Farmers’ local ecological knowledge of trees in coffee agroforestry systems in Nicaragua and Guatemala

Farmer's local knowledge on trees: coffee agroforestry systems in two Central American sites. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Sustainable Tropical Forestry, Bangor University. Two coffee growing regions in Nicaragua and Guatemala were explored through the use of local knowledge. Over 90 coffee farmers from each site were interviewed, their knowledge collected trough the use of the Agroecological Knowledge Toolkit (AKT5), and a ranking exercise comparing trees for selected attributes was performed. Knowledge recorded on more than 43 trees and ranking of 32 species (for growth rate, leaf texture, root abundance, root texture, pruning tolerance, canopy density, leaf litter production and fuel quality (burn length)), provided valuable insight into the characteristics and roles of trees in the coffee field. Files include tabular data for species lists, ranking data and sample details. Moreover Local knowledge base for each country can be explored in AKT. To download AKT see: http://akt.bangor.ac.uk/