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Local understandings of conservation in southeastern Mexico and their implications for community-based conservation as an alternative paradigm

  • Diana Pritchard
    ,
  • Victoria Reyes-Garcia
    ,
  • Isabel Ruiz-Mallen
    ,
  • Luciana Porter-Bolland
    ,
  • Eduardo Garcia-Frapolli
    ,
  • Edward A. Ellis
  • Autonomous University of Barcelona
    ,
  • ICREA
    ,
  • Instituto de Ecologia, A.C.
    ,
  • Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
    ,
  • Universidad Veracruzana
Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Sustainable Development Goals

  • SDG 15 - Life on Land
    SDG 15 Life on Land

Abstract

Since the 1990s national and international programs have aimed to legitimize local conservation initiatives that might provide an alternative to the formal systems of state-managed or otherwise externally driven protected areas. We used discourse analysis (130 semistructured interviews with key informants) and descriptive statistics (679 surveys) to compare local perceptions of and experiences with state-driven versus community-driven conservation initiatives. We conducted our research in 6 communities in southeastern Mexico. Formalization of local conservation initiatives did not seem to be based on local knowledge and practices. Although interviewees thought community-based initiatives generated less conflict than statemanaged conservation initiatives, the community-based initiatives conformed to the biodiversity conservation paradigm that emphasizes restricted use of and access to resources. This restrictive approach to community-based conservation in Mexico, promoted through state and international conservation organizations, increased the area of protected land and had local support but was not built on locally relevant and multifunctional landscapes, a model that community-based conservation is assumed to advance.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 856-865

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Conservation Biology (Volume 27, Issue 4)

Publication milestones

  • Published - 01/08/2013

Publication status

Published - 01/08/2013

ISSN

0888-8892

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/593522
  • Scopus: 84880699445

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