María Estela Orozco Hernández

Land Management Strategies and their Implications for Mazahua Farmers’ Livelihoods in the Highlands of Central Mexico

Abstract This paper presents a case study from a Mazahua indigenous community in the rural Highlands of Central Mexico. It analyses Mazahua farming livelihoods characterised by subsistence agriculture, marginality, poverty and severe land degradation. Mazahua farmers face constrained environmental, socioeconomic and cultural conditions, which influence their local decisions on natural resource management. The results describe the capital assets base used, where land, livestock and crop production are imperative assets to support farmers’ livelihood strategies. It analyses local management practices to achieve livelihood outcomes in the short/long term, and to improve or undermine land characteristics and other related assets. It also presents a farmer typology constructed by local perceptions, a controversial element to drive sustainable development strategies at the local level. Finally, it discusses how local land management practices are adopted and their importance in developing alternatives to encourage positive trade-offs between conservation and production in order to improve rural livelihoods.

Análisis de imágenes orientadas a objetos para mapear y monitorear cambios en la cobertura terrestre de la Región Costa Maya, México: 1993-2010

Accurate, cost effective and timely multiple spatial-temporal information on the patterns of land cover change is crucial for environmental management and understanding. For this reason, segmentation and object-oriented classification was applied to Landsat TM/ ETM+ imagery to map and monitor land cover dynamics in the Region Costa Maya (RCM) in 1993, 2000 and 2010. Overall mapping accuracy for land-cover map in 2000 was 94.29% (ĸ= 0.9141). Post-classification approach, involving cross tabulation of three generated maps, was used to characterize spatial temporal rates and patterns of land cover change to infer major processes of changes over 17 years. Results revealed rapid urbanization, agricultural land abandonment (forest transition) and destruction of mangrove forests, mediated by socio-economic factors linked to tourism development as the leading drivers of land cover change, with grave implications on environmental sustainability in the Costa Maya area. The study has confirmed the value of segmentation and object-oriented classification for mapping and monitoring land cover change at regional scale.