Stealing shining rivers : agrarian conflict, market logic, and conservation in a Mexican forest / Molly Doane.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Doane, Molly, 1966-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rain forest conservation--Political aspects--Mexico--Chimalapas Region.

Rain forest conservation.

Political ecology--Mexico--Chimalapas Region.

Political ecology.

Social conflict--Mexico--Chimalapas Region.

Social conflict.

Commons--Mexico--Chimalapas Region.

Commons.

Land tenure--Political aspects--Mexico--Chimalapas Region.

Land tenure.

Capitalism--Environmental aspects--Mexico--Chimalapas Region.

Capitalism.

Chimalapas Region (Mexico)--Environmental conditions.

Chimalapas Region (Mexico).

Chimalapas Region (Mexico)--Politics and government.

Chimalapas Region (Mexico)--Rural conditions.

Chimalapas Region (Mexico)--Economic conditions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (224 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Tucson : University of Arizona Press, c2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

What happens to indigenous people when their homelands are declared by well-intentioned outsiders to be precious environmental habitats? In this revelatory book, Molly Doane describes how a rain forest in Mexico's southern state of Oaxaca was appropriated and redefined by environmentalists who initially wanted to conserve its biodiversity. Her case study approach shows that good intentions are not always enough to produce results that benefit both a habitat and its many different types of inhabitants. Doane begins by showing how Chimalapas--translated as "shining rivers"--has been "produced" in various ways over time, from a worthless wasteland to a priceless asset. Focusing on a series of environmental projects that operated between 1990 and 2008, she reveals that environmentalists attempted to recast agrarian disputes--which actually stemmed from government-supported corporate incursions into community lands and from unequal land redistribution--as environmental problems. Doane focuses in particular on the attempt throughout the 1990s to establish a "Campesino Ecological Reserve" in Chimalapas. Supported by major grants from the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), this effort to foster and merge agrarian and environmental interests was ultimately unsuccessful because it was seen as politically threatening by the state. By 2000, the Mexican government had convinced the WWF to redirect its conservation monies to the state government and its agencies. The WWF eventually abandoned attempts to establish an "enclosure" nature reserve in the region or to gain community acceptance for conservation. Instead, working from a new market-based model of conservation, the WWF began paying cash to individuals for "environmental services" such as reforestation and environmental monitoring.

Contents:

Timeline of Important Events

Introduction: Practicing Political Ecology in Chimalapas

Section I. Time, Space, Politics

Shining Rivers : Chimalapas in Time and Space

Megaprojects in Mexico's South : Liberal Shadows in a Global Era

Section II. The Emergence of the Environment

Wild Places : The Production of Nature and the Environment

Imagining Chimalapas : Leadership, Legitimacy, and Representation

The Long-Distance Jaguar : Creating an Ecological Community in Chimalapas

Section III. The Politics of the Environment

Decentralized Authoritarianism : Political Control in Chimalapas

Please, No Politics : The Institutional Isolation of Maderas and the New Government Role

Conclusion: Decentralized Authoritarianism and Accumulation by Conservation in Chimalapas

Appendix A: List of Participants

Appendix B: Institutional Funding for Maderas del Pueblo between 1991 and 2000

Appendix C: Government Agencies in Chimalapas, 1995-2000

Appendix D: WWF Funding Lines, 1997-2000

Appendix E: Institutional Presence in Chimalapas, 2003-2008.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-196) and index.

ISBN:

1-299-19190-8

0-8165-9944-0

OCLC:

828490580