Rural People's Knowledge and Perception of Landscape: A Case Study From the Mexican Pacific Coast

Abstract

Local knowledge and land use practices, along with the multiple visions of landscapes of local actors, can provide information complementary to that of conventional scientific appraisals. The goal of this study is to understand how local people actually recognize and use different landscape units and the environmental goods and services provided by the units. For this purpose we created a Landscape Perception Unit Type Importance Value Index (LPTIVI) that responds to the need to evaluate landscapes from a cultural standpoint. Our contribution provides a methodological approach that indicates that it is possible to analyze and evaluate how local people as experts perceive and use their landscapes. Additionally, we discuss how this information can be the first step in facilitating the incorporation of local concerns into decision making related to landscape planning and management.

Keywords:

• environmental goods and services
• farmer's perception
• Landscape Perception Unit Type Importance Value Index (LPTIVI)
• landscape unit
• local knowledge

Acknowledgments

We thank Victoria Reyes-García and David Gritten for their valuable comments on an earlier draft of this work. We also thank Ignacio Torres García, who made the illustrations of plant species for the cross-section profile. We also acknowledge the support of the project PAPIIT IN306108. The first author was supported by a postdoctoral grant from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Access to the digital library of McGill University is acknowledged.