Analysis of a natural resources management system in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve

An analysis of the natural resource management system was carried out for the ejido X-kanha located in the northern part of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Campeche, Mexico. Through field research using participatory rural appraisal (PRA), the activities carried out by different user groups were identified. Gender roles as well as age roles were analyzed. Results show that each family depends upon the diversification of productive activities in order to meet economic needs. Diversification of activities is carried out in both space and time, making use of different ecosystems during varied seasons throughout the year. Women's activities correspond to housekeeping and house administration; they take care of home gardens and are responsible for water collection and wood gathering. Men carry out the activities of working in the milpa, cattle raising, honey production, chicle collection, and wood felling.A series of PRA activities carried out with the people of X-Kanha led to the identification of limitations to more optimal uses of natural resources. The characterization of limitations and associated alternatives is used to provide a guideline to aid the efforts of NGOs and other organizations interested in the conservation of natural resources, and for the well-being of the local population.     

Local perspectives in conservation politics: the case of the Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve, Yucatán, México

Local perspectives are presented on the conflicts and contradictions in the Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve, one of 10 priority reserve areas in México that receive financing from the World Bank and other development and conservation institutions. There are four villages into the reserve, whose total population ranges from 800 to 2500 inhabitants. At this reserve, decision-makers and administrators have focused on biological conservation, failing to understand the social and political relations of the local people, which are strongly affected by globalization and modern conservation policy. Modern conservation is a western discourse on nature, is a kind of “licence to conserve”, analogous to an automobile driver's licence. Conservation in Ría Lagartos means prohibition to the local population hence conflicts frequently arise between them and both local and federal authorities. However, there is an urgent need to move forward and recognise the diversity of discourses on nature that give rise to different kinds of knowledge and practices of conservation variously called popular, traditional, indigenous, and folk. This paper discusses the institutionalization of conservation in a natural protected area (biosphere reserve) in the northwest of Yucatán Peninsula. The researcher initially established rapport with the communities of this region more than 10 years ago, working on various ethnographic research projects from then to the present. This long-term relationship has (1) deepened the level of trust, (2) contributed substantially to the background knowledge critical for identifying local factors of importance, and (3) provided information necessary for the proper wording of questions in the local parlance. The research reported here continued to use the same ethnographic approach used in the former research projects, an ethnographic method including participant observation and informal interviews in homes, work places, local stores, and other places normally frequented by the local consultants. The research reported in this article was done from August 1996 to July 1997 in the three communities of the Biosphere Reserve of Ría Lagartos: Río Lagartos, San Felipe and Las Coloradas.     

Farmers,fires, and forests: a green alternative to shifting cultivation for conservation of the Maya forest?

When fires blazed through Mexico's forests in 1998, the country experienced a new sense of urgency in its attempts to combat ecosystem degradation and loss of biodiversity. Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT, the federal environmental protection agency) identified the use of fire in agriculture as a major contributor to the conflagration. Traditional “slash-and-burn” systems are still widely practiced in the southeast of Mexico, and finding a substitute for burning, especially in and near protected areas, became imperative (SEMARNAT, 2001). Experience from different parts of Central America indicated that green manure/cover crop systems (g/cc) could increase soil fertility, reduce erosion, control weeds and raise the yield of maize; the hope was that this system could replace slash-and-burn practices with their attendant risk of forest fires. We present the case study of a project introducing a green cover crop to traditional, resource-poor, maize farmers in one community of the Yucatan peninsula and preliminary results from a similar project in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, discussing the data in the light of the on-going debates concerning both fire policy and soil erosion. We conclude that, in spite of demonstrating some advantages, adoption in the peninsula has been hindered by environmental, economic and socio-cultural factors. Mexican efforts to eliminate fire from the forests must also be assessed with reference to the scientific literature by fire experts and historical ecologists, indicating that prohibition of small fires may actually decrease total biodiversity, while increasing the probabilities of catastrophic forest fires.