ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to describe and evaluate a type of “social forestry” system used by indigenous farmers living at a density of 100 persons per square kilometer in a zone of “fragile lands” in northeastern Mexico. The Huastec system of forest management could, with local modifications, be integrated as a farm component of smallholders using forested lands anywhere in the world. The Huastec have a mixed economy; they produce goods for a market and buy goods with cash, while at the same time producing directly other goods for their own consumption. The Huastec-managed agroecosystem meets farm family needs for subsistence goods and cash. Huastec forest management creates patches of “te’lom.” These managed forest plots contain elements of primary and secondary forests as well as introduced species. Because the te’lom system functions as an integral part of a diversified farmstead, the chapter attempts to analyze the entire farm enterprise: milpa, sugarcane, te’lom, and livestock.
