Abstract
Recent studies suggest that wild agave (Agavespp.) plants in Sonora, Mexico, are being over-harvested by mescal makers on communal lands. Using the conceptual framework of regional political ecology (Blaikie and Brookfield, 1987), I discuss the ecological processes of agave depletion, and investigate the social, economic, and political contexts in which unsustainable harvest practices arise. Whereas all the mescal makers have knowledge of sustainable harvest methods, population growth, expansion of agriculture onto ecologically marginal lands, and increasing dependence on wild harvested products from communal lands created the socioeconomic context for increased demand for mescal income. The ideology of household autonomy, and the belief that the village has no right to internally regulate use of the commons, created the political context for rapid, unsustainable harvesting—a tragedy of the commons. However, recent cultural changes have caused a reversal of this trend, and some wild agave populations may be recovering.
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Burwell, T. Bootlegging on a desert mountain: The political ecology of Agave (Agave spp.) demographic change in the Sonora river valley, Sonora, Mexico. Hum Ecol 23, 407–432 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01190139
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01190139