Land Tenure and Tenure Regimes in Mexico: An Overview

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the evolution of land tenure and tenure regimes in rural Mexico from colonial times to the present. It shows how, by the late nineteenth century, the dual system of indigenous communal tenure and Spanish and criollo landholdings was undermined by liberal legislation that sought to privatize community lands. This resulted in a process of disappropriation and concentration of land in a few hands, which created the setting for rural upheaval during the Mexican revolution and for the subsequent redistributive land reform and the creation of a ‘social sector’ consisting of ejidos and agrarian communities. By the 1960s, however, the reform sector began to enter into crisis. A reform of the Constitution and new agrarian legislation of 1992 opened the way to privatization of land in the social sector, expecting that this would dynamize production. It is shown that this has not been the case. In a context of globalization and asymmetric free‐trade relations the crisis has only deepened.

Rights to Land, Forests and Carbon in REDD+: Insights from Mexico, Brazil and Costa Rica

“…However, not all post-revolutionary governments showed the same commitment to land redistribution. As shown elsewhere [44][45][46], the share of social property increased every year until 1982 but re-distribution was only pursued significantly during the second half of the 1930s, the mid 1960s and the early 1970s [44,45]. As of today, private lands owned and/or managed by companies, sharecroppers, and landless peasants represent 37% of the Mexican agrarian landscape but only encompass 26% of the country's forests [47,48].…”

“…This Article noted that all lands and waters originally belonged to the nation and that the nation would grant private property rights under certain conditions. It capped the size of private properties, parceled large private landholdings and, above all, allowed rural communities and groups of families to be granted rights to land in order to meet their development needs or to restore customary rights held before the nineteenth century [44]. However, not all post-revolutionary governments showed the same commitment to land redistribution.…”

Repeat Migration and Remittances as Mechanisms for Wealth Inequality in 119 Communities From the Mexican Migration Project Data

“…Researchers suggested that the ejido land system, which granted households use of communal land, but required (until 1992) them to farm the land themselves, restricts mobility (Hamilton 2002). Other scholars argued that some ejido plots were less suitable for agriculture, thus, many rural households complemented their income by sending migrants to the United States (Assies 2008;DeWalt and Rees 1994).…”

Environmental and socioeconomic impacts of Mexico's payments for ecosystem services program

“…The Mexican ejidos and comunidades resulted from the land reform that extended from the end of the 1910 revolution until the early 1990s. During this time, an area equivalent to half the country was redistributed (Assies 2008). Ejidos are composed of two different kinds of property rights over land: private parcels and commons.…”