The interactions between nature and culture formed the landscape, represented by the dynamic relationship between physical spaces, people, and natural resources throughout history. This relationship is constantly shaped by cosmovisions, values, and perceptions as well as by the biodiversity of the environment (Balée, 1998; Brodt, 2001; Pochettino et al., 2002; Davidson-Hunt and Berkes, 2003; Berkes and Turner, 2006; Toledo and Barrera-Bassols, 2009; Capparelli et al., 2011; Ladio, 2011). The transformation of the environment based on cultural criteria leads to the creation of a specific landscape. This co-created environment becomes a way of extending the domestic unit, where management and domestication of the species are primary tools (Stampella, 2015).

Family farming in Latin America is diverse according to the high variability of cultural groups. The way in which settlers appropriate nature influences the generated agroecosystems in both plant diversity and in its management (Paulus and Schlindwein, 2001; Toledo and Barrera-Bassols, 2009). From people and plants constant relationship, located biocultural entities arise which have the capacity of transforming each other and, consequently, the inhabited landscape (Lema, 2013). In this sense, home gardens are important places for experimentation as a part of an inhabited landscape (Pochettino et al., 2012). That is why they have international recognition as key sites for species domestication and germplasm repositories (Huai et al., 2011).

Over the twentieth century, scientists tried to categorize cultural groups on the basis of the way they work the land. However, archeological evidence showed there were numerous intermediate ways of land management and strategies that do not fit into cultivation or gathering as they were understood at that time (Harris and Hillman, 1989). Thanks to that discordance, it was triggered the interest of unraveling other forms of management that could lead to the phenotypic and genotypic modification of a species. To understand these kinds of managements, Casas et al. (1996), working in Mexico, proposed a categorization of practices observed in Nahua and Mixtec groups. At the same time Clement (1999) proposed a theory regarding landscape domestication phases together with plant domestication processes for Amazonian crops.

Home gardens are structured and maintained over time by the constant implementation of management practices like tolerance, enhancement, protection, transplantation and planting of particular species or individuals (Casas et al., 1998). These practices lead to selective maintenance of wild vegetation and species of cultural importance, encouraging the emergence of phenotypic divergences settled in local preference criteria and domestication process itself (Casas et al., 1996).

The concept of perennial fruit species is used in this text according to Miller and Gross (2011) to group those plants that are grown in home gardens mainly for fruit consumption (although they have multiple uses) and are generally long live perennial. Botanically the group involves herbs (as Musa section), epiphytes (as Philodendron bipinnatifidum), palms (as Syagrus rommanzoffiana), shrubs and trees (as Malpighia emarginata and Psidium guajava, respectively).

Numerous studies demonstrate the process of domestication in perennial fruit species. Some well known examples belong to Cactaceae, Lauraceae, Anacardiaceae botanical families and also Amazonian species of the Annonaceae family (Miller and Schaal, 2006; Bost, 2009; Clement et al., 2010; Parra et al., 2010; Blancas et al., 2013; Aguirre-Dugua et al., 2013; Lins Neto et al., 2014).

Inside Argentina Atlantic Forest, in the province of Misiones there are four principal cities according to its economic and politic importance (Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos [INDEC], 2010). These cities are Posadas, Oberá, Eldorado, and Puerto Iguazú. The last one is surrounded by natural protected areas and is part of a green corridor called “Corredor Verde Misionero” (García Fernández, 2002), it also shows a very complex cultural composition (Belastegui, 2004; Furlan et al., 2016). For these reasons this contribution focuses only on Puerto Iguazú as a study case. The landscape in Puerto Iguazú, mostly present in periurban area, is defined as a domesticated landscape. The main characteristics of this landscape are correspondent with the intensity of domestication proposed by Clement (1999) as a cultivated area with swidden/fallow structure. Although all forms of landscape domestication are put in practice in the region, many of them occur simultaneously. Domestication process occurs with different intensity. This intensity is related to the complexity of management practices applied to the plants, the number of practices carried out and the number of people who carry them out in a particular population (González-Insuasti and Caballero, 2007). Through the recognition of management intensity, mediated by the biological characteristics of the species in question, it can be stated its cultural importance (González-Insuasti and Caballero, 2007; Blancas, 2013). Previous works by the research group (Furlan, 2017) highlighted the importance of fruit species in the domestic gardens of Puerto Iguazú. The word fruit comes from the Latin “fruor” that means to enjoy (Simpson and Ogorzaly, 1995). The main use given to perennial fruit species in Puerto Iguazú is associated with this perspective of enjoyment and complement to food and medicine. Most of the fruits are consumed at the same time of their maturation and without mediating too many preparations or preserves. The objective of this research is to determine which perennial fruit species are managed and the most common management practices for them in home gardens of the periurban of Iguazú.

According to results it is important to notice that sowing is the main management practice applied in general. This result is coincident with the type of environment since it has a high level of anthropization. Generally in Latin American home gardens almost half of the species are food and half of those are fruits (Pulido et al., 2008). Martínez-Crovetto (1981) highlighted the importance of edible wild fruit trees for local people of Argentinian Atlantic Forest. From this study, it can be added that perennial fruits species are also important for urban settlers in the southwest region of the Atlantic Forest. Here, the incorporation of species from the local forest as exotic species to home gardens is a way of ensuring the provision of a variety of resources. The importance of fruits for the inhabitants of the Atlantic Forest diet was also mentioned among caiçaras by Giraldi and Hanazaki (2014) and for descendants of poles by Kujawska and Luczaj (2015). Regarding its management Keller (2008) also underlines it and its presence nearby the house in Mbya-Guarani populations and Stampella (2015) does it too for criollos settlers of southern Misiones. The low availability of fruit species in areas of public use and markets as well as the restriction of the use of native species in conserved areas (parks and surrounding natural protected areas) (Furlan, 2017) are likely to influence women’s motivations to incorporate these species into their home gardens in Iguazú. González-Insuasti et al. (2008) proved that land tenure is another factor that influences the decision of which species to manage with greater effort and which not. In Iguazú, land tenure is precarious for all people living in the area; the security of staying in the plot is related to the negotiating capacity that a family can have with respect to the different social actors. Therefore it is very difficult to determine the direct influence of this factor in the management of the species and its intensity in the area. However, in the new neighborhoods that are being opened could be an interesting variable to take into account for future studies. Emperaire and Eloy (2014) analyzed how the cultivation of açaí (Euterpe oleracea) in the plots of Santa Isabel do Rio Negro was considered as an “improvement” of the property and its importance for negotiation when the plot was for sale or transfer. They also pointed out that the cultivation of perennial species in the plots was a local strategy to overcome the precariousness of land tenure and achieve insertion in the urban land market. In Puerto Iguazú, the cultivation of certain perennial fruits, such as those submitted to management, can also be understood, from the perspective proposed by Emperaire and Eloy (2014), as a strategy to improve the prize of the land in case the selling is needed. Particularly it is the case of palta, mango, and citrus that are always present in the domestic units and with multiple management techniques associated. In new neighborhoods, that usually present greater land conflicts than the old ones, the new settlers are likely to choose species of rapid growth to establish in the place and, along time, to incorporate others obtaining a greater structural complexity (Furlan, 2017). This characteristic is coincident with the maintenance of perennial fruit species as shown in this text. In addition, they are of importance in the construction of the inhabited space, that is to say in the construction of the territory understood from intentionality and based in exchange relations.

The importance of perennial fruit species in the results is reflected both by the number of species managed as by the relative frequency of complex practices as sowing in the domestic units. Different species of the Myrtaceae family have been marked among the species of cultural importance for polish of the north of Misiones (Kujawska and Luczaj, 2015). In Iguazú pitanga is one of the species with greater intensity of management, which could also indicate a high cultural importance. This species is followed by guava (Psidium guajava), jabuticaba (Plinia trunciflora), and siete capotes (Campomanesia xanthocarpa), in contrast to the species mentioned as important at Kujawska and Luczaj (2015) which are in order of importance S. romanzoffiana, E. uniflora, E. involucrata, Campomanesia xanthocarpa, and A. edulis.

Citrus species and their varieties are largely shared with those reported by Stampella et al. (2013) for the Paraná and Uruguay basins. Stampella (2015) states that citrus in Misiones are cases of re-denomination of foreign species by local communities. The appropriation and recreation of the species and their associated knowledge are reflected in the diversity of local varieties and their uses. Citrus along with other fruit species, in Puerto Iguazú, can be included in that group. As examples, the great intensity of management of the species as P. americana, Musa x paradisiaca, and M. indica, and the presence of local varieties, evidenciates their importance as locally appropriated resources. At the same time those results show the principal perennial species that are part of domesticated landscape of Puerto Iguazú. The dynamism of diversification can be observed in these management practices and in their frequency.

The analysis of the number of management practices associated with a species is useful to think about which elements of the landscape are being pressured by management. To acknowledge which are those practices, their complexity and in which proportion they affect a species, allows a researcher to take into account the intensity of the species management. The simplified intensity management index applied here gives us a first clue of which of the perennial species could be interesting for pursuing future studies. This management practices can lead to frequency and distribution changes of the species and local varieties in the domesticated landscape of Iguazú home gardens as well as in the environment that contains it, the Argentinian Atlantic Forest.

Management is not the same in all individuals of the same species. This strategy is related to the search of diversification and certain logic of work by those who cultivate, which promotes the individualized management of the specimens and appreciates the intrinsic heterogeneity of the species as a value as showed in Furlan (2017). Therefore management activities particularly pruning, removal and harvesting are very variable in time and space. This means that the description of these activities and tasks are a little sample of the management universe for the species mentioned and are usually variable in the ways of carrying them out and in the times in which they are carried out in Puerto Iguazú.

Given the perennial nature of most of the fruit species managed in Puerto Iguazú, the concept of humanized biodiversity may be useful in characterizing species management. Humanized biodiversity is understood as the plants and animals that humans have altered in their biological characteristics, abundance and distribution. This concept is worked by Perales and Aguirre (2008) through several Mexican examples. For future studies, it is intended to continue using this terminology together with the analysis of management categories and their intensity as proposed at Casas et al. (1996), González-Insuasti et al. (2008) and Blancas et al. (2013). In Iguazú, as in the Andean region where Lema worked, the “crianza” concept (Lema, 2014) also reflects the spaces porosity and shows a mosaic of the perennial species in different management situations, which can influence in landscape domestication along time. The diachronic study of this phenomenon it is a line to continue research for future years.

Akinnifesi et al. (2010) showed how urban gardens can serve as a repository of native species and among them are several that are at risk of extinction in the original environments. Borges and Peixoto (2009) found that more than 50% of the known plants in villages within the Atlantic Forest are species from the forest. In Puerto Iguazú, in contrast to what was found by these authors, the exotic species were more frequent. It was recorded that species of Myrtaceae family in particular (almost all native) are well represented and their presence, management and local importance may be the starting point of in situ conservation plans of species of the Atlantic Forest. The registration of various species of the family Myrtaceae in orchards has already been described for the same phytogeographic region by Peroni et al. (2016) and their role in local conservation was also highlighted by these authors. The fruits of the Myrtaceae family are appreciated for direct consumption by local people of Iguazú. Their consumption has been also cited as of great importance for the diversification of the diet and for its nutritional contribution in other villages of the Atlantic Forest (Giraldi and Hanazaki, 2014). These species are seldom commercialized in other areas (Amaral and Guarim Neto, 2008; Kinupp and Barros, 2010) and have low availability in Iguazú local market (Furlan, 2017). Nevertheless, their availability in home gardens is not despicable, as shown in the results section. The perennial fruits species studied are also consumed by a wide variety of birds and herbivores, so they can act as a bridge between conservation areas. The fact that they are consumed by herbivores has led to hunters in Misiones to identify and use these species as a decoy to attract their prey (Giraudo and Abramson, 2000).

The use and management of fruit species is widespread in the periurban of Puerto Iguazú and management practices are similar for both native and exotic species. These results are coincident with those found by Giraldi and Hanazaki (2014) for the coastal region of the Atlantic Forest. Bonicatto et al. (2015) suggested that the practice of conservation and management of traditional seeds was extended to commercial seeds, indicating the conservation of both groups of species and varieties. In the periurban area of Puerto Iguazú, native and exotic fruit species are conserved and maintained through their management. These practices can lead to the generation of new local cultivars. This cultural selection headships to a diversification of the landscape and is intimately linked with the cultural diversity of the place (Hilgert et al., 2014), in other words to a domesticated landscape.

The Chiang Mai Declaration (WHO et al., 1988) establishes as part of conservation strategies, the propagation of native plants in agricultural systems. The study of home gardens provides relevant information to think about sustainable use and conservation of native flora, as well as understanding local ecological knowledge (Martínez, 2015). The knowledge of the phenology of the species and their management for the vigorous development of the plants put into practice by the women of Iguazú is a fundamental pillar to incorporate their look into the strategies of local conservation. The information generated on the species managed in gardens of Puerto Iguazú can serve as a substrate to think about in situ strategies of conservation of the Atlantic Forest of the hand of the cultivators. Regarding domestication itself it is interesting to stand out that in home gardens of Puerto Iguazú, as part of agroforestry systems, perennial fruit species are one of the principal focus of management practices. Local practices of management applied to species as well tend to the diversification of plants and landscape. Finally it reinforced the idea of urban gardens as the primary base where domestication takes place in cities.

This study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations of ISE (2006) Ethnobiology Code of Ethics with written informed consent from all subjects. Although local law did not require this informed consent to work with dwellers in interviews is important for us to do it, that is why we always apply the international standards.

Conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, writing of original draft and writing, review and editing was made by VF. Conceptualization, funding acquisition, methodology review and editing was made by MP and NH.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.