Leticia Durand
National Autonomous University of Mexico
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Environmental Conservation | 2004
Leticia Durand; Elena Lazos
Understanding patterns of tropical deforestation is a crucial issue for Mexico, a country that has lost more than 95% of its original rainforest cover. This paper examines the causes of accelerated deforestation in the Sierra Santa Marta, Veracruz, Mexico, by looking at settlement history and the evolution of productive schemes in the villages of Venustiano Carranza and Magallanes. Both settlements were founded in the 1960s, after the government donated land to landless peasants. Conversion of forests into pastures, after several agricultural enterprises failed, resulted in more than 80% of the original tropical rainforests being removed in both communities between 1960 and 1998. The process of deforestation in the villages differed from models proposed for the Amazon and Central America, in which deforestation responded to capital-intensive efforts to open up the tropical frontier. In the villages, transformation of forests into pastures was, from the beginning, a smallholder phenomenon. Misguided policies and institutional malfunctions appeared to direct households toward deforestation. Nevertheless, environmental deterioration could not only be explained by external causes. Inside the communities, demographic pressure over land, the modification of traditional land tenure systems and the cultural adoption of cattle as a way to overcome poverty were significant factors in the relationship between colonization and forest clearance. Deforestation at Venustiano Carranza and Magallanes cannot be considered an ecologically destructive practice performed by peasants. In fact, the process reflects not only a lack of environmental awareness in national development policies, but also the intricate interaction of ecological, cultural, social and economical variables.
Conservation and Society | 2014
Leticia Durand; Fernanda Figueroa; Tim Trench
Since the 1970s, community participation has become central in biodiversity conservation initiatives, mainly as a strategy for integrating the needs and interests of the populations living in and around protected areas (PAs), and to enhance local social development. Nevertheless, institutionalised participation is usually conceived as a means to attain the goals of conservation initiatives. Although important efforts have been made to construct participatory processes, these are designed and implemented in ways that produce exclusion. In this study, we analyse the exclusion processes produced in the consultation workshops developed to evaluate and update the Conservation and Management Programme (CMP) of the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve (MABR), and in the Reserves Advisory Council (Consejo Asesor) meetings. Our analysis is based on the observation of two workshops, the revision of workshop reports, interviews with institutional officials, and the participation of one of us in the Advisory Council of the MABR as a councillor. We show that participatory processes for incorporating local populations views and perspectives into decision-making processes still face important challenges. We highlight the importance of acknowledging, and attending to, the processes of exclusion generated by the mechanisms themselves, despite being implemented to include local communities.
Human Ecology | 2008
Leticia Durand; Elena Lazos
Land Use Policy | 2011
Leticia Durand; Luis Bernardo Vázquez
Nueva Antropología. Revista de Ciencias Sociales | 2002
Leticia Durand
Nueva Antropología. Revista de Ciencias Sociales | 2008
Leticia Durand
Interciencia | 2010
Leticia Durand
Sociologia | 2014
Leticia Durand
Estudios Sociales | 2014
Gabriela Buda Arango; Tim Trench; Leticia Durand
Conservation and Society | 2014
Nora Haenn; Elizabeth Anne Olson; Jose E Martinez-Reyes; Leticia Durand