Research article Silvopastoral systems of the Chol Mayan ethnic group in southern Mexico: Strategies with a traditional basis Ana Genoveva Pignataro a, * , Samuel Israel Levy Tacher a , Juan Rogelio Aguirre Rivera b , Jos  e Nahed Toral a , Mario Gonz  alez Espinosa a , Nelson Rend  on Carmona c a El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR), Carretera Panamericana y Perif erico Sur s/n, 29290 San Crist obal de Las Casas, Chiapas, M exico b Instituto de Investigaci on de Zonas Des erticas, Universidad aut onoma de San Luis Potosí, Altair 200 Facc. Del Llano, San Luis Potosí, SLP, M exico c Instituto de Estudios e Investigaci on Intercultural A.C. Franz Blom 38-A, San Crist obal de Las Casas, Chiapas, M exico article info Article history: Received 21 October 2015 Received in revised form 18 April 2016 Accepted 20 June 2016 Keywords: Silvopastoral systems Traditional agricultural technology Ecosystem services Scattered trees Salto de Agua Chiapas abstract Silvopastoral systems combine trees and/or shrubs with grazing cattle. In the municipality of Salto de Agua, Chiapas, Mexico, some indigenous communities have developed silvopastoral systems based on their traditional knowledge regarding use of local natural resources. Through analysis of classification based on the composition of tree vegetation, two groups of grazing units were identified in the study area. Different attributes of tree and herbaceous vegetation, as well as of agricultural management and production, were compared between the two groups. Results indicate that at least two strategies of silvopastoral management exist. The first - LTD - is characterized by an average density of 22 adult trees ha 1 in grazing units with an average surface area of 22.4 ha. The second - HTD - has an average of 54.4 trees ha 1 in grazing units with an average surface area of 12.2 ha. Average richness per grazing unit for the LTD strategy was 7.2 species, and for HTD strategy it was 12.7 species. Average basal area for LTD was 1.7 m2 ha 1 , and for HTD 3.8 m2 ha 1 . Finally, the average level of fixed carbon for LTD was 2.12 mg ha 1 , and for HTD 4.89 mg ha 1 . For all variables, there was a significant difference between the two strategies. In addition, both strategies differ in prairie management. In the HTD strategy, growers spare their preferred spontaneously growing tree species by clearing around them. Many of these spe- cies, particularly those harvested for timber, belong to the original vegetation. In these prairies, average coverage of native grasses (60.8 ± 7.85) was significantly greater than in the LTD strategy (38.4 ± 11.32), and neither fertilizers nor fire are used to maintain or improve the pastures; by contrast, in HTD prairies, introduced grasses, principally Cynodon plectostachyus, have a higher average coverage (43.4 ± 13.75) than in the LTD prairies (17.08 ± 9.02). Regardless of the differences in composition of tree and herba- ceous vegetation, in both types of grazing units a similar animal load is maintained. Many attributes of these silvopastoral strategies - based on traditional technology of the Chol farmers of the Tulija River Valley - concord with sustainable agriculture and provide a wide variety of services to the farmer and the environment. Diffusion of this technology in areas similar to that of this region could have a positive impact on the economy of conventional cattle raisers while generating environmental services. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Silvopastoral systems combine cattle raising in pastures with use of woody plants (Nair, 1997; Pezo and Ibrahim, 1999). There are many variants of such systems, adapted to a broad range of envi- ronmental conditions and that incorporate growers’ wisdom and interests. Presence of trees in areas where cattle are raised, espe- cially in warm humid climates, enhances the ecosystem’s persis- tence, particularly by improving and maintaining soil conditions. Studies in Mexico and Central America have shown that the pres- ence of trees in prairies increases the soil’s organic carbon content as well as its potassium, total nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium contents (Rhoades et al., 1998; Giraldo et al., 2006; Crespo, 2008; Morales Couti ~ no, 2010; Romero Murcia, 2010). Furthermore, reduced variations in humidity and temperature due * Corresponding author. E-mail address: pignatar@agro.uba.ar (A.G. Pignataro). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Environmental Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jenvman http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.06.036 0301-4797/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Environmental Management 181 (2016) 363e373