Rethinking agroforestry with indigenous care, reciprocity, and long-term relationships in coffee territories

This article explores Indigenous agroforestry systems in the Mesoamerican coffee territories of Chiapas, Mexico, emphasizing their relational, aesthetic, and ontological dimensions. Based on a 4-years transdisciplinary research process using the Extended Case Method, the study analyzes how coffee agroforestry systems are not merely productive or ecological arrangements, but living territories sustained by multispecies networks of care, reciprocity, and co-production between humans and more-than-human beings. Drawing on fieldwork with peasant and Indigenous families, the concept of socio-environmental mutualism is proposed to describe these relational dynamics, which challenge the anthropocentric and functionalist frameworks that dominate agroforestry science and policy. The findings suggest that long-term adherence to agroforestry systems cannot be explained solely by technical or economic variables, but requires recognizing the affective, ethical, and intersubjective relationships that families establish with the land and its beings. The article argues that reimagining agroforestry from this relational perspective opens new possibilities for strengthening territorial resilience, provided that such efforts respect the situated ontologies and knowledge systems that sustain these practices. The study concludes by calling for transdisciplinary methodologies that integrate multispecies ethnography, affective and relational measures, and participatory processes to expand the dialogue between scientific, peasant, and Indigenous knowledge.