Forest Conservation Policies and the Neoliberal Land Reform in Mexico: A Cultural Ecology Approach to the Payments for Environmental Services in the Huasteca Potosina Region By Aida Ramos Viera Submitted to the graduate degree program in Geography and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. __________________________________ Chairperson, Peter Herlihy __________________________________ Jerome Dobson __________________________________ Stephen Egbert __________________________________ Jorge Soberón __________________________________ Kelly Kindscher Date Defended: June 4th 2015 The Dissertation Committee for Aida Ramos Viera certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Forest Conservation Policies and the Neoliberal Land Reform in Mexico: A Cultural Ecology Approach to the Payments for Environmental Services in the Huasteca Potosina Region ________________________________ Chairperson Peter Herlihy Date approved: July 27, 2015 ii Abstract This research analyzes the relationship between the environmental and social elements in Mexico’s Payment for Environmental Services (PES) program in the Huasteca Potosina region from 2003-2011. Both the regional and local scales are examined to understand patterns of deforestation and identify the factors influencing community forest conservation. The multi-scale approach to deforestation on social properties is based on GIS analyses of land tenure and forest change in 613 agrarian nucleos, or social properties, from 1980 to 2010. At the community scale, a sample of 43 agrarian nucleos in 12 municipios was selected to explore the potential correspondence between implementation of the PES program, the National Forest Comission (CONAFOR) prioritization scheme, deforested areas and extreme poverty. To assess the PES’ impact on raising social awareness about the environment and decreasing deforestation and to analyze the potential linkages between poverty, land tenure systems, and forest management a combined methodology including GIS analysis, participant observation, questionnaires and interviews with participants and stakeholders involved in the program at different levels were used. The research shows that poverty and the lack of certified property rights have not been the major triggers of deforestation as forest conservation policy-makers in the country have claimed. The analysis of forest coverage from 1980 to 2010 points to different factors leading to changes in deforestation rates. Although it is true that forest conversion into agricultural lands has been the leading cause of deforestation, it has been strongly promoted by government programs, especially during the first decade of study for valley forests (as opposed to mountain forests). In comparison, the last two decades showed a significant decrease in the deforestation rates, mainly because few remnants of forest remained in the valleys. The land reform of the 1990s altered deforestation rates differently according to which agrarian nucleos participated and how. From the 613 nucleos examined in the Huasteca Potosina region, the majority, 76 percent, certified their properties at the individual parcel level, 13 percent certified only the perimeter of their boundaries along with a few communal parcels like school plots, and the remainder either stayed uncertified or privatized some or all of their individual plots under dominio pleno (meaning full domain of the property). On the whole, forest coverage decreased by a little less than seven percent during the first decade of the certification process from 1990 to 2000; however, there were important variations depending on types of land iii tenure chosen. The nucleos with dominio pleno lost 24 percent of their forest, and nucleos that certified individual parcels saw a six percent decrease. Contrary to predictions, the uncertified nucleos and those that certified only the perimeter of their territories lost virtually no forest (two percent). Over the last decade deforestation rates have decreased, and nucleos that certified their perimeters, those that certified all individual parcels, and those remaining uncertified even saw increases in forest coverage by three percent, one percent, and less than one percent, respectively. Those with dominio pleno continued to experience deforestation by two percent. Still, when taking into consideration how land availability, population, and traditions have influenced deforestation before, during, and after the certification process, the results show that the certification program has had little impact in increasing or decreasing forest coverage over the decades. In regard to the Payments of Environmental Services (PES) program, intended to prevent deforestation on social properties, the economic impacts were low, as seen in the lack of land use diversification and forest under communal lands. A marked geographical variation can be seen, however, between the more successful northern mestizo area dominated by temperate forest, and the less successful southern indigenous areas dominated by shade-grown coffee in more tropical forests. Despite the different economic impacts, PES projects proved to be sustainable where community organization and land use traditions were stronger. iv Acknowledgments To my advisor Dr. Peter Herlihy, thank you for recruiting me to the field of geography and providing me with the intellectual tools, fieldwork experiences, and support that were crucial for the development of this dissertation. To my master’s advisor Dr. Miguel Aguilar Robledo at the Coordinación de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, thank you for introducing me to the study of the Huasteca Potosina and establishing my formation as a geographer. To Dr. Jerome Dobson and the Bowman expeditions of the American Geographical Society that allowed me to come to KU and to all the members of the Mexico Indigena Project, thank you. I reserve special thanks to Dr. Derek Smith from whom I learned much during fieldwork, archival research and labwork and who also inspired me to pursue this research. Thanks to my colleagues and friends Dr. John Kelly, Dr. Andy Hilburn, and Taylor Tappan for making my experience as a doctoral student at the University of Kansas a special one and for becoming my family in Lawrence. Thanks especially to John and Sangeetha Kelly for your constant personal support, without which I am uncertain whether I would have arrived at this point. I am also indebted to my environmental studies professors at CUCBA, Universidad de Guadalajara, particularly to Hector Frías Ureña and Dr. Arturo Curiel Ballesteros, who drew me to the management of natural resources and GIS as methods of analysis. Very special thanks to my beloved friend and colleague in biology, Carolina Orta Salazar, and the technicians in Payment for Environmental Services program (PES), Alfonso Robledo and forestry engineer Miguel Cruz, who supported immensely in my research by serving as key contacts for the participating communities, inviting me on their rural inspections, shared their opinions, and made me realize the arduous and important work that technicians do in assisting communities. Many thanks to Juan Felipe Cisneros of the Comision Nacional para el Desarrollo de Pueblos Indigenas (CDI) in San Luis Potosí and to Don Fidel for sharing your time and knowledge about indigenous communal governance throughout the region. Thank you Don Abel, delegate of the departamento de ecologia in El Naranjo, for your generous support in putting me in contact with communities and your invaluable opinons about the management of the PES program. Thanks to engineer Dario Saldaña for lending me your house during my fieldwork, and to doña Aurelia for your delicious stews and warm company during my stay in Naranjo. I also v want to thank my friend Gerardo Lopez Roque for helping me with data collection from abroad and on the field, your help has been invaluable. I reserve profound thanks to all the communities and ejidos that participated in this study, especially the ejido of Cristiano for your time and organization invested in supporting me. I dedicate this work to you in hopes that it will have a positive impact in the implementation of and management of the PES at the communal as much as in its regional administration. To my family, thank you for your unconditional support and encouragement throughout this process, especially to my sister Araceli, who accompanied me and cheered me up with her various visits during the fieldwork. And most of all to my husband, Dr. Brent E. Metz, for being there at all stages of the investigation, joining me for one fieldwork stint with our dogs in Xilitla, and providing advice, patience, and above all countless hours in editing this document. I also want to thank National Council of Science and Technology CONACYT in Mexico, for providing me with a scholarship, and to the Center of Latin American Studies for giving me several Tinker grants, their financial support has been crucial during my formation. vi Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................