Research

INTRODUCTION

A biocultural landscape reflects the way indigenous people connect with their natural environment, through coevolutionary interaction (Boege 2008, Toledo and Barrera-Bassols 2008, Maffi and Woodley 2010). This interdependent relationship allows systems to sustain themselves long-term because the traditional cosmovision encompasses the sociocultural and environmental dimensions (UNESCO 1992, Berkes and Davidson-Hunt 2006, Maffi 2007, Hong 2014, Cuerrier et al. 2015). A biocultural landscape comprises an environment managed at different intensity gradients where the original vegetation, agroforests, traditional crops, grasslands, and bodies of water, among others are distinguishable (Boege 2008, Ramcilovic-Suominen et al. 2024). The traditional agricultural systems with their wealth of values, practices, beliefs, and ecological knowledge, as well as the associated biological diversity, play a primordial role in shaping biocultural landscapes (Berkes and Davidson-Hunt 2006, Maffi and Woodley 2010, Min and He 2014).

The Totonacapan region of Veracruz, our study site, has had an agricultural vocation since pre-Hispanic times (Kelly and Palerm 1952). The Totonac developed a rotational agricultural management system that together with native forests and other smaller-scale crops, gave shape to a diversified landscape. The agricultural cycle began by cutting down trees from a forested area and burning the debris and weeds. Later they planted milpa, a polyculture made up of varieties of maize, beans, squash, and chili. After a few years of cultivation, they set the land to rest, thus allowing forest regeneration. People also cultivated maguey (Agave sp.) and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.), and in the forested areas they managed different products including vanilla, which was sold and exported to Europe (Vanilla planifolia Andrews; Melgarejo-Vivanco 1985, Rojas 1990, Karremans 2024).

From the mid-18th century to the 1970s, the Totonac carried out the rotational type of landscape management (Chenaut 1995, 2010). Throughout this period, they went from collecting vanilla pods from the forest toward developing an agroforestry system (Chenaut 1995, Kourí 2000, Karremans 2024). As expected, management practices became more complex. By applying their experience and knowledge on ecological cycles, growers developed a milpa-vanilla agricultural cycle. At that time, vanilla pods came from flowers pollinated naturally by Euglossa sp. bees, therefore fruit production was low (Soto-Arenas 2006, Karremans 2024). In the late 19th century, the artificial pollination method brought to Papantla by French settlers transformed the regional scenario by boosting vanilla production (Chenaut 1995). Within this management system, Totonac growers alternated milpa cycles that lasted 2 to 4 years, with vanilla plantations that would last 10 to 20 years. At the end of these periods, crops were moved to another site and gave way to the regeneration of natural vegetation for periods of 10 to 12 years or more, to recover soil fertility (Medellín-Morales 1993, Toledo et al. 1994, Chenaut 1995). The main crops were the milpa, essential for families’ self-sufficiency, and vanilla, as the luxurious cash crop exported to Europe. They also exploited timber and non-timber products obtained from fallows and tropical forests. Citrus plantations and livestock husbandry were also introduced during this period (Kelly and Palerm 1952, Chenaut 1995).

The mid-20th century, socioeconomic dynamics changed land use patterns, utterly transforming the landscape (Chenaut 2010). Between 1910 and 1930, 86% of the surface was occupied by forests, 10.7% by crops, and 3.3% by pastures (Barrera-Bassols et al. 1994). From 1970 onward, intensive crops and livestock pastures were established (Chenaut 2010). In the 1990s, only a few farmers retained this system, which coexisted with the pastures dominating the landscape. They also maintained fragments of forest and secondary forests at different successional stages, home gardens, and other crops (Medellín-Morales 1993, Toledo et al. 1994, 2003). By then, 72.2% of the surface had been converted into cattle pastures, 18.2% were crops, and only 9.1% were forest remnants (Barrera-Bassols et al. 1994, Chenaut 2010).

This trend continued, and the region became dominated by cattle pastures and citrus plantations, and to a lesser extent by other crops (Ellis and Martínez-Bello 2010). Nowadays, vanilla is mainly produced in simplified agroforestry systems such as orange monocultures or crops under shade nets and very little under traditional management (Velázquez-Rosas et al. 2024). Forests have been reduced to small fragments that conserve some of the native flora and fauna (Ellis and Martínez-Bello 2010).

These changes deeply impacted on the biocultural legacy that today is at risk of disappearing. Losing biodiversity also means the disappearance of the associated language (Arriaga-Jiménez et al. 2018, Reyes-González et al. 2020) along with the local cultural experience accumulated in the form of values, practices, beliefs, and traditional knowledge (sensu biocultural axiom; Toledo and Barrera-Bassols 2008). However, previous evidence suggests that old management knowledge remains in the collective memory of the Totonac elders who historically have adapted to socio-cultural and environmental change (Velázquez-Rosas et al. 2018, Pérez-Vázquez 2024).

The old management compels special consideration because it is associated with secondary succession, therefore it has enormous potential for the Totonac biocultural landscape restoration. When the processes allowing regeneration are restored, ecosystem functions such as the water cycle and connectivity between patches improve, therefore climate vulnerability reduces. In parallel, the identity of Totonac traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) regarding how they managed the land in the past could be preserved, potentially ensuring a source of income in the short, medium, and long term. We aimed to evaluate changes in traditional vanilla cultivation management systems in four locations in the municipality of Papantla, Veracruz, Mexico, comparing qualitative and quantitative data from specific periods located in the 20th and 21st centuries. To fulfill this purpose, we asked the following research questions: (1) From the producers’ perspective, what was the traditional vanilla cultivation management system like in the past, and what is it like today? (2) What changes have there been in the composition, structure, and uses of woody plants, and in the perceived value of past and present traditional management? (3) Have these changes affected landscape transformation in the study area?

METHODS

Study sites

We selected four locations in Papantla de Olarte Municipality, Veracruz (Fig. 1), the largest vanilla producer in Mexico (SIAP 2022). The average annual temperature and rainfall range between 24 and 26 °C and 1200 and 1500 mm, respectively (INEGI 2021). This region has a warm, subhumid climate with summer rains. In 2020, 9.2% of Papantla’s surface area was covered by vegetation (GFW 2025), composed by tropical medium sub-evergreen forest fragments (Velázquez-Rosas et al. 2018). All four locations have similar livelihoods with predominant orange and maize monocultures and cattle ranching, that is, 57.88% and 31.52% of the municipal area, respectively (INEGI 2010). From the XVI century onwards, the Totonac used to be the largest Indigenous population inhabiting this region (Chenaut, 1995), but nowadays only 18.4% speaks the language (INEGI 2020).

Traditional management characterization

We compared past and present management of traditional vanilla cultivation, using data gathered through qualitative and quantitative stages. Qualitative data was obtained through fieldwork visits conducted in 2023. Based on ethnographic research principles (Taylor and Bogdan 1987), the study included semi-structured interviews with 28 Totonac and local traditional vanilla producers: six women and 22 men, aged between 55 and 98 years old. The interviews aimed to document growers’ knowledge on traditional vanilla cultivation in the past and present (Appendix 1). With reference to questions about the past, they were asked to think back and remember what farming was like when they were children. Prior to an interview, the study was explained to each participant, who would then sign a free and informed consent form, where the researcher committed to use the provided information for research purposes only, maintaining anonymity and confidentiality. We used the snowball technique (Taylor and Bogdan 1987), to choose well-respected key informants particularly because of their knowledge of traditional vanilla cultivation. They in turn referred to other producers who were also knowledgeable about traditional vanilla production. All interviews were audio recorded and played back for transcription.

The main author proceeded to develop a thematic categorization through manual coding with ATLAS.ti 23 according to the following categories: growth cycle, structure and composition, traditional uses of woody plants, the perceived value or meaning of traditional vanilla, and community organization around vanilla production. The recorded Totonac names that described the management stages and the tree species used in vanilla cultivation were analyzed by a linguist and verified by a Totonac translator. Common names of woody plants, along with some of their characteristics as described by interviewees, were useful in the identification of both genera and/or plant species reported in the study on vanilla fields and forest fragments by Velázquez-Rosas et al. (2025).

Moreover, qualitative information was complemented with data provided by Velázquez-Rosas et al. (2025) on the vertical distribution of woody plant species of today’s traditional vanilla plantations. The vertical profile of traditional vanilla plantations from the past was inferred from the interviews, determining the most abundant species based on the mentioned frequency. The vertical profile of current traditional vanilla plantations was obtained by sampling all woody plants bigger than 2.5 cm diameter at breast height (DBH) using a 20 x 5 m² transect inside a 10–15-year-old plantation. The DBH and position of each woody plant in the transect were recorded and their height was measured using a digital clinometer (ECII D, Haglöf). Past and present vegetation profiles were generated using AutoCAD 2024.

Furthermore, we compiled a list of woody species (including exotic ones) occurring in past and present day traditional management, that included traditional uses, with categories adapted from Velázquez-Rosas et al. (2018): living stakes (LS), shade (S), organic matter (OM), crafts and tools (C), ritual and ornamental (R), medicinal (M), timber (T), fuelwood (FW), forage (FO), building construction (BC), food (F), and live fencing (LF). We added other uses mentioned by interviewees, based on traditional vanilla plantations such as shade trees (S), organic matter (OM), and living stakes (LS). Other categories added were regeneration growth (in relation to light as light-demanding), intermediate light requirements, and shade-tolerant (Appendix 2). We compared the uses of past and present species found in vanilla plantations.

RESULTS

Old traditional vanilla cultivation management (between 1930 and 1970)

The landscape mosaic during the mid-20th century was dominated by milpas, traditional vanilla plantations, and fallows at different successional stages, but also by forests. An 82-year-old producer explained that there “... were solely traditional vanilla and acahuales [secondary vegetation].” A multiple management system that involved cycles of crop rotation and fallow allowed soil fertility to be maintained. In addition, there were commercial crops like tobacco, sugar cane, banana, and pastures. This arrangement enabled families to access abundant natural resources for self-consumption (food, timber, firewood, medicines, etc.), and to earn cash from selling vanilla and other products.

Vanilla was the main source of income for most families. An 82-year-old male interviewee recalled: “It was important and natural. It was the plant [vanilla] that yielded more [financial] resources than maize.” Vanilla was regarded as the “black gold” because it was more profitable than any other crop. Selling vanilla became a source of prosperity because they could buy food and clothing, pay for their children’s education, build houses, etc. However, they also expressed other ways of valuing the act of working the land such as care, respect, and reciprocity. The elders associate personal memories with vanilla cultivation, as it was a space for family coexistence, where their parents, grandparents, or relatives taught them multiple “knowledges” and environmental values through oral tradition and practice. For this reason, they feel a deep attachment, respect, and pride for this crop, which they consider part of their heritage. They also preserve practices through stories and rituals that reflect their Totonac cultural identity and territory. For example, they perform offerings of syncretic origin to the “owner, lord or Juan del Monte,” also known as Kiwikgolo (old tree, in Totonac); or the mano-vuelta (Tamaj tai = mutual help), a collective organization strategy that encourages reciprocity. “Mano-vuelta” is defined by growers in different ways:

It was done for vanilla and everything else. There was no payment, but you had to replace the daily wage (77-year-old traditional vanilla producer).

Some people helped each other. Two or three of them went to plant vanilla (83-year-old traditional vanilla producer).

If you help me today, I will help you tomorrow, it is like a chain. Family members helped each other out. There was no payment; whatever was harvested was divided in half, and everyone worked this way so that everyone had enough and no one went without (98-year-old traditional vanilla producer).

Through this practice, they helped each other with activities like agricultural practices (tree pruning, weed management) and with manual pollination. Mano-vuelta can also help protect themselves against vanilla theft. It was clear from the interviews that they respect and care for the forest, because they acknowledge that their way of life depends on it, among many other values linked to feelings and emotions, for example, spirituality and the sacredness of nature.

Vanilla production in the old management style is associated with native tree diversity that provides environmental conditions for its production, like shade, support, and organic matter. In the past, rainfall was abundant, favoring the crop. An 80-year-old male traditional vanilla producer remembered that “It used to rain a lot. There were north winds that brought 15 days to a month of rain, day and night. It was easier afterward because we planted vanilla, and it grew nicely. This meant that even with a small plantation, we produced a lot.” In the old way, vanilla was low maintenance, it only required occasional pruning to regulate shade and ventilation to obtain good harvests.

To establish a traditional plantation, vanilla was propagated asexually by stem cuttings, using fragments cut off at least 70 cm from the apical meristem. These cuttings were planted in an organic matter substrate, and three trunks were used as support. Generally, the cuttings came from vanilla plants previously cultivated by their parents or grandparents and, in a few cases, from wild vanilla populations that were collected mainly from bamboo fragments (Guadua aculeata) or from local forest fragments. These cuttings came from healthy, vigorous plants that produced good sized pods.

Some producers still remember that a traditional vanilla plantation in the past would begin with the slash and burn of at least 1 ha of forest or fallow to plant the milpa (Katukuxtu) for two to four years. Halfway through the cycle, they allowed specific native species of trees to grow naturally, which the Totonac named and appreciated because of their different uses. When these trees reached one and a half meters, they abandoned the milpa but started a new one elsewhere. They planted two or three vanilla cuttings at the base of the trunk, thus establishing the traditional vanilla plantation (Kaxanatni). Others recall forming it by clearing sections of the acahual or forest. In both cases, depending on the shade and ventilation management as well as the frequency of replacement of old vanilla plants, a traditional vanilla plantation could last between 10 to 30 years. In some cases, the plot was left to recover afterward and would become a fallow known as monte bajo or acahual (Kamagkataman). Soil and vegetation were allowed to recover. Meanwhile, they started another vanilla plantation elsewhere or had already done so previously. Occasionally, the succession was left for a longer period, and the plot would revert to a forest or monte alto (Kalankakiwin). After several years, the land would be cleared again. This process was possibly repeated for generations (Fig. 2).

Based on the information provided by the interviewees, we were able to identify two different traditional vanilla plantation structures. The oldest involved less canopy disturbance, where small native trees called tutores (living stakes) provided support, low shade, and organic matter. Taller trees provided high shade that reached heights near or greater than 15 meters and organic matter. Tree branches were cut to reduce shade levels and for ventilation, where vanilla plants were allowed to grow naturally. Flowers were pollinated by hand, and pods were harvested using bamboo ladders. Some described this system as rustic (Fig. 3).

The structure shown in Fig. 3 may have evolved into a different way of managing the traditional vanilla plantation. The original canopy was pruned to control shade and tree height. The orchids’ stem was not allowed to grow more than three meters and then it was bent downwards. When it reached the ground again, rooting was stimulated by placing leaves or chopped branches on top. This practice allowed the plant to climb up again, hence keeping it low height, which facilitated pollination and harvest.

The interviewees mentioned 51 tree species (46 genera and 26 families) found in traditional vanilla plantations, all with different local uses; 49 are native and only two are introduced: orange (Citrus aurantium Ly) and mango (Mangifera indica L.; Appendix 2). The most frequently mentioned species were laurel (Damburneya salicifolia [Kunth] Trofimov & Rohwer), capulín (Eugenia capuli [Schltdl. & Cham. Hook. & Arn.]), cojón de gato (Tabernaemontana alba Mill.), bayetilla (Hamelia patens Jacq.), chaca (Bursera simaruba [L.] Sarg.), and garrochillo (Cupania glabra Sw.). This selection may have been determined by their regeneration growth and/or uses.

The current traditional vanilla cultivation management

We previously stated that the landscape nowadays is dominated by open pastures and citrus monocultures. Also, most maize is grown as a monoculture and to a lesser extent in milpas. Vanilla is mainly produced in simplified agroforestry systems using citrus or pichoco (Erythrina sp.) and cocuite (Gliricidia sepium [Jacq.] Kunth) as living stakes. Vanilla is also kept under shade netting using live or dead stakes. There are a few traditionally managed vanilla plantations left, and there is no trace of the milpa-vanilla field or the fallow periods that followed. Forests and secondary forests have been reduced to isolated fragments located mainly on hilltops and ravines.

Fifteen of the 28 interviewees manage their vanilla plots in the traditional way. Currently, traditional management is no longer the main source of income, and some have chosen to sell vanilla cuttings. The decline in traditional local practices also implies that the time and place where ecological knowledge and its associated values were shared between generations no longer exists. Consequently, Totonac traditional ecological knowledge has weakened. Most of the producers’ descendants do not cultivate traditional vanilla and prefer to do so under semi-technified or technified systems; the value they assign to vanilla is merely utilitarian. Therefore, the interviewees are unsure whether some family members will continue producing traditional vanilla in the future.

Some growers have decided to establish traditional vanilla plantations in small plots (< 0.25 ha), in fallows or forest fragments for 8 to 10 years periods. In other cases, because of the producer’s old age or because of theft, they prefer to keep vanilla in their backyards, usually in less than 500 m² plots. In both cases they select native trees and introduce fruit trees as living stakes, which are pruned to keep their shadows relatively low (around 11 m; Fig. 4). Generally, when the vanilla plantation is abandoned, the plot is converted into another crop or pasture. Fallow periods are no longer practiced and wild vanilla populations are no longer found in the remaining forest or in bamboo fragments.

Some acknowledge that forest loss and the decline of traditional vanilla have altered the rainfall pattern. This has intensified droughts and high temperatures during the fruiting period, creating the need for crop irrigation. However, because of a lack of infrastructure or access to non-chlorinated water, this is not always feasible, and doing so does not ensure crop productivity.

In the 11 traditional vanilla plantations sampled, 79 woody plant species were recorded, corresponding to 67 genera and 25 families: 48.1% are light-demanding, 18.98% are intermediate, and 32.91% are shade-tolerant species. Additionally, 48 of the total plant species were reported to be useful for local families (Velázquez-Rosas et al. 2025; Appendix 2). In the plantations studied, between 6 and 24 species were found per plot, with a stem density of 1775 individuals per hectare and a basal area of 11.3 m² ha^-1 (Velázquez-Rosas et al. 2025). Structurally, the five most relevant species were B. simaruba, Erythrina americana Mill., Cedrela odorata L., D. salicifolia, and C. aurantium, as they showed higher stem density and total basal area. An 11 m canopy height is maintained, dominated by D. salicifolia, B. simaruba, and Pimenta dioica (L.) Merr. In the understory, Bauhinia ungulata L. and Trichilia havanensis Jacq. are the most frequent species. Although two tree strata are distinguishable, there is no discrete differentiation (Fig. 4).

The past and current useful species were compared, and it was noted that they share 35 species. The reported plant uses were grouped into 12 categories (see Fig. 5); exotic species included (Citrus aurantium Ly and Mangifera indica L.). The most important uses that prevailed over time were as living stakes, as organic matter and shade for vanilla, and for medicinal, timber, firewood, and food purposes.

DISCUSSION

In the past, traditional vanilla cultivation management consisted of milpa, traditional vanilla plantations, and fallow, in a tropical forest matrix (Kelly and Pallerm 1952, Chenaut 1995). This arrangement contributed to the heterogeneity of the regional biocultural landscape, that nevertheless changed considerably over the past 60 years (Chenaut 2010). Today, cattle pastures and citrus monocultures prevail (Ellis and Martínez-Bello 2010). Vanilla remains profitable, but growers prefer semi-technified and technified vanilla crops, so they no longer carry out the milpa-vanilla crop rotation cycle, and do not allow for fallow periods. Consequently, traditional vanilla plantations and forest fragments function as biodiversity islands (Medellín-Morales 1993, Toledo et al. 1994, 2003).

In the past, vanilla management implied careful planning of the farmland that allowed connectivity between different landscape units. These practices favored ecosystem functions such as pollination, seed dispersal, water cycle regulation, soil fertility, and carbon sequestration (Jakovac et al. 2016, Chazdon 2017, Arroyo-Rodríguez et al. 2023, Gassner and Dobie 2023, Casas et al. 2024). The Totonac landscape sheltered biodiversity and contributed to habitat conservation through secondary succession, essential for resilience in fragmented landscapes (Moreno-Calles et al. 2013, del Castillo 2015, Arroyo-Rodríguez et al. 2017a). The introduction of agricultural policies by way of social programs that financed industrialized alternatives in the region, transformed an heterogeneous landscape into monocultures and cattle ranching, consequently reducing the regeneration potential of agricultural areas. Such high levels of deforestation and forest fragmentation had a negative impact on biodiversity (Arroyo-Rodríguez et al. 2017b, Casas et al. 2024). According to vanilla growers, these environmental impacts aggravated droughts, altered the rainy season, and increased the temperature. Data from the Papantla weather station (code 30125) reveal that extreme maximum temperatures have been rising at least since the 1960s. Furthermore, total monthly rainfall has become more irregular during the rainy season over the past 50 years (CONAGUA 2025). It could be said that the unpredictability of climate phenomena and patterns in this region is associated with drastic changes in forest cover over time (Armenta-Montero et al. 2022, Li et al. 2024).

Practices, beliefs, and traditional ecological knowledge under the old Totonac management uphold relational values that are more responsible and harmonious with nature (Chan et al. 2016, Pascual et al. 2023). Some people continue the tradition, but most are incapable because of their old age. Moreover, the teachings connected with managing and caring for the land have been interrupted for the newer generations because vanilla plantations are no longer a space for family and community coexistence and values sharing. Therefore, the new generations do not feel the same attachment, respect, and pride for the knowledge that sustained local practices in the past. Conversely, younger growers manage the landscape and biodiversity inefficiently (Pascual et al. 2023). Because of the high demand for natural vanilla, producers have chosen to increase the area destined to non-traditional systems, which involves higher costs (Castelán 2022). Economistic, utilitarian relationships prevail (Chan et al. 2016), further contributing to the overvaluation of current management by new generations.

Species that were once prevalent in traditional vanilla plantations can now only be found in fragments of secondary vegetation or within forests. One example is the shade-tolerant Casearia corymbosa Kunth, which was reported only in acahuales (Velázquez-Rosas et al. 2025). Therefore, to enable regeneration processes such as secondary succession, it is essential to allow resting periods at the end of a traditional vanilla plantation’s productive period. This would create conditions conducive to a more diverse vegetation mosaic, composed of different plant communities (Toledo et al. 1994, Berkes and Davidson-Hunt 2006, Arroyo-Rodríguez et al. 2023).

Several decades ago, producers shaped the structure, abundance, and composition of the vegetation by managing successional stages and selecting multipurpose native tree species in traditional vanilla plantations (Toledo et al. 1994, Casas et al. 2024). In the past, clearing and pruning was minimal, and organic matter minimized the need to incorporate external fertilizers into the system. This care allowed the forest to recover faster. When vanilla plantations were abandoned for recovery, forests would regenerate and provide more shade and humidity. Organic matter created the necessary environmental conditions to establish other plant communities forming secondary forests. The pressure exerted by changes in landscape management affected diversity (Casas et al. 2024) and species succession processes (Berkes and Davidson-Hunt 2006). This has had profound environmental implications and affected crop health and local livelihoods. Recent studies confirm our findings, by highlighting the importance of secondary tropical forests in restoring plant species richness and composition. Secondary forests recover aboveground biomass rapidly and provide a range of ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and suitable habitat for wildlife (Poorter et al. 2016, Rozendaal et al. 2019, Velasco-Murguía et al. 2021, Arroyo-Rodríguez et al. 2023).

Traditional vanilla producers continue to design their plots based on what they know about plant and tree species that can quickly cover the canopy and provide basic needs such as food and medicine. They too can obtain firewood for fuel, and these goods altogether are essential to strengthening self-subsistence and household economy. Tree diversity in traditional vanilla plantations, as in other agroforestry systems, improves land productivity, increases ecological complexity, and provides ecosystem services (Ceccon 2013, Gassner and Dobie 2023). In addition, the current traditional vanilla plantations have conservation potential, considering that 67% of the woody species can still be found in forest fragments that now include introduced fruit trees and have smaller surfaces (< 0.25 ha; Velázquez-Rosas et al. 2025). Despite a recognizable decrease in younger generations’ knowledge about plant species and their uses, the current traditional vanilla plantations are a form of resistance, as they maintain species with different regeneration modes. More than half of these species (60.75%) are bioculturally important because they have multiple uses for traditional vanilla producers.

Although traditional vanilla productivity is lower than that of technified systems, production costs are also lower, and the quality of vanilla pods cultivated in this agroecosystem is higher (Castelán 2022). According to local producers, the system is more drought resistant. Unpublished research data (Velázquez-Rosas) collected in the wake of Hurricane Grace in 2021, revealed a 90% survival rate of tree species and vanilla plants in traditional vanilla plantations, compared with those in technified or semi-technified systems. These findings suggest that traditional vanilla plantations might be more resilient to extreme weather events, which have become increasingly frequent in the region. In a highly deforested landscape such as Totonacapan, increasing traditional vanilla cultivation represents a sustainable production system that offers multiple benefits. It can promote biocultural conservation and support the long-term restoration of these tropical forests.

An alternative for landscape restoration

The Totonac elders’ traditional knowledge regarding conservation and restoration can be considered a biocultural keystone practice (sensu Cuerrier et al. 2015). Agricultural practices from the past, such as maintaining native tree diversity, managing succession, and diversifying vegetation mosaics, could serve as a sustainable, effective and economically beneficial alternative with the potential to restore social-ecological relationships. There is an obvious social, economic, and environmental crisis affecting everyone in the region, especially those who rely on agricultural production. The shift from self-subsistence, diversified agroforestry systems to monocultures and grasslands contributes to increased frequency of extreme climatic events. Recent years have seen a significant impact from these changes (Tierra Fértil 2019, Ávila Pérez 2021, Corella 2025, Gobierno de Veracruz 2025). Based on this evidence, we suggest that land management practices can be pursued with multiple objectives in mind. Totonac ecological knowledge, in practice, can aid in restoring ecological functions, strengthening self-subsistence and the sacred bond with nature and cultural values, while also increasing landscape resilience to the climate crisis (Berkes and Davidson-Hunt 2006, Sabogal et al. 2015, Chan et al. 2016, Armenta-Montero et al. 2022, Ramcilovic-Suominen et al. 2024).

The old management producers have extensive knowledge about this system: they designed and planned the land based on diversified processes. They have adapted to environmental conditions and transformed their knowledge over time. Therefore, local restoration must emerge from people’s traditional ecological knowledge (Berkes and Davidson-Hunt 2006, Schmidt et al. 2021, Gassner and Dobie 2023), responding to the needs of people and communities, which might lead to co-designing actions to reclaim the key features from past management strategies. Reducing other risks faced such as theft, extreme droughts, strong frosts, pests, and disease proliferation are also key actions to account for.

It is essential to search for methodologies under an epistemological pluralism perspective, which means that the integrative research process must seek to understand reality using multiple appropriate methodologies (Norgaard 1989, Jerneck and Olsson 2019). The way forward demands that we acknowledge the value of incorporating the principles of TEK into regional planning and decision-making actions, and to expand the social benefits encouraged by policies and programs with a national scope. Additionally, the strategy should encourage knowledge exchange between traditional vanilla growers and the younger generations that seem keener to use semi-technified and technified farming methods.

A restoration strategy must be proposed, but it should be applied across different levels of decision making. A key regional actor aiming to enhance campesino livelihoods through direct subsidies is the large-scale social program “Sembrando Vida” (Secretaría del Bienestar 2024). The program was launched in 2019, and up to date, the number of registered vanilla growers has increased considerably. According to the regional officials, currently there are 1500 vanilla growers enrolled, covering 2500 hectares (Rosenda Cortés-Galindo, personal communication). This federal initiative has the potential to further its main objectives by promoting the transition to agroforestry systems, where vanilla plantations connect with fallow and forest areas, presenting a unique opportunity to recover forest cover, buffer rising temperatures, improve connectivity for biodiversity conservation, and increase carbon sequestration, among other benefits. To achieve this, “Sembrando Vida” should shift its focus toward incorporating local producers’ knowledge to co-create and develop an integrated, place-based restoration program that safeguards regional linguistic, cultural, and biological diversity.

CONCLUSIONS

According to our study, traditionally managed vanilla was still the main productive activity in the Totonacapan region of Veracruz a century ago. Historically, for more than two centuries, this rotational system maintained native trees’ diversity with resting periods, a practice that gave way to different landscape units into a dynamic and heterogeneous biocultural landscape. This arrangement brought prosperity and well-being. Producers of this period built an emotional, ecological, and economic relationship with this crop, which they passed on to their descendants. Today’s plantations are kept in small areas but preserve a structure and tree diversity similar from the past. However, the traditional system has been weakened over the past 60 years by frequent thefts, extreme environmental conditions that have historically affected vanilla crops, and top-down government policies and social programs, in addition to other socioeconomic difficulties and events. Combined, these outcomes favored the conversion of traditional vanilla plantations and the associated biodiversity, to cattle pastures and citrus monocultures. These conditions contributed to regional biodiversity loss, water scarcity, and to the alteration of climate patterns that brought extreme droughts and temperature rises. In the Totonacapan region, expanding traditional vanilla combined with milpa and secondary forests as part of a rotational landscape scheme represents a sustainable alternative that offers multiple benefits. A traditional vanilla system preserves local diversity, mainly pioneer and intermediate succession species, important for secondary succession and with the potential for landscape restoration. TEK prevails in the memory of those aged over 55 years but is at risk. Such knowledge is essential for the co-production of effective conservation and restoration alternatives in similar social, cultural, and environmental contexts. These alternatives can help mitigate fragmentation, deforestation, and climate change effects, and revitalize TEK principles, but more importantly, they can help tackle problems associated with people’s well-being. A biocultural landscape strategy strengthens self-subsistence by stimulating a diversified, ecologically sound economy with long lasting benefits. Our study highlights the importance of Totonac traditional ecological knowledge in developing innovative, nature- and people-based solutions to the environmental crisis at all levels of governance. It should be a priority to continue researching biocultural connections in this and other native agroecosystems, with special attention to Indigenous regions that maintain agricultural traditions as the basis of their subsistence.

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