Eduardo García-Frapolli

Local participation in biodiversity conservation initiatives: a comparative analysis of different models in South East Mexico.

In Mexico, biodiversity conservation is primarily implemented through three schemes: 1) protected areas, 2) payment-based schemes for environmental services, and 3) community-based conservation, officially recognized in some cases as Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas. In this paper we compare levels of local participation across conservation schemes. Through a survey applied to 670 households across six communities in Southeast Mexico, we document local participation during the creation, design, and implementation of the management plan of different conservation schemes. To analyze the data, we first calculated the frequency of participation at the three different stages mentioned, then created a participation index that characterizes the presence and relative intensity of local participation for each conservation scheme. Results showed that there is a low level of local participation across all the conservation schemes explored in this study. Nonetheless, the payment for environmental services had the highest local participation while the protected areas had the least. Our findings suggest that local participation in biodiversity conservation schemes is not a predictable outcome of a specific (community-based) model, thus implying that other factors might be important in determining local participation. This has implications on future strategies that seek to encourage local involvement in conservation.

Local understandings of conservation in southeastern Mexico and their implications for community-based conservation as an alternative paradigm.

Since the 1990s national and international programs have aimed to legitimize local conservation initiatives that might provide an alternative to the formal systems of state-managed or otherwise externally driven protected areas. We used discourse analysis (130 semistructured interviews with key informants) and descriptive statistics (679 surveys) to compare local perceptions of and experiences with state-driven versus community-driven conservation initiatives. We conducted our research in 6 communities in southeastern Mexico. Formalization of local conservation initiatives did not seem to be based on local knowledge and practices. Although interviewees thought community-based initiatives generated less conflict than state-managed conservation initiatives, the community-based initiatives conformed to the biodiversity conservation paradigm that emphasizes restricted use of and access to resources. This restrictive approach to community-based conservation in Mexico, promoted through state and international conservation organizations, increased the area of protected land and had local support but was not built on locally relevant and multifunctional landscapes, a model that community-based conservation is assumed to advance.

Trade-offs between ecosystem services and alternative pathways toward sustainability in a tropical dry forest region

The design of strategies aimed at sustainable resource management requires an understanding of the trade-offs between the ecosystem services at stake, to determine appropriate ways in which to navigate them. We assess trade-offs between forage production for cattle ranching and the maintenance of carbon stocks or tree diversity in a Mexican tropical dry forest. Trade-offs between pairs of services were assessed by identifying their efficiency frontiers at both site and landscape scales. We also estimated service outcomes under current and hypothetical land-management conditions. We found stark trade-offs between fodder and carbon stocks and between fodder and tree species richness at the site scale. At the landscape scale, the efficiency frontier was concave, with a much less pronounced trade-off in the fodder-species richness case. Our estimates of current service supply levels showed a reduction of 18-21% for C stock and 41-43% for fodder biomass, relative to the maximum feasible values along the efficiency frontier. Choice of the optimum management strategy to reduce such inefficiency depended on deforestation level: secondary forest regeneration was most suitable when deforestation is low, whereas increased fodder productivity in the pastures is best when deforestation is high. Pasture enrichment with forage trees and secondary forest growth are potential management alternatives for achieving sustainability given the range of enabling ecological factors and to balance ecological and social sustainability given the requirements and preferences of local stakeholders. Given that analogous trade-offs are found across the tropics, this work contributes to reconciling tropical forest maintenance and its use for sustainable rural livelihoods.

Sociocultural and ecological factors influencing management of edible and non-edible plants: the case of Ixcatlán, Mexico

BackgroundIdentifying factors influencing plant management allows understanding how processes of domestication operate. Uncertain availability of resources is a main motivation for managing edible plants, but little is known about management motives of non-edible resources like medicinal and ceremonial plants. We hypothesized that uncertain availability of resources would be a general factor motivating their management, but other motives could operate simultaneously. Uncertainty and risk might be less important motives in medicinal than in edible plants, while for ceremonial plants, symbolic and spiritual values would be more relevant.MethodsWe inventoried edible, medicinal, and ceremonial plants in Ixcatlán, Oaxaca, Mexico, and conducted in-depth studies with 20 native and naturalized species per use type; we documented their cultural importance and abundance by interviewing 25 households and sampling vegetation in 33 sites. Consumption amounts and preferences were studied through surveys and free listings with 38 interviewees. Management intensity and risk indexes were calculated through PCA and their relation analyzed through regression analyses. Canonical methods allowed identifying the main sociocultural and ecological factors influencing management of plants per use type.ResultsNearly 64, 63, and 55% of all ceremonial, edible, and medicinal wild plants recorded, respectively, are managed in order to maintain or increase their availability, embellishing environments, and because of ethical reasons and curiosity. Management intensity was higher in edible plants under human selection and associated with risk. Management of ceremonial and medicinal plants was not associated with indexes of risk or uncertainty in their availability. Other sociocultural and ecological factors influence management intensity, the most important being reciprocal relations and abundance perception.ConclusionsPlant management through practices and collectively regulated strategies is strongly related to control of risk and uncertainty in edible plants, compared with medicinal and ceremonial plants, in which reciprocal interchanges, curiosity, and spiritual values are more important factors. Understanding how needs, worries, social relations, and ethical values influence management decisions is important to understand processes of constructing management strategies and how domestication could be started in the past and are operated at the present.

Who participates in conservation initiatives? Case studies in six rural communities of Mexico

Previous studies attempting to explain the factors that determine local participation in conservation initiatives have concluded that socio-political exclusion is the main barrier to being involved in such initiatives. Such studies have not differentiated between different types of conservation initiatives. In this paper, we contribute to the literature analyzing the socio-cultural correlates of participation, by differentiating between participation in three types of conservation schemes: protected areas, payment for environmental services, and community conservation. We use data obtained from six rural communities in Mexico, where different combinations of conservation schemes are found. Through linear regression analysis, we explore the relationship between participation and (1) the community of residence; (2) demographics; and (3) socioeconomic characteristics of individuals. Our results suggest that local participation in conservation strategies depends, to a large extent, on the socio-political context in which they are embedded and that the exclusion of women and young adults is clearly consistent.

Triggering Community Conservation Through the Trade of Carbon Offsets: The Case of the Ejido Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Mexico

Based on qualitative research and a case study analysis, this article describes how a local conservation initiative grounded on the potential to trade carbon offsets in the voluntary market has triggered a multipurpose scheme for community conservation in the ejido of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Mexico. We describe how the Felipe Carrillo Puerto has engaged in the creation of two community-conserved areas, an ecotourism venture, and two projects of payment for environmental services. We show how creating a portfolio of conservation projects has allowed the ejido to diversify their sources of income in addition to creating an important number of jobs related to conservation. We discuss the implications of the community experiences with different conservation schemes, the market-based instruments that can trigger community conservation, and the importance of giving local communities the opportunity to define their own conservation paths.

Fostering Traditional Yucatec Maya Management of Natural Resources through Microcredits: A Community Case Study

In this research we show the way in which a small Yucatec Mayan community conducts a diversified management strategy of its natural resources, as well as how this strategy is supplemented and financed by microfinance. The local description of the ecological process of succession was used for describing the strategy of nature appropriation. Network analysis was used for studying how productive activities are correlated, depending on households having or not having microcredits. Results show that households carry out a diversified management strategy of natural resource in which 12 productive activities are implemented in 5 different land-use units. Study findings show that the network of productive activities of households with microfinance is more interconnected, and that 59% of the people are devoting their microcredits to finance traditional activities such as crop fields, beekeeping, or home gardens, which are the most socially, economically, and ecologically contextualized productive activities in the region.

Forest Ecosystems and Conservation

Forest ecosystems, as part of land systems, are strongly determined by governance structures that are linked at different spatio-temporal scales. The Yucatan Peninsula is an important region in which to study processes affecting forest conservation, as its geographical extent and differing local histories produce specific land use and vegetation trajectories that help us understand different socioeconomic and environmental drivers. In this chapter, we analyze the principal processes that determine and affect land systems, including conservation of forests, within the Yucatan Peninsula. In particular, we evaluate how productive, development and conservation trends have influenced forest change. To do so, we use data available from official sources. The results show differentiated regional trends. In some areas forest change shows a pattern of decrease responding to agricultural intensification and urbanization; however, other regions have showed forest conservation or even forest increase due to various specific factors. We argue that economic development should favor activities and local institutions that work towards productive landscapes that integrate forest ecosystems.

Community Conservation in Punta Laguna: A Case of Adaptive Ecotourism Management

Punta Laguna is a small Yucatec Mayan community situated in the northeastern part of the Yucatan Peninsula. This community has more than 30 years of experience in community conservation through the development of activities related to ecotourism. During this period, the community has consecutively employed different ecotourism management approaches: (1) family business, (2) cooperative organization, (3) entrepreneurial tourism management by an outside agency, and (4) cooperative organization with entrepreneurial know-how. By describing the characteristics of each management experience, we reveal how the community has learned from experience, and how this learning has led them to (1) modify exclusionary behaviors, (2) increase the importance of local decision-making, and (3) implement entrepreneurial attitudes towards managing their community conservation initiative. This process has been characterized by complexity and conflict among community members and other stakeholders. The process has also been influenced by external disturbances such as hurricanes, global economic crises, and pressures resulting from regional tourism development.