Trees and farming in the dry zone of southern Honduras I: campesi tree husbandry practices. A.J. Barrance 1, * , L. Flores 2 , E. Padilla 3 , J.E.Gordon 4,5 and K.Schreckenberg 6 1 Apartado Postal 5928, Tegucigalpa, Honduras; 2 Residencial Plaza, Bloque 53 Casa 3022, Tegucigalpa, Honduras; 3 CONSEFORH, Apartado Postal 314, Comayagua, Honduras; 4 Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK; 5 Current address: Department of Geography, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3LE, UK; 6 Overseas Development Institute, 111 Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7DH, UK; * Author for correspondence (tel./fax: (504) 236 6173; e-mail: barrance@hondutel.hn) Received 7 January 2002; accepted in revised form 20 June 2003 Key words: Agroecosystem, Conservation, Livelihoods, Mesoamerica Abstract Forest cover in the dry zone of southern Honduras has suffered drastic reduction, largely as a result of t ginalisation of small farmers onto formerly wooded hillsides. In four case study communities, the relations be- tween the area’s human population and the remaining tree diversity were investigated through a combin interviews, focus group meetings and inventories. Inventories on 10 farms in 2 communities found an av 57.6 standing trees 共 above 2 m in height 兲 and 9388.3 live stumps and seedlings of tree and shrub species 共 less than 2 m in height 兲 per hectare in recently cropped fields. Tree management practices were found to includ selective promotion of naturally regenerated trees valued by farmers for their products, the elimination of un- wanted trees due to competition with crops for light and space, and pruning to reduce competition. Farm 41 species as being actively protected, although protection was largely concentrated on a subset of 5 共 Cordia alliodora, Swietenia humilis, Lysiloma spp., Enterolobium cyclocarpum and Albizia saman, in that order 兲 ; they also described broadening their species preferences in the face of scarcity of preferred species. The stu tions the common perception of dry zone farmers as being responsible for continued elimination of tree and highlights the potential of the management of natural regeneration for meeting the livelihood needs farmers. Introduction This paperexamines the relationships between the ruralhuman population of the dry forest zone of southern Honduras and the area’s remaining tree di- versity. The research on which it is based was carried out between 1998 and 2000, within the context of concern about the future of Tropical Dry Forest. This has been characterised by Janzen 共 1988 兲 as “the most endangered major tropical ecosystem”, with only 2% of its original extentacross Mesoamerica in a state “sufficiently intact to attract the attention of the tra- ditional conservationist”. The conservation status of Mesoamerican dry forest varies widely across the re- gion. Extensiveareasof apparently intactforest 共 much of which is probably in reality very old re-growth followingpre-Columbian clearance for shifting agriculture 兲 stillremain in Mexican Pacific states such as Oaxaca, Guerrero and Jalisco. In Gua- nacaste, Costa Rica, large areas previously degraded by cattle ranching are currently in a process of recov- ery 共 in some cases assisted; Janzen 1986 兲 . On the Pa- cific slopes and coastal plains of Nicaragua, Hondu- ras,El Salvadorand Guatemala almost all of the originalforestcoverhasgone;mostof the small © 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. XPS 0120332 — ms-code agfo2248 — PIPS 5144438 — 16 Sep 2003 — Grafikon 203001108 Agrofo restry Systems 59: 97–106, 2003. 97