloque

Guajiquiro Pueblo

The people of Guajiquiro live embedded in their most important resources: soil and forest.

San Marcos aldea

Guajiquirito caserio

• Traditional Resource Use: Soil, Water, Vegetation• Communal management: Municipio, Ejido• Settlements

• Pueblo and aldeas

– Agropastoralism• Agriculture

– Swidden agriculture:maize, beans, squash– Bosque, milpa, guamil

• Animal Husbandry

– Transhumance:

Verano = Tierra fresca

Invierno = Tierra calida

– Forest Use• Aserrio manual

– Houses• Bajareque• Adobe• Bloque

Maize

Frijoles

Typical Lenca milpa.

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Maize

Coffee

Frijoles

Cow

Moo!

Moo!

The Lenca also practice animal husbandry, but with small herds of cattle.

June 1998 January 2003

Milpa

Guamil

Bosque

1954 1982

Milpa

Guamil

Bosque

The Lenca’s swidden or slash/burn agriculture is evident in aerial photographs.

Activities of Verano

Verano begins after the harvest of the milpas. During the 5-6 dry months, the Lenca undertake constructions projects, such as harvesting soil for making adobes for houses.

These adobes are free. The only cost is the labor, which is not easy.

Fine adobe house, constructed from local soil, clay and timber.

The inside of an adobe house where my students and I stayed for 3 weeks. We didn’t only play cards.

The bajareque is another common house-type made from local resources, which include timber, stones, clay and soil.

Bajareque house with guachiplin corner posts. Though curvy, the Lenca favor the guachiplin because of its durability.

Lenca convenience store…bajareque.

The inside of a bajareque. This maize was ground up for delicious corn tortillas.

A Lenca man teaches his two boys how to make roof tiles from local clay deposits. Children work a lot in Guajiquiro.

Typical oven in a Lenca house. Women cook over open fires, which makes for a smoky situation that can cause eye and respiratory problems.

Vasectomy? Might be a good idea where population growth is overtaxing the Lenca’s land resources.

One strategy to improve agricultural production during a time of population increase, is to put land in permanent production. This milpa is planted in contour rows to reduce erosion.

Irrigation allows a farmer to grow potatoes during verano.

The introduction of apple production was intended to extend the production of land in Guajiquiro. Unfortunately, Washington Apples is a main competitor.

Washington Apples plans to continue to export apples to Honduras, thus making life difficult for Guajiquiro’s apple farmers.

Guajiquiro farmers are also experimenting with coffee production. Both apples and coffee represent a major shift in the municipio, which previously farmed for subsistence not for export markets.

Guajiquiro’s basketball court. An “airball” on the south goal means a long hike down hill.

Lenca who traveled upslope for the Sunday market.

Public transport in Guajiquiro. Possibly your old school bus.

Timber harvest in Guajiquiro. No chainsaws allowed. Instead, axes and crosscut saws are the main tools.

Typcal timber cut in Guajiquiro. The pic on the right is an aserrio manual, a manual sawmill.

Aserrio manual and boards for sale. According to municipio laws, timber products can’t be exported from Guajiquio. This law and the law that restricts the use of chainsaws has protected Guajiquiro’s forests.

Typical forest in transition after logging. Clear cutting is not practiced.

For the past twenty years Guajiquiro has experimented with eco and cultural tourism.

One appeal for tourists is Guajiquiro’s record of forest conservation.

Messages of forest conservation can be found throughout the municipio.

1954 1982

I used aerial photographs to study forest change in Guajiquiro and found that in some places forest cover decreased as population grew. I also found cloud forest patches that increased in size.

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One way to study Guajiquiro’s resource management is to examine the lists of permisos that residents must file whenever they want to harvest some resource. These are permisos for registering a cattle brand.

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Señor Alcalde Municipal, Innocencio Hernandez-Gomez

El Patronato de esta comunidad le informamos que el Señor Fidel Perez Corea, nos busca con motivo a revisar un lote de monte bajillo que va chapiar para milpa y hemos viste el lote donde no se encuentra madera de construccion ni arboles frutales y damos fe para que le autorizen permiso policia municipal.

Firma Presidente PatronatoVictor Sanchez Corea

Here’s a permiso for clearing land for a milpa. Remember, all resources in the municipio are managed communally. There is no private property.

Unfortunately, as this slide and the next few show, the records are incomplete. So, it ’s impossible to show a trend in permisos as the population has grown.

Not every resident of Guajiquiro follows the rules. Here a farmer cut down trees without permission and had to pay a steep fine.

Piped potable water systems came to Guajiquiro within the past 15 years. These systems depend on adequate forest cover so that catch systems can effectively collect and store water. I think the relationship between water and forest cover might lead the Lenca to continue to conserve their forests. However, if the population continues to grow, there will be greater pressure to clear forest for agriculture.