The Orchard system
An intermediary stage between intensive production and natural protection areas
Keywords:
sustentabilidad, sustainability, Conventos, Producción intensiva, Biodiversidad útil, Convents, Orchard intensive production, Useful biodiversity, Couvent, Production intensive, Nourriture, Biodiversité utileAbstract
We analyze orchards' role in biodiversity and sustainable resource management. The study is a revision and discussion of a treatise called "Carpología Mexicana". this document reports fruit species and varieties in Mexico, during the end of XIX Century, and it is an invaluable source information, Data analysis, recognizes orchards' importance and give us a theoretical basis for their recovery as productive units. Orchards are an opportunity for rural development and a effective mechanism for "useful biodiversity" conservation in five Mexico's states. This paper is also an etnohistorical contribution, because, it focuses in towns or settlements where Franciscan convents existed during the XVI Century. Religious orders functioned as production and learning centers, that brought fruit species and agricultural practices, which influenced economy and management techniques in America.
