Anastacio García-Martínez

Market-oriented Amazonian Chakra systems integrate cacao production with trees and complementary crops, yet determining how productive diversification shapes tree-carbon retention remains poorly understood. We assessed 36 cacao-based Chakra systems in the Ecuadorian Amazon to identify structural–productive pathways and test whether independently estimated tree-carbon stocks and carbon-retention portfolios differed among them. Principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering identified three pathways—Tree-rich cacao, Tree-simplified cacao, and Tree–crop-diversified cacao—distinguished by tree density and diversity and by cacao and Musa densities. Mean tree-carbon stocks did not differ significantly among pathways, averaging 24.6, 16.9, and 16.0 Mg C ha⁻¹, respectively. However, carbon distribution among species differed markedly. In Tree-simplified cacao, the leading species stored 75.2% of plot-level tree carbon and the three leading species together stored 97.4%, compared with 45.0–47.7% and 78.5–85.9%, respectively, in the other pathways. Twelve tree species occurred across all pathways. Prominent shared species included Cordia alliodora, Inga edulis, Cedrela spp., Cedrelinga cateniformis, and Persea americana, collectively providing carbon retention and timber, food, shade, and other livelihood functions. Thus, similar tree-carbon stocks can arise from markedly different species portfolios. Amazonian Chakra systems provide a useful reference for productive forest landscape restoration based on flexible, multifunctional tree–crop portfolios rather than standardized planting designs or carbon-only targets.

Farm typologies assume discrete groups, although structural heterogeneity in Amazonian cattle systems may follow continuous gradients. We evaluated whether 164 dual-purpose cattle farms in the Sumaco Biosphere Reserve, Ecuador, were better represented by mutually exclusive types or continuous archetypal configurations and whether these configurations were economically differentiated. Factor analysis of mixed data, permutation-based dimensional retention, clusterability assessment, archetypal analysis, bootstrap resampling, economic validation, and repeated cross-validation were integrated. Two structural dimensions explained 40.1% of inertia: livestock intensification and infrastructure, and farm scale and land use; agreement with multiple factor analysis was high (Procrustes R² = 0.990). The Gap statistic supported k = 1, providing no evidence for defensible discrete farm groups. Archetypal analysis identified three continuous configurations: lower-input, livestock intensification, and large-scale land-use. Many farms occupied intermediate positions, showing varying affinities to the three configurations rather than exclusive membership in one. Greater affinity to livestock intensification was associated with the highest annual net benefit and pasture opportunity cost, whereas large-scale land-use showed intermediate economic performance. Predictive accuracy remained modest despite lower errors for archetype-based models. Continuous livestock archetypes provide a screening framework for differentiated management, but farm decisions require current economic, productive, and parcel information.

El análisis del perfil de gobernanza constituye un elemento clave para comprender cómo se estructuran y gestionan las explotaciones agropecuarias, ya que permite identificar los mecanismos de toma de decisiones, la organización del trabajo, la participación familiar y el acceso a recursos que influyen en su desempeño y sostenibilidad. El objetivo de este estudio fue caracterizar el perfil de gobernanza en una muestra de 132 unidades de producción (UP) elegidas al azar del Estado de Veracruz, con vistas al diseño de un programa de mejora en la gestión. Se analizaron 41 variables (19 cuantitativas y 22 cualitativas), relacionadas con la organización interna, toma de decisiones, participación, condiciones laborales, reinversión, acceso a capacitaciones y vínculos institucionales. Se realizó un análisis descriptivo, comparativo y de correlación para identificar asociaciones entre los principales elementos de gobernanza y las características socio-productivas de las UP. Aunque los resultados obtenidos evidenciaron una alta variabilidad en el patrón de gobernanza, sólo se detectaron diferencias significativas asociadas al binomio género y la experiencia profesional en calidad de vida, mano de obra familiar, diversificación en la remuneración y origen geográfico de los trabajadores, fuente principal de ingresos, y tipo de tenencia y régimen legal de la tierra. El análisis de correlación mostró asociación entre elementos claves de la gobernanza, como la opinión de los trabajadores en la toma de decisiones y el grado de diversificación de ingresos en la explotación (0.35). De manera general, las UP presentaron debilidades en su estructura organizacional, acceso limitado a financiamiento y asistencia técnica. No obstante, se identificó interés por parte de los productores en acceder a modelos que permitan incrementar los ingresos y fortalecer la sostenibilidad. Esta información resultó relevante para el diseño de estrategias orientadas al fortalecimiento de la gobernanza y la sostenibilidad de las UP estudiadas bajo el enfoque ESG.

Agroforestry integrates environmental, climatic, productive, and socioeconomic dimensions. The position of rural livelihoods within its scientific structure remains still characterized. This study evaluated the temporal evolution, conceptual organization, domain representation, and geographical and economic distribution of global agroforestry research using 5711 Scopus-indexed journal articles published between 1979 and 2025. Scientific production increased markedly, with 4133 articles published during 2013 to 2025, accounting for 72.37% of the corpus. Thematic evolution showed a shift from early agronomic topics toward biodiversity, ecosystem services, carbon sequestration, and climate change. Multiple Correspondence Analysis of harmonized Author Keywords identified five clusters, with the first two dimensions explaining 39.76% of total inertia. Livelihood-related terms were embedded within the central agroforestry and sustainability cluster under the analytical configuration applied, and this pattern was maintained after excluding corpus-defining search-anchor terms. Production, silvopastoral, and agronomic management had the highest proportional contribution (57.92%), whereas environmental and biodiversity (43.88%), livelihoods and socioeconomic (43.81%), and climate, carbon and soil dimensions (42.50%) occurred at comparable proportions. Fractional affiliation analysis indicated that all domains occurred across regions and income groups, with livelihoods and socioeconomic research showing larger fractional contributions from Africa and lower-middle-income countries.

Ecuadorian aquaculture plays an increasingly important role in food security, providing a sustainable complement to capture fisheries. Manabí constitutes a key economic sector that contributes to employment generation, income diversification, and supply of high-quality protein. However, the sector’s heterogeneity and limited legal registration of enterprises hinder the development of policies and targeted interventions. This study characterizes aquaculture enterprises in Manabí, integrating productive, technological, and socio-economic variables obtained from field surveys. Three distinct entrepreneurship patterns were identified: small-scale, informal farms cultivating native species with low technology but characteristics that may contribute to socio-ecological resilience; semi-formal producers operating with intermediate technology and mixed species; and freshwater shrimp farms operating at the largest relative scale within the sample, though still small-scale and family-based, with moderate technological development and market integration limited mainly to local and regional markets. The typology focused on a gradient in formalization, technological sophistication, and market orientation among enterprises. These findings provide a comprehensive understanding of aquaculture diversity in Manabí and offer a practical framework for differentiated policy design using a Strategic Producer Positioning Map. Strengthening formalization, technological innovation, environmental management, and social inclusion is essential to enhance the sector’s sustainability and competitiveness, contributing to sustainable blue economy development in coastal Ecuador.

Farm typologies commonly assume discrete groups, although structural heterogeneity in Amazonian cattle systems may instead follow continuous gradients. We evaluated whether 164 dual-purpose cattle farms in the Sumaco Biosphere Reserve, Ecuador, were better represented by mutually exclusive types or continuous archetypal configurations, and whether these configurations were economically differentiated. Factor analysis of mixed data, permutation based dimensional retention, clusterability assessment, archetypal analysis, bootstrap resampling, economic validation, and repeated cross-validation were integrated. Two structural dimensions explained 40.1% of inertia and represented livestock intensification and infrastructure, and farm scale and land use; agreement with multiple factor analysis was high (Procrustes² = 0.990). The Gap statistic supported k = 1, providing no evidence for defensible discrete farm groups. Archetypal analysis instead identified three continuous configurations: lower-input, livestock intensification, and large-scale land-use. Farm positions frequently combined these reference configurations rather than showing exclusive membership. Greater affinity to livestock intensification was associated with the highest annual net benefit and pasture opportunity cost, whereas large-scale land-use showed intermediate economic performance. Predictive accuracy remained modest despite lower errors for models based on archetypes. Continuous livestock archetypes provide a screening framework for differentiated management interventions, but farm decisions require current economic, productive, and parcel information.

Dual-purpose cattle systems are among the most important livestock production systems in tropical regions, contributing significantly to food production and rural livelihoods. However, their considerable diversity in management practices, resource endowments, producer-reported climatic stressors, and production intensity remains insufficiently characterized for effective policy design. Therefore, this study aimed to identify and characterize farm typologies by integrating productive, structural, environmental, and management dimensions and to describe differences in farm-system vulnerability among them. Data were collected from 132 commercial farms using structured surveys. Twenty-three variables were analyzed using Principal Component Analysis of which 22 reached the predefined absolute loading threshold for component interpretation. The resulting component scores were subsequently used in the hierarchical cluster analysis. Seven principal components with eigenvalues > 1 were identified, explaining 68.87% of the total variance. Cluster 1 comprised extensive, milk-oriented farms with the lowest milk productivity but the greatest pasture availability and diversity; nevertheless, these farms were particularly affected by drought. Cluster 2 represented the predominant dual-purpose model, with intermediate productive, environmental, and diversification characteristics. Cluster 3 included more intensive and productive farms with limited land availability, the lowest soil conservation and pasture availability scores, high maintenance expenditure, and low investment capacity. Cluster 4 showed the highest milk productivity but also the greatest exposure to excessive rainfall and northerly winds. Accordingly, appropriate strategies should prioritize drought preparedness and forage conservation in Cluster 1, gradual improvements in efficiency and environmental management in Cluster 2, soil and pasture restoration and reduced maintenance dependence in Cluster 3, and climate-resilient infrastructure and risk-management measures in Cluster 4. These findings demonstrate that dual-purpose cattle systems are highly heterogeneous systems structured by multiple productive, environmental, and organizational dimensions. The results demonstrate that typology-specific interventions are more appropriate than uniform recommendations and provide a framework for improving productivity, sustainability, and climate resilience in tropical livestock systems.

Agroforestry is widely promoted as a socioecological strategy that can integrate biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, sustainable production, and rural development, yet the relative position of rural livelihoods within the scientific structure of the field remains insufficiently understood. This study evaluated the temporal evolution, conceptual organization, and geographical and economic distribution of global agroforestry research, with particular attention to the autonomy of livelihood-related research. A bibliometric analysis was conducted using 5,713 Scopus-indexed journal articles published between 1976 and 2025. Records were classified into four non-exclusive analytical domains: biodiversity/conservation, climate-carbon-soil, production/silvopastoral-agronomic systems, and livelihoods/socioeconomic dimensions. The analysis combined temporal bibliometric indicators, semantic normalization of Author Keywords, Multiple Correspondence Analysis, Sankey mapping, domain proportion tests, chord diagrams, and chi-square tests. Agroforestry research expanded substantially and became thematically more diversified. Climate-carbon-soil and production/silvopastoral-agronomic systems showed the highest proportional contributions, whereas rural livelihoods were visible but did not form an autonomous conceptual domain. Instead, livelihood-related terms were embedded within a broader socioecological/conservation cluster. Livelihoods/socioeconomic research was more strongly represented in Africa, Asia, and lower-middle- and low-income contexts. These findings indicate that rural livelihoods are present in agroforestry research but remain less conceptually autonomous than environmental, climate-related, and production-oriented domains.

El estudio analizó la contribución del ingreso forestal a los medios de vida rurales y su relación con la desigualdad en pequeños productores de la Región Amazónica Ecuatoriana (RAE). La investigación se desarrolló en la parroquia Hatun Sumaku, provincia de Napo, mediante encuestas estructuradas aplicadas a 180 hogares rurales, mayoritariamente kichwa. Se estimó la proporción del ingreso forestal sobre el ingreso total del hogar, sus determinantes socioeconómicos y su efecto sobre la distribución del ingreso. Los resultados muestran que los hogares más pobres dependen significativamente del bosque, alcanzando hasta un 68% de su ingreso total, mientras que los quintiles superiores presentan mayor diversificación hacia actividades agrícolas y no agrícolas. La dependencia forestal se relacionó positivamente con la etnicidad kichwa y la disponibilidad de bosque, y negativamente con el acceso a crédito y mayores ingresos. Aunque el ingreso forestal reduce ligeramente la desigualdad, su efecto redistributivo es limitado