CIFOR Infobrief - Multilevel governance and land use in Chiapas and Yucatán: Lessons for REDD+ in Mexico (original) (raw)
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CIFOR WORKING PAPER no. 236, 2018
Who makes land use decisions, how are decisions made, and who influences whom, how and why? This working paper on two states in southern Mexico is part of a series based on research studying multilevel decision-making institutions and processes. The series is aimed at providing insight into why efforts to keep forests standing, such as initiatives like Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), are still so far from altering development trajectories. It underlines the importance of understanding the politics of multilevel governance in forest, land and climate policy and practice, and identifies potential ways forward.
Ecology and Society, 2016
We analyze four case studies from Latin America using the concept of multilevel governance to assess at what vertical and horizontal levels and in what roles various state, market, and civil society actors interact for successful community-based environmental management (CBEM). In particular, we address the problem of how a conflict over natural resources with high negative impacts on the livelihoods of the respective communities could be overcome by a governance change that resulted in a multilevel governance arrangement for CBEM. The analysis involves a mixed-methods approach that combines a variety of empirical methods in social research such as field visits, personal interviews, participant observations, and stakeholder workshops. To visualize results, we introduce two schemes to present the composition of the governance structures for cross-case comparison. The first scheme plots the different actors into an arrangement that shows their associations with different societal spheres and at which territorial scales they are primarily involved. The second scheme differentiates these actors based on their complementing governance roles. Active roles are attributed to actors who implement activities on the ground, whereas passive roles are assigned to actors who provide specific resources such as knowledge, funding, legislative framework, or others. All cases involved governance actors from more than one societal sphere who operate on at least three different territorial levels (local to international) and in distinct roles. Results show that multilevel governance can strengthen CBEM in different ways. First, the success of CBEM is an outcome of the sum of horizontal and vertical interactions of all involved actors, and there is no most appropriate single level of social organization at which a problem can best be addressed. Only the cooperation of actors from different societal spheres within and across levels ensures accessibility to needed resources and implementation on the ground. Second, civil society actors seem to be crucial actors because they often function as the initiators of governance change and as bridging actors who connect other actors across levels. Third, to enable cross-scale interaction for improved decision making, often new actors are formed whose roles are wilfully negotiated. Fourth, despite different interests of actors, all multilevel governance arrangements for CBEM were able to provide benefits to all actors. Finally, in all cases, procedures for conflict resolution among parties are in place to address problems and allow for polycentric mutual decision making. Nevertheless, in view of transferability of the analyzed multilevel governance arrangements for CBEM, it is important to acknowledge that the differentiation in the cooperation of actors characterizes complex solutions that work for a specific context and that cannot be transferred directly to another context.
Participatory injustice in Mexico's Readiness process to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD, 2021
Since 2007 many developing countries have laid groundwork for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation and sustainable management and conservation of forests (REDD +) under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). REDD + is aimed at incentivizing forest conservation and management in developing countries through policy programmers and local projects, which should in theory enhance the participation of very diverse actors in forest policy and governance. Here we explore the early years of REDD + in Mexico focusing on the alleged "participatory" nature of the REDD + initiative. Based on interviews and field observations with those involved in drafting the REDD + national strategy and in the implementation of small-scale pilot project activities, we investigate the meaning of participation for REDD + actors, their aspirations in this regard, and how procedural justice issues are being considered in early policy implementation. We demonstrate that the process set in motion to draft the strategy did not sufficiently involve sub-national governance levels, thus reducing the legitimacy of REDD + efforts, particularly in rural communities. We suggest that rural local actors should be further involved in REDD + decision-making forums, be provided with more information for a good understanding of REDD + implementation (e.g., pilot projects), and most importantly, be given a real chance to implement REDD + activities grounded on their own institutions and land-use practices.
White Paper: Land Management and Governance for Sustainable Development in Mexico
This white paper proposes a framework through which land policy analysis and design can be revisited in the context of sustainable development, laying out considerations to be held by the Commission for the Regularization of Land Tenure (CORETT) as it transitions towards becoming the National Institute of Sustainable Land (INSUS).
It is increasingly evident that countries will be unable to meet international climate change commitments without a multi-level governance synergy that narrows existing policy gaps. This can be achieved via vertical and horizontal tools of harmonization between the different levels of government and cross-scale actors. There is a need for more empirical research to better understand the processes of change in the environmental governance structure that play an important role in the emergence, evolution and eventual effectiveness of institutions. Climate change action plans (CCAPs) are a feasible initiative for climate change policy implementation; nevertheless, previous experience in developed countries has revealed mild implementation outcomes. Mexico has achieved an outstanding progress in CCAP development: to date, all of the 32 states in the country and 255 of the 2,457 municipalities are in a development or implementation stage. Through qualitative research, this paper unpacks and analyses key institutional modifications in the Mexican environmental governance structure that have been established to facilitate the development and implementation of state and municipal CCAPs. Interviews and document investigation were used to construct the institutional changes in the Mexican governance structure that have been established in the past decades to develop and implement state and municipal CCAPs. The data was then analysed through two governance frameworks (Dyer et al.2012 and. Results revealed that key changes that facilitated the development and implementation of CCAPs where (i) the establishment of harmonizing top-bottom planning instruments, (ii) novel forms of steering agencies that legitimized implementation mechanisms and (iii) the shift from comanagement partnerships to transnational networks to close regulatory, participatory, resource and learning gaps. It was also observed that international cooperation played a crucial role in this process. It is concluded that these changes created a solid, long-term structure, but further institutional effectiveness calls for the development of institutional mechanisms that provide finer detail in the implementation phase and the integration of actors of the local society in the process.
2016
List of figures, tables and boxes Figure Area deforested from 2000 to 2013. Tables 1 Summary of sites by selected criteria. 2 Number of respondents by type of interview. 3 Characteristics of case study sites. 4 Distribution of forests in Peru by legal category (area and % of total; share of total deforestation 2001-2014). 5 Tropical forest and forest loss in the regions, 2001-2014. 6 Key powers and responsibilities by sector and level of government. 7 Powers transferred to regional governments in Madre de Dios, San Martin and Ucayali. 8 Frequency with which different actors were cited in interviews as driving deforestation and forest degradation or low-emissions development activities. 9 Types of benefits and burdens of projects. Boxes 1 The limitations of ZEE and OT. 2 Enabling land-use change from the top: The case of Grupo Palmas-Barranquita in San Martin. 3 The DRSAU and Plantaciones Ucayali SAC. 4 Overlapping concessions and titles. 5 Governance challenges in relation to illegal mining and the formalization of mining in Madre de Dios. 6 Corruption in the land-use and forest sector: The case of Ucayali. 7 Structural problems that prevent effective multilevel and cross-sectoral coordination and land-use planning and management. 8 San Martin: The "Green Region." 9 Burdens and costs for proponents and beneficiaries. 10 Local representative organization in Ucayali. 11 When tenure is not a benefit but a requirement for benefits. 12 The Alto Mayo Protected Forest in San Martin.
Conflicting Regulatory Systems for Natural Resources Management in Southern Mexico
ijtds.com (International Journal of Technology and Development Studies), 2011
This paper explores and analyses the social back-stage aspects of a small indigenous community of Oaxaca. It particularly addresses individual actions and behaviour in relation to use of local natural resources. The present analysis uses two main governance systems of rural Mexico as its main entry points. The first is a top-down system implemented by the State and basically composed of ‘should be’ laws. The second is a system practiced by many rural entities, called usos y costumbres (or customary law), based on practices of daily political and social life of the community. This is often called ‘practical justice’ or ‘it is socially done’. The analysis attempts to understand how these ruling mechanisms –ostensibly aimed at ensuring social order–also serve as resources in the decision-making of a range of local actors. Local conflicts of interests and dilemmas are highlighted in the case study here presented. Bottlenecks, confrontations and consequences for individuals, community social life and local development are pointed out. Furthermore, an attempt is made to unwrap some of the reasons of why certain management practices and local sanctions constitute sensitive issues, most of the time locally hidden. By using the concepts of force-field, as proposed by Nuijten (2003 & 2005), and front-and-back social stages (Murphy 1981 & 1990, following Goffman 1959 & 1966), the analysis is linked to discussions of political power perspectives. The methods used were participatory workshops and semi-structured interviews. Local verbal expressions, personal statements and certain observed patterns of social behaviour are also taken into consideration as evidence. The paper illustrates that in El Oro, Oaxaca, environmental management is a key site where the local system of governance through custom comes into conflict with the top-down power of the federal Mexican state. Top-down political power over natural resources is creating permanent and dangerous force-fields in which the community as social congregation and the locals as individuals struggle in a game in which they have become automatically enmeshed and about which they know little. The citizens protect themselves through careful management of back-stage issues. Participatory methods have been useful in accessing front-stage aspects and ethnographic approach has been extremely useful in bringing to light some of these hidden or back-stage areas which need to be taken into consideration at any local development intervention.
From polygons to politics: Everyday practice and environmental governance in Veracruz, Mexico
This article argues that everyday practices can matter as much as organized social movements or outright resistance in environmental governance outcomes. While governance has become an important analytical category for understanding the institutional and epistemological systems through which resources are accessed and managed, existing characterizations of environmental governance are based on organized social movements and/or institutional re-scalings. This research reveals how state strategies to govern resources and reorder space were thwarted by the everyday practices of both farmers and state actors. Using a case study from a historic coffee-producing region in Veracruz, Mexico, this article presents ethnographic data to demonstrate how government attempts to control the environment are bound together in mutually constitutive processes of transformation with the actual places, peoples, and practices that make up the landscape.
Scalar Struggles: The Selectivity of Development Governance in Southern Mexico
Latin American Research Review
So-called development projects in rural Mexico are heavily contested. Changes in institutional design have had little effect in mediating the exclusivity of the political decision-making processes defining such projects. Why, and how, has the Mexican state been able to maintain a developmentalist agenda, despite growing pressures to incorporate participatory development institutions and consult Indigenous peoples about development projects? This article introduces the geographic concept of scale and the concept of the state’s heterogeneous selectivities into debates on participation to study the politics of development projects. It analyzes the potential and existing obstacles to political participation for Indigenous networks and activists in the corresponding planning processes across institutional scales, examining protest against wind energy development in the state of Oaxaca and the project of “rural cities” in the state of Chiapas. Rather than two separate cases for comparison...