Pdf in Spanish

Committee: Nicole Sibelet (Thesis director), Isabel Gutiérrez-Montes, Eduardo Somarriba, Jorge Sellare.

Abstract

On-farm trees are key resources in the livelihoods of poor rural populations. The importance of studies on trees in agricultural landscapes is increasing and is justified both by its ecological as well as socioeconomic importance. Many efforts have been made globally, in order to quantify and know these trees. However, it is necessary to know what encourages farmers to cultivate them on their farms, especially in the current context of deforestation and expansion of agricultural frontiers, while trying to promote the restoration of degraded areas and the promotion of sustainable agriculture. This study, developed in two municipalities of the Nicaraguan North Atlantic Coast, Waslala and El Tuma - La Dalia, identifies the socioeconomic factors that influence the presence of trees on farms in these municipalities. The results showed the strong relationship between local livelihoods and trees, how farmers' perceptions influence tree farming on farms, and the relationship between security over land tenure and the presence of trees on farms.

Farmers attribute values, uses and symbols to trees, according to their cultural, social, political, economic and environmental context. Identity as a farmer, the attachment to family traditions, the cosmovision in which trees are living beings and divine, the fundamental role that trees play in the supply of wood, firewood and fruit to families, the aesthetic and economic values that trees confer to the farms, the financial capital they represent as timber, the ecosystem services perceived by farmers, and the low commercialization of timber, among other factors, influence the presence of trees on farms.

The strategies and objectives of farmers in planting trees respond to the perceptions and needs generated by the context in which they live. They choose the trees to be cultivated, the resources they are going to use, and define the distribution of trees on the farm, according to the way they perceive them in their context. If they are species they consider better (to make good shade, to have good wood, to produce fruit, or to conserve the water), they allocate them more resources and privileged location in the farm. If a tree can fit to some family need, the farmer decides to harvest it and take advantage of its financial capital. If they are trees that have affective values, they are preserved. If the farmers perceive them as living beings, they avoid cutting them. In addition, farmers cultivate trees regardless of formal security over land tenure.

Key words: Sentinel landscape, agroforestry, trees outside forests, rural sociology