Zapotec Community Actions Building Healthy Watersheds and Sustainable Livelihoods in Oaxaca, Mexico
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ZAPOTEC COMMUNITY ACTIONS BUILDING HEALTHY WATERSHEDS AND SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS IN OAXACA, MEXICO By Marco Raul Hernandez Castañeda A Thesis Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree MASTER OF SCIENCE IN NATURAL RESOURCES College of Natural Resources UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN Stevens Point, Wisconsin December 2008 Approved by the Graduate Committee of ________________________________________ Dr. Victor D. Phillips, Committee Chair Director of Global Environmental Management Education Center Professor of Forestry ________________________________________ Dr. Mai M. Phillips GEM Senior Scientist ________________________________________ Dr. Wes Halverson GEM Watershed Program Manager Emeritus ii ABSTRACT Watershed management in poor countries has been a top-bottom process. It is usually imposed without input from either local inhabitants or interest groups. By contrast, the Global Environmental Management Education Center’s (GEM) Local Capacity Building for Healthy Watersheds Model is a community-based, citizen-empowering, participatory approach. Under a GEM grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) via its Training, Internships, Exchanges and Scholarships (TIES) program, this GEM model was used to help indigenous Zapotec communities in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, Mexico build capacity in water monitoring and microenterprise development for sustainable livelihoods and healthy watersheds. This work featured two sections: Phase I Assessment and Phase II Implementation. The assessment of priority community needs and training to establish water quality and quantity monitoring for characterizing the upper reaches of the Rio Grande watershed was completed in Phase I activities during 2005-2007. Training workshops to plan and implement solutions to community priority needs were conducted in 2007-2008 by the GEM Phase II team. The purpose of this thesis research is to describe the implementation activities of this GEM TIES project and to evaluate the adoption of the GEM capacity building model in participating communities. Training of trainers and citizens through a participatory process as well as small microenterprise pilot projects are featured. Records of training workshop participation and post-workshop survey of participants are used as indicators of adoption of the GEM model and evaluating corresponding success. iii It is expected that communities will initiate new regional watershed management plans that will incorporate the principle of inclusion of local stakeholders in decision- making and action. In addition to conducting Phase II training workshops for 856 participants, the GEM TIES project Phase II team produced seven “How to” manuals and five business plans for grant applications by Zapotec entrepreneurs and cooperatives. The GEM model represents a process that was embraced and launched successfully in the region. While much work remains to complete all components of the model in an adaptive approach through future efforts by the watershed inhabitants, local capacity and a local network were developed to start the planning process. By empowering local citizens in sound and appropriate microenterprise ventures that represent economic opportunity using natural resources in a sustainable and culturally acceptable way, the applied research and training conducted through this Masters degree study responded to local priorities identified by the Zapotec communities. Over the long term, the capacity building achieved holds promise for healthy watersheds and sustainable livelihoods in the Sierra Norte. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to express my gratitude to the institutions that have made possible this thesis and Masters Degree, specifically the Global Environmental Management Education Center (GEM) at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point (UWSP) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Training Internship Exchange and Scholarship (TIES) program. The GEM Healthy Watersheds and Sustainable Livelihoods in Oaxaca grant supported by USAID/TIES provided the necessary resources for this research. Both institutions have opened their doors to me and made my time in Wisconsin as pleasant and enjoyable as possible. My gratitude goes as well to the people within those institutions: Victor Phillips, my thesis advisor and GEM director, for the constant support and encouragement that he provided during these two years of my personal and professional life; the other members of my thesis committee, Mai Phillips and Wes Halverson, whose valuable participation made this experience more enlightening; Rebecca Vagts, GEM business manager, who was an important part of my field work during the summer 2008; Ron Tschida, GEM communications coordinator, whose support with the edits of several documents closely related to this thesis was fundamental to completion of this work; the GEM TIES extension specialists Flor Hernandez, Eugenia Santiago, Guillermo Aquino, Julia Zarate, and Alejandro De la Torre who carried out the work in the field; and the GEM TIES project Phase 1 coordinator and fellow graduate from UWSP Clarisa Jimenez. Last but not least I wish to thank the people in the Sierra Norte, Oaxaca, Mexico. In a personal note I want to thank my friend, confidante, partner in crime, and landlady, Santha Bickford, for giving me a home away from home and a family aside from my own. It is not about the places that you go or the different views that you see, it is always about the people that share with you that part of the road. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 1 1.1. Justification and Background ................................................................................... 1 1.2. Research statement ................................................................................................... 8 1.3. Objectives ................................................................................................................ 8 Chapter 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................... 10 2.1. Location of study area ............................................................................................ 10 2.2. Target population ................................................................................................... 12 2.2.1. Zapotec cultural and political history ............................................................. 14 2.2.3. Demographic features of the Sierra Norte communities. ................................ 18 2.2.4. Economic features of the Sierra Norte communities ...................................... 21 2.3. Capacity building ................................................................................................... 23 2.3.1. Participatory GEM local capacity building model for healthy watersheds .... 23 2.3.2. Public participation ......................................................................................... 24 2.3.3. Microenterprise and business planning development for sustainable livelihoods ................................................................................................................. 25 Chapter 3. METHODS..................................................................................................... 27 3.1. Overview ................................................................................................................ 27 3.2. GEM local capacity building model ...................................................................... 27 3.3. Practical training workshops .................................................................................. 30 3.4. Business planning workshops ................................................................................ 33 Chapter 4. RESULTS....................................................................................................... 37 4.1. Capacity building ................................................................................................... 37 4.1.1. Training by content area ................................................................................. 40 4.1.2. Training by location ........................................................................................ 42 4.1.3. Demographics of the training participants ...................................................... 44 4.2. Business plans for potential microenterprises ........................................................ 45 4.2.1. Egg Production Microenterprise Development in San Juan Evangelista Analco, Oaxaca ......................................................................................................... 47 4.2.2. Trout Production Microenterprise Development in San Andrés Yatuni, Oaxaca ....................................................................................................................... 48 4.2.3. Community Based Microenterprise Development for Tomato, “Chili de agua” and Cucumber Production in Capulalpam, Oaxaca .................................................. 49 vi 4.2.4. Agricultural Cooperative for Watercress Microenterprise Development in La Neveria of the Sierra Norte, Oaxaca ......................................................................... 50 4.2.5. Community Restaurant for Enhanced Ecotourism in San Juan Evangelista Analco, Oaxaca ......................................................................................................... 50 4.2.6. Prospect