Nature Regimes in Southern Mexico: A History of Power and Environment

Demarcating forest, containing disease: land and HIV/AIDS in southern Zambia

“…What this literature contributes to our own study is how migrants interact with resources and communities in their new location, and the resulting environmental consequences (e.g., Amacher et al 1998;Myers 1997;Doos 1994;Ghimire 1994;IUCN 2000;Stone 1997). Studies of frontier regions in Brazil (Caldas et al 2007;Brondizio et al 1994;Moran et al 1994;Walker et al 2000), Mexico (Haenn 2002) and West Africa (Stone 1997;Nyerges and Green 2000) concur that the migrant phenomenon in new land settlements includes important local level dynamics of resource access, security, and socio-political control, and requires better understanding. Migration is a primary feature of the two studies presented here (the study site is a migrant destination) and migration is directly implicated more generally in both the spread of HIV/AIDS (Anarti 1993;Brockerhoff and Biddlecom 1999;Decosas et al 1995) and deforestation (Amacher et al 1998;Ghimire 1994;Moore and Vaughan 1994).…”

Introduction: international policy in the biosphere reserves of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula

“…Despite such episodic invasions, these peoples have largely had de facto control of their own resource use, based on their own local forms of governance and traditional sanctions well into the twentieth century (Bodley, 1975;Stevens, 1997;Haenn, 2002). As international pressures and incentives have lead national governments to name some of these relatively pristine areas as Biosphere Reserves, conservation biologists and other environmental practitioners enter to implement the new regime, and are frequently perceived locally as a new wave of invaders, with similarities to missionaries and colonizers.…”

“…Much of the area is 100-150 m above sea level, so the drilling of wells and pumping of water is far more costly than in the lower, northern areas of the peninsula. During rainy season, the valleys suffer from flooding due to poor drainage related to the relatively young karstic subsoil and the formation of clay soils (see Haenn, 2001Haenn, , 2002Ericson, 2006).…”

Development policies and tropical deforestation in the southern Yucatán peninsula: centralized and decentralized approaches

“…Local people were not involved in the decision to locate a reserve in the study region, and most were surprised to learn of the reserve's existence after the fact (Haenn, 2002). Despite its establishment in 1989 the reserve did not officially function until 1995, it was poorly planned, and without significant backing of locals at any time, its effectiveness in fostering conservation is questionable.…”

“…the use of environmental history to understand modern environmental issues and land management (Batterbury and Bebbington, 1999;Klepeis and Turner, 2001;Foster, 2002); and the exploration of the impacts of centralized vs decentralized land-use decision making, and the implications for sustainability (Shiva, 1993;Bebbington, 1996;Rubin, 1997;Haenn, 2002;Ribot, 2002).…”