How do real Indigenous forest dwellers live? Neoliberal conservation in Oaxaca, Mexico

Authors

  • Isabel Altamirano-Jiménez University of Alberta

Keywords:

indigeneity, intersectionality, neo-liberalism, environment

Abstract

Protected areas such as wildlife sanctuaries, national parks, and forest reserves have become an important feature of the global economy. Using an intersectional lens, a critical political economy approach, and document analysis, this paper explores how power operates through the production of Indigenous difference, the greening of the economy, and the commodification of the environment. It also considers neoliberal conservation as a racialized process that downloads the burden of protecting the environment onto the most vulnerable Indigenous communities. Résumé Les zones protégées telles que les refuges fauniques, les parcs nationaux et les réserves forestières sont devenues un élément important de l’économie mondiale. À l’aide d’une optique intersectionnelle, d’une approche d’économie politique critique et d’une analyse documentaire, cet article explore comment le pouvoir fonctionne au moyen de la création de la différence indigène, de l’écologisation de l’économie et de la marchandisation de l’environnement. Il considère également la conservation néo-libérale comme un processus racialisé qui transfère le fardeau de la protection de l’environnement aux communautés autochtones les plus vulnérables.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Author Biography

Isabel Altamirano-Jiménez, University of Alberta

Isabel Altamirano is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta. Her recent book Indigenous Encounters with Neoliberalism. Place, Women and the Environment, examines the relationship between indigenetiy, neo-liberal governance, and gender and their impact on the environment in Canada and Mexico.

References

Altamirano-Jiménez, Isabel. 1998. De Eso Que Llaman Movimiento Indio en México, 1970-1994. Senior Thesis of Social Anthropology. Mexico City, MX: National School of Anthropology and History.

____. 2013. Indigenous Encounters with Neoliberalism. Place, Women and the Environment in Canada and Mexico. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

Barmeyer, Niels. 2012. “Local Effects of Global Forest Conservation Policy: On Zapotec Resistance against a Protected Natural Area.” In Fields and Forests: Ethnographic Perspectives on Environmental Globalization, edited by Ursula Münster, Daniel Münster, and Stefan Dorondel, 51-58. Munich, DE: Rachel Carson Centre Perspectives 5.

Barry, Tom. 1995. Zapata’s Revenge. Free Trade and the Farmers Crisis in Mexico. Boston, MA: South End Press.

Braun, Bruce. 2002. The Intemperate Rainforest: Nature, Culture and Power on Canada’s West Coast, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Bray, David, Leticia Merino Pérez, Patricia Negreros, Gerardo Segura-Warnholtz, Juan M. Torres, and Henricus West. 2003. “Mexico’s Community-Managed Forests as a Global Model for Sustainable Landscapes.” Conservation Biology 17: 672-677.

Bray, David, Elvira Duran, Salvador Anta, Gary J. Martin, and Fernando Mondragón. 2008. “A New Conservation and Development Frontier: Community Protected Areas in Oaxaca, Mexico.” Current Conservation 2 (2): 7-9.

Calderón Hinojosa, Felipe. 2007. “Discurso del presidente Felipe Calderón Hinojosa durante la presentación del Plan Nacional de Desarrollo 2007-2012.” http://www.energia.gob.mx/portal/Default.aspx?id=1392.

Castree, Noel. 2009. “Neoliberalising Nature: The Logics of Deregulations and Reregulation.” Environment and Planning A 40 (1): 131-152.

Chapela, Francisco. 2005. “Indigenous Community Forest Management in the Sierra Juárez.” In The Community Forests of Mexico: Managing for Sustainable Landscapes, edited by David Barton Bray, Leticia Merino Pérez, and Deborah Barry, 91-110. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Chávez-Becker, Carlos, and Alejandro Natal. 2012. “Desarrollo regional y acción de base, el caso de una organización indígena de productores de café en Oaxaca.” Economía, Sociedad y Territorio xii (40): 597-618.

Cobo, Rosario, and Armando Bartra. 2007. Puerta del viento. Cerro de las flores, área

comunitaria protegida. Oaxaca, MX: UCIRI, CONANP, Instituto Maya AC.

Consejo Nacional de Población. 2004. Censo Nacional. http://www.conapo.gob.mx/micros/pronturio/08.pdf

Cronon, William. 1995. “The Trouble with Wilderness: or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature.” In Uncommon Ground. Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, edited by William Cronon. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company.

http://www.uvm.edu/rsenr/rm240/cronin.pdf.

Declaration of Santo Domingo Tomaltepec. 2012. “La Lucha Sigue, el maíz vive,” September 30. http://iitc.org/wpcontent/uploads/2014/08/CORNCONFERENECEDECLARCATION-final-September-30th-2012_web.pdf.

Deere, Carmen Diana, and Magdalena León. 2000. Ciudadanía y derechos económicos: La importancia de la tierra para las mujeres latinoamericanas. Bogotá, CO: Tercer Mundo and Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Dhamoon, Rita. 2011. “Considerations on Mainstreaming Intersectionality.” Political Research Quarterly 64 (1): 230-243.

____. 2015. “A Feminist Approach to Decolonizing Anti-Racism: Rethinking Transnationalism, Intersectionality, and Settler Colonialism.” Feral Feminisms 4: 20-36.

http://feralfeminisms.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/ff_A-Feminist-Approach-to-Decolonizing-Anti-Racism_issue4.pdf

González de la Rocha, Mercedes. 2007. “The Construction of the Myth of Survival Skills.” Development and Change 38 (1): 45-66.

Haenn, Nora. 1999. “The Power of Environmental Knowledge: Ethnoecology and Environmental Conflicts in Mexican Conservation.” Human Ecology 27 (3): 477-490.

____. 2006. “The Changing and Enduring Ejido: A State and Regional Examination of Mexico´s Land Tenure Counter-Reform.” Land Use Policy 23: 136-146.

Hason, Paul W. 2007. “Governmentality, Language Ideology, and the Production of Needs in Malagasy Conservation and Development.” Cultural Anthropology 22: 244-284. doi: 10.1525/can.2007.22.244.

Igoe, Jim, and Dan Brockington. 2007. “Neoliberal Conservation: A Brief Introduction.” Conservation and Society 5 (4): 432-49.

Igoe, Jim, Katja Neves, and Dan Brockington. 2010. “A Spectacular Eco-Tour around the Historic Bloc: Theorising the Convergence of Biodiversity Conservation and Capitalist Expansion. Antipode 42 (3): 486-512.

Isla, Ana. 2014. The Greening of Costa Rica: Women, Peasants, Indigenous Peoples and the Remaking of Nature. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.

Jessop, Bob. 2002. The Future of the Capitalist State. Cambridge, UK: Polity.

Kaimowitz, David. 2003. “From Rio to Johanesburg and Beyond: Forest Conservation and Rural Livelihoods in the Global South.” Paper presented at the XII World Forestry Congress, Quebec City, QC, September 21-28. http://www.fao.org/docrep/ARTICLE/WFC/XII/C15-E.HTM

Kohl, Benjamin. 2002. “Stabilizing Neo-liberalism in Bolivia: Popular Participation and Privatization.” Political Geography 21: 449-472.

Larner, Wendy. 2003. “Neo-liberalism?” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 21 (5): 509-512. http://www.envplan.com/epd/editorials/d2105ed.pdf.

Li, Tania. 2001. “Boundary Work. Community, Market and State Reconsidered.” In Communities and the Environment. Ethnicity, Gender, and the State in Community-Based Conservation, edited by Arun Agrawal and Clark Gibson, 157-179. New Jersey, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

____. 2007. The Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development and the Practice of Politics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

____. 2010. “Indigeneity, Capitalism and the Management of Dispossession.” Current Anthropology 51 (3): 385-414.

Liverman, Diana, and Silvina Vilas. 2006. “Neo-liberalism and the Environment in Latin America.” Annual Review of Environment and Resources 31: 327-363.

Matthews, Andrew. 2005. “Power/Knowledge, Power/Ignorance: Forest Fires and the State in Mexico.” Human Ecology 33 (6): 795-820.

McAfee, Kathleen. 1999. “Saving Nature to Sell it? Biodiversity and Green Developmentalism.” Environment and Planning D - Society and Space 17 (2): 133-154.

McAfee, Kathleen, and Elizabeth N. Shapiro. 2010. “Payment for Ecosystem Services in Mexico: Nature, Neo-liberalism, Social Movements and the State.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 100 (3): 1-21.

Merino Pérez, Leticia et al. 2004. El programa de pago por servicios ambientales hidrológicos: Revisión crítica y propuestas de modificación. Mexico City, MX: Consejo Civil Mexicano para la Silvicultura Sostenible A.C. http://www.ccmss.org.mx/documentacion/320-programa-pago-por-servicios-ambientales-hidrologicos-revision-critica-y-propuestas-de-modificacion/.

Mies, Maria. 1986. “Colonization and Housewifization.” In Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labour, by Maria Mies, 74-111. London, UK: Zed Books.

Neves, Katja, and Jim Igoe. 2012. “Uneven Development and Accumulation by Dispossession in Nature Conservation: Comparing Recent Trends in the Azores and Tanzania.” Journal of Economic and Social Geography 103 (2): 164-179.

Peck, Jamie. 2004. “Geography and Public Policy: Constructions of Neo-liberalism.” Progress in Human Geography 28 (3): 392-405.

Recondo, David. 2001. “Usos y costumbres, procesos electorales y autonomía indígena en Oaxaca.” In Costumbres, leyes y movimiento indio en Oaxaca y Chiapas, edited by Lourdes De León Pasquel. Mexico City, MX: CIESAS and Miguel Ángel Porrúa.

Robbins, Paul. 2006. “Carbon Colonies: From Local Use Value to Global Exchange in 21st Century Postcolonial Forestry.” In Colonial and Postcolonial Geographies of India, edited by Saraswati Raju, M. Satish Kumar, and Stuart Corbridge, 279-297. New Delhi, IN: Sage.

Scarritt, Arthur. 2015. Racial Spoils from Native Soils. How Neo-liberalism Steals Indigenous Lands from Highland Peru. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Schmidt, Gerald. 2010. “Protected Areas and Indigenous Territories: Three Case Studies and Some Conclusions.” Discussion Paper. Bonn, DE: Church Development Service (EED).

Sisson, Jeffrey. 2005. Indigenous Peoples and their Futures. London, UK: Reaktion Books.

UNORCA. 2007. “Infirme General sobre la Jornada Nacional en la Ciudad de México.” Press Release. http://www.unorca.org.mx/prensa/prensa-03.htm

Vacanti Brondo, Keri. 2013. Land Grab: Green Neoliberalism, Gender and Garifuna Resistance in Honduras. Arizona, AZ: University of Arizona Press.

Velásquez Cepeda, María Cristina. 1998. El nombramiento: Antropología jurídica de los usos y costumbres para la renovación de los ayuntamientos de Oaxaca. Oaxaca, MX: Instituto Estatal Electoral de Oaxaca.

Vigna, Ann. 2012. “Mexico Cannot See the Wood for the Trees.” Le Monde Diplomatic, January. http://mondediplo.com/2012/01/09mexico.

Walker, Andrew. 2004. “Seeing Farmers for the Trees: Community Forestry and the Arborealisation of Agriculture in Northern Thailand.” Asia Pacific Viewpoint 45 (3): 311-324.

Watts, Michael, and Richard Peet. 2004. “Liberating Political Ecology.” In Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development, and Social Movements, edited by Richard Peet and Michael Watts, 3-47. New York, NY: Routledge.

World Bank. 1990. World Development Report. Washington, DC: World Bank.

World Bank. 2008. Agriculture for Development. Washington, DC: World Bank.

Downloads

Published

2017-06-09