Democracia ambiental y coproducción de recursos cognitivos locales para el manejo de la biodiversidad en reservas de biosfera (original) (raw)
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Environmental democracy and co-production of local cognitive resources for the management of biodiversity in biosphere reserves, 2018
How can we make biodiversity, a common good for humanity, remain a collective resource for human communities depending directly on it for subsistence? This is the topic analyzed here, which has been institutionalized by the creation of biosphere reserves in Mexico and other parts of the world. Although the preservation of biodiversity is of common interest, the creation of biosphere reserves implies for the resident populations an alteration of modalities of appropriation and access to resources essential for them. This article addresses these issues based on the case of the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve (REBIMA) and the Lacantún Biosphere Reserve (REBILA) in Chiapas. It is a contribution to the discussion on the importance and challenge of building environmental democracy by exposing different rationalities interacting in the REBIMA. It also discusses the need to create consensus among the actors involved, which lead to processes of co-construction of local cognitive resources for the use and management of biodiversity in order to solve the question formulated above.
Campo Território: Revista de Geografía Agrária, 2016
Resumo As reservas da biosfera foram criadas, entre outros, com o objetivo de promover modelos de desenvolvimento sustentável e gestão ambiental. Este artigo é um estudo de caso das reservas de biosfera "Montes Azules" e "Lacantún" no território da Comunidade Lacandona, cuja população é composta de grupos étnicos de origem maia; onde, depois de mais de 30 anos de políticas ambientais e programas de conservação e desenvolvimento na região da Selva Lacandona (Chiapas), as realizações do desenvolvimento sustentável são extremamente limitadas. O objetivo é compreender as condições e a lógica dos diferentes atores que levaram a esta situação, para que possamos pensar em novas abordagens para a política ambiental no México. A principal questão é, então, por que não foi possível construir um desenvolvimento sustentável na Comunidade Lacandona, apesar dos muitos programas de governo ao longo das últimas três décadas? Para responder a esta pergunta, a hipótese de que a conservação e o desenvolvimento sustentável dependem, principalmente, das formas de interação e gestão estabelecidas no seio da população local e entre ela e as autoridades dos governos estadual e federal. Abstract The biosphere reserves were created with the purpose of generating models of sustainable development along with the use and management of the natural resources. In this paper we will undertake to analyze the case of the Montes Azules and Lacantún Biosphere Reserves, in the territory of Lacandon Community with population of Mayan Indians. In which, after thirty years of environmental politics and a range of development programs, the achievements in sustainable development and management systems are extremely limited. The intent of this paper is to understand the conditions and rationalities of the different social actors who have created this situation and in doing so imagine new approaches to environmental politics in Mexico. Our central question is, therefore, why has the generation of sustainable development not been possible in the Lacandon Community, despite the many programs and actions on the part of the government over the course of the last three decades? The hypotheses is that conservation and sustainable development fundamentally depend on the forms of interaction and management established inside local community and between such community and the state and federal government.
Journal of Political Ecology
In this article, I analyze how daily conservation discourse and practices create and recreate local identities through the reconfiguration of social relationships brought about by conservation encounters. The mobilization of identity has been a main strategy of the inhabitants of the Lacandon Community Zone and the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve for maintaining their access to natural resources and benefitting from conservation. In the Lacandon Rainforest, conservation comes at great cost to the local population but, at the same time, offers an opportunity to access monetary and political resources. Because of this tension, the peasants build complex and fractured identities, in an iterative process, assuming different images as they struggle to reconcile their personal desires with the external plan to preserve the forest. Identity in the Lacandon Rainforest, as in other regions impacted by this practice, is a tool in the political struggle.Keywords: identity, power, biodiversity,...
Journal of Political Ecology, 2019
In this article, I analyze how daily conservation discourse and practices create and recreate local identities through the reconfiguration of social relationships brought about by conservation encounters. The mobilization of identity has been a main strategy of the inhabitants of the Lacandon Community Zone and the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve for maintaining their access to natural resources and benefitting from conservation. In the Lacandon Rainforest, conservation comes at great cost to the local population but, at the same time, offers an opportunity to access monetary and political resources. Because of this tension, the peasants build complex and fractured identities, in an iterative process, assuming different images as they struggle to reconcile their personal desires with the external plan to preserve the forest. Identity in the Lacandon Rainforest, as in other regions impacted by this practice, is a tool in the political struggle. Dans cet article, j'analyse comment le discours et les pratiques de conservation quotidiens créent et recréent des identités locales à travers la reconfiguration des relations sociales induites par les rencontres de conservation. La mobilisation de l’identité a été l’une des principales stratégies des habitants de la zone communautaire Lacandon et de la réserve de biosphère de Montes Azules pour maintenir leur accès aux ressources naturelles et bénéficier de la conservation. Dans la forêt pluviale de Lacandon, la conservation coûte très cher à la population locale mais offre également la possibilité d’avoir accès à des ressources monétaires et politiques. En raison de cette tension, les paysans construisent des identités complexes et fracturées, dans un processus itératif, en supposant que le plan d'images différentes dans leur lutte pour concilier leurs désirs personnels avec l'extérieur pour préserver la forêt. L'identité dans la Lacandon Rainforest, comme dans d'autres régions touchées par cette pratique, est un outil dans la lutte politique. En este trabajo analizo cómo los discursos y la práctica cotidiana de la conservación crean y recrean las identidades locales a partir de la reconfiguración de las relaciones sociales que se producen en los encuentros de conservación y cómo, la movilización de la identidad ha sido una estrategia central de los habitantes de la Comunidad Zona Lacandona y de la Reserva de la Biosfera Montes Azules para mantener su acceso a los recursos naturales y beneficiarse de la conservación. En la Selva Lacandona, la conservación representa fuertes costos para la población local, pero al mismo tiempo, oportunidades para acceder a recursos financieros y políticos. Debido a esta tensión, los campesinos construyen identidades complejas y fracturadas, en un proceso iterativo, y asumen imágenes diferentes a medida que luchan por conciliar sus anhelos personales con el designio externo de preservar la selva. La identidad en la Selva Lacandona es, al igual que en otras regiones impactadas por esta práctica, una herramienta de lucha política.
decimotercera Bianual Conferencia de la Asociación Internacional para el Estudio de los Comunes (IASC), 2011
Although the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in the Lacandon Jungle (Chiapas, Mexico) was created in 1978 and Lacantun Biosphere Reserve was created in 1992 under the UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere programme, environmental authorities and local inhabitants have been unable to generate models for the sustainable management of the protected area’s natural resources. This is of course a complex problem, given that the implication is that the public good of biodiversity conservation and sustainable resource use prevails over diverse individual interests. We believe that this inertia could be unsettled by seeing this problem as an issue of democratic deficiencies in the relationship between the federal authorities and the communities that own large areas of the reserve. Although in recent years the communication and trust have grown to a certain degree between these two collective actors, there is still much to be done. But it does not only correspond to the authorities to face up to the diverse social and political challenges, but also to the communities’ own institutions and ways of organization. This paper analyzes a set of tensions generated by various private individual interests that have prevailed over the interests of conservation and sustainable management in the reserve. We pay special attention to the role played by particular practices (opportunism) in the internal organization of the towns of Nueva Palestina and Frontera Corozal, located within the reserves and we analyze the effects they have on the failures and limitations to move towards a more sustainable management in the Lacandon Jungle.
Land Use Policy, 2011
Aiming to explore the relationship between natural protected areas operation and how conservation is logically described, this paper analyzes the discourses that government authorities and scientists developed on conservation and social participation in Sierra de Huautla Biosphere Reserve. Our results indicate that conservation is understood as the intent to keep nature with the lowest possible level of human interference, as its main strategies are: to eliminate inhabitant's unawareness about nature and to reinforce environmental legislation and inspection. Social participation was acknowledged as essential in reserve management, but local inhabitants, even when recognized as important actors, were excluded from the reserve co-administration scheme and mainly regarded as the beneficiaries of already designed projects. In order to achieve SHBR environmental and social goals, it is necessary to modify authorities' comprehension of social participation toward a process that supports social change by empowering NPA inhabitants and transforming them into political actors.
A participatory approach to conservation in the Calakmul Biosphere Resereve, Campeche, Mexico
Since the advent of integrated conservation and development programs, participatory approaches have been used to engage local people in protected area management and conservation action. While participatory approaches provide local people a role in telling their own story and enable them to contribute to conservation and development processes, it is unclear how much consideration local people's opinions receive within the framework of a participatory process that exists to meet the specific goals and objectives of conservation programs. This paper evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the participatory approach used in an applied research program conducted in three ejido communities in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. The research program used community mapping, historical matrices, institutional diagramming, seasonal calendars, semi-structured interviewing and other community-level reflection techniques to assess the complex interrelationships among population growth, migration, tenure regimes, and land-use practices in rural communities bordering the reserve. The program also sought to build local capacity and support for land-use planning and conservation programs. While the paper acknowledges the critical benefits of local participation it also questions the compatibility of this approach with conservation programs administered by conservation organizations as they are currently structured.
Introduction: international policy in the biosphere reserves of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula
Landscape and Urban Planning, 2006
This introduction describes the evolution of biosphere reserve policy as an international effort to protect areas representative of each type of natural ecosystem, with zoning to integrate neighboring human communities. The integration of local communities in conservation was originally proposed by a Mexican conservationist based on recognition by some of his country's political leaders of national dependency on "ecosystem services": forests, watersheds, soils, and rainfall cycles . Conveniencia de estudiar todas las circunstancias en que se distribuye el agua pluvial que cae en la varias cuencas del territorio, de coordinar las observaciones pluviométricas con las de hidrometría en las mismas cuencas, así como también de que se expidan las leyes conducentes a la conservación y repoblación de los bosques. 161 lands and marine areas in use by communities of Yucatec Mayas and mestizos for livelihood. This article provides context for subsequent ones that analyze case studies and specific processes.
Re-mapping integrative conservation: (Dis)coordinate participation in a biosphere reserve in Mexico
'Community participation' has, over the past decades, become a key component of nature conservation initiatives worldwide. 'Participation', a term that signals the involvement of local stakeholders in conservation practices, is central to Integrative Natural Protected Areas (INPAs) in Latin America, where INPAs have become the dominant form of environmental protection policy and biodiversity research. Based on an analysis of the Sierra de Huautla Biosphere Reserve (SDHBR) in Mexico, this paper describes different and frequently conflicting understandings and practices of community integration. Drawing upon Situational Analysis (SA), we examine the forms through which local participation may be coordinated, in advance, by extra-local conservation agencies. We then trace competing forms of participation where local stakeholders devise tactics to challenge imposed policy templates and articulate their own co-emerging interests. By interrogating a neoliberal rhetoric of inclusion, and by re-mapping local participation on the ground, we make visible an approach to socio-natural conservation research that is more critical, more accountable, and more attentive to local agency.
A participatory approach to conservation in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, Campeche, Mexico
Landscape and Urban Planning, 2006
Since the advent of integrated conservation and development programs, participatory approaches have been used to engage local people in protected area management and conservation action. While participatory approaches provide local people a role in telling their own story and enable them to contribute to conservation and development processes, it is unclear how much consideration local people's opinions receive within the framework of a participatory process that exists to meet the specific goals and objectives of conservation programs. This paper evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the participatory approach used in an applied research program conducted in three ejido communities in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. The research program used community mapping, historical matrices, institutional diagramming, seasonal calendars, semi-structured interviewing and other community-level reflection techniques to assess the complex interrelationships among population growth, migration, tenure regimes, and land-use practices in rural communities bordering the reserve. The program also sought to build local capacity and support for land-use planning and conservation programs. While the paper acknowledges the critical benefits of local participation it also questions the compatibility of this approach with conservation programs administered by conservation organizations as they are currently structured.