Abstract
The results of an analysis of the viewpoints of Celestún community members regarding the Ría Celestún Biosphere Reserve, Mexico, are used as the basis for recommendation to improve the community/natural protected area (NPA) relationship. Participant observation was used to record the opinions of 80 people (8–83 years of age) between April and August 2002. Twenty semistructured interviews were held with local young people randomly selected from the participant observation group and their fathers; one interview was held with a municipal officer. Results indicate that the informants perceived a lack of communication between community members and the Reserve concerning its objectives and action areas, minimal community participation in Reserve regulation development, an absence of alternative productive activities and unjustified restriction of natural resources. These perceived conditions can potentially generate conflict between the community and the Reserve administration, preventing fulfillment of the Reserve’s environmental protection mission and negatively affecting community welfare. It is suggested that communication between the Reserve and the community be mutual and free-flowing, that Reserve objectives be identified in conjunction with the community, that community members be included in Reserve activities and administration, that interdisciplinary teams be formed to encourage communication and participation and that alternative productive activities be developed. Particular emphasis is placed on the need to listen to and address the concerns of young people because they will define the community/Reserve relationship in the near future.
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Notes
There are, of course, many cases in the literature in which indigenous societies were unable to attain long-term, sustainable natural resource management, that is, over hundreds or thousands of years. Cf. Diamond 2005.
From the mid-19th century to the 1920s (about 70 years) monoculture of henequen (Agave fourcroydes Lem.) formed the foundation of an agroindustry that made Yucatan the richest state in Mexico at the time. After the Second World War the henequen market steadily declined due to the rise of synthetic fibers, and the industry in Yucatan was further undercut by national and state-level politics and economic processes. It effectively collapsed in the 1990s, forcing a massive internal displacement of peasants towards the coasts of Yucatan and the tourist center of Cancun on the Caribbean coast.
This group of people is not a statistically representative sample of the population of Celestún, but the group of individuals whom we observed according to the objectives of the wider research from which this paper derives.
Lancheros is the local term for guides that take tourists on tours of the lagoon in fiberglass boats (lanchas) with outboard motors. They are also called turisteros.
As mentioned, this study derives from research on the attitudes of Celestun’s young people towards natural resources (Méndez-Contreras 2004), part of which was to determine how local people conceptualize “natural resources”.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the participating community members, the Cohuo family for housing one of the authors (JMC), Pronatura Península de Yucatán, A. C., for its support during the field work, and the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología for granting JMC a scholarship to study her Human Ecology M.Sc. The map included in the paper was prepared in the Laboratory of Cartographic Analysis of the Department of Human Ecology, Cinvestav-Merida. The criticisms and suggestions of five anonymous reviewers helped to greatly improve this manuscript.
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Méndez-Contreras, J., Dickinson, F. & Castillo-Burguete, T. Community Member Viewpoints on the Ría Celestún Biosphere Reserve, Yucatan, Mexico: Suggestions for Improving the Community/Natural Protected Area Relationship. Hum Ecol 36, 111–123 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-007-9135-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-007-9135-4