Factors that influence the success of conservation programs in communal property areas in Mexico

Abstract

More than half of the natural vegetation in Mexico is managed collectively within common property systems. The appropriation and continuity of government programs related to the conservation of land that is communally used is proposed to depend on the level of organization of the communities and the interaction between the local and governmental institutions, as well as the benefits derived from conservation projects. Patterns of what drives the conservation of common natural resources were analyzed in order to propose improvements to conservation policy. Changes in primary and secondary vegetation cover in common and private properties were identified by performing a historical spatial analysis. Questionnaires were used to survey 32 populations of seven states of the Mexican Republic to determine the conservation status of common property resources, as well as the ability of the community to continue conservation activities initially undertaken by government programs. Some 53% of the primary and secondary vegetation in Mexico is found in common property areas, but the change from primary and secondary vegetation to other uses is the same for common and private property. Communities with a high level of conservation of communal areas and with the ability to continue conservation projects were those that had dedicated the areas to recreation and conservation, had stronger community organization and were less marginalized. A recognition of the heterogeneity of the socioeconomic and cultural context of communities with common property is necessary to design governmental conservation programs that achieve long-term conservation. To meet the needs of a region that is both degraded and marginalized, the creation of synergies between programs that combat poverty 488 Verónica Bunge-Vivier and Andrea Martínez-Ballesté and programs that promote conservation is needed. In addition, the continuation of payments with public funds for work that preserves or rehabilitates natural areas is needed, thereby acknowledging the environmental services that these areas generate.

A global review of animal translocation programs

“…food and shelter availability, predation; Barbosa et al, 2008;Polo-Cavia and Gomez-Mestre, 2014;Szymkowiak et al, 2017), and funding (e.g. trained personnel, veterinary care, captive maintenance, monitoring; Ferraro and Pattanayak, 2006;Bunge-Vivier and Martínez-Ballesté, 2017;Green et al, 2018). Thus, the evaluation of such characteristics is important to establish best practice for translocation programs.…”

Reframing Indigenous water rights in ‘modern’ Taiwan: reflecting on Tayal experience of colonized common property

“…In the ostensibly 'modern' Taiwanese setting, the dominant discourse excludes Indigenous cultures as parts of the present society. However, a resilient local common property resource governance relies on the collective ability to engage rather than subvert diversity in knowledges 8 and cultural experiences (see also Natcher et al 2005;Chaudhary et al 2015;Bunge-Vivier and Martínez-Ballesté 2017;Tadie and Fischer 2017). Just as custodianship of territory by Indigenous peoples was not seen or valued by non-Indigenous colonizers, Indigenous modes of governing the landscape to maintain vital resources were also mostly unperceived and unacknowledged (see also McLean 2010).…”

Mexican agricultural frontier communities differ in forest dynamics with consequences for conservation and restoration

“…Feeny et al., 1990), also in Mexico where communally owned coniferous forest had lower deforestation rates (Barsimantov & Kendall, 2012). Other studies instead found no difference between communally and privately owned lands in Mexico, which was attributed to differences in community organization and marginalization (Bunge‐Vivier & Martínez‐Ballesté, 2017; Ellis et al., 2017). These results warrant that the Neoliberal discourse stimulating private ownership may accelerate forest loss in this region, as recently demonstrated for Mexico (Lazos‐Chavero et al., 2021), as well as globally (Davis et al., 2020).…”