Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

The main objective of this study was to analyze local perceptions of climate variability and the different adaptation strategies of four communities in the southern Yucatán Peninsula, using the Social-Ecological System (SES) approach. Four SESs were considered: two in the coastal zone and two in the tropical forest zone. Data were collected using different qualitative methodological tools (interviews, participant observation, and focal groups) and the information collected from each site was triangulated. In all four sites, changes in climate variability were perceived as “less rain and more heat”. In the tropical forest (or Maya) zone, an ancestral indigenous weather forecasting system, known as “Xook k’íin” (or “las cabañuelas”), was recorded and the main activity affected by climate variability was found to be slash-and burn farming or the milpa. In the coastal zone, the main activities affected are fishing and tourism. In all the cases analyzed, local climate change adaptation strategies include undertaking alternative work, and changing the calendar of daily, seasonal and annual labor and seasonal migration. The population of all four SESs displayed concern and uncertainty as regards dealing with these changes and possible changes in the future.

A water distribution system must maintain water quality throughout the entire network to guarantee public health. Although several studies have focused on changes in water quality along distribution systems, very few have evaluated the entire process from the water source to household containers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of bacteriological control and to determine the critical points of potential contamination along the distribution system in Cancún, Mexico. We addressed three aspects: 1) physicochemical and bacteriological analysis of water, 2) biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) and nitrate-nitrite associated with organic matter, and 3) trihalometanes (THMs) as chlorine by-products from the disinfection process. The results showed that the water supply met the required quality standards in most parts of the distribution system but that there are critical points that could increase the risk of recontamination, specifically the geological setting and the critical aspects in irregular urban development in the area of water extraction. Mexico and any other country that relies on groundwater as a drinking water source must review and reinforce the regulations to protect areas with extraction wells and encourage the maintenance of containers to ensure water quality.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the National Program for Protected Natural Areas in Mexico for the 2014-2018 period, which sets out the objectives, actions and goals for the management and conservation of these spaces. Accordingly, the study was restricted to the analysis of two specific objectives in the program: “Integrated landscape management” and “biodiversity conservation and management”, as well as the indicators proposed for this goal. It was found that the public policy instrument initially eliminated, modified and omitted several indicators, which are essential to be able to impartially measure these two objectives. By excluding them, the program effectively eliminated fundamental information that would explain the level of conservation of Natural Protected Areas. The main indicators omitted were those for calculating changes in plant cover, representativeness of ecosystems, risks caused by human activities and biodiversity loss.

This paper analyzes the energy security of households which have adopted alternative sources of energy (solar heaters) with emphasis on the gender and age relations established around energy use. Data were gathered in Zacatecas through a mixed methodology that relied on interviews, questionnaires, focal groups and result exchanges. Two analytical axes were used: the rural/urban contrast and gender intersectionality. Two hypotheses were formulated: 1) the greatest the availability and affordability of energetics is, the greatest household energy security will be; 2) the cultural meanings given to sexual difference define the social relationships established around energy provisioning and use. Both hypotheses are proven right. Rural households have greater energy security than urban ones because their members have access to a wider energy battery. Men have the responsibility to provide the household economically while women must transform energy into care for its members. It is concluded that the understanding of these dynamics is key to facilitate the transition towards a sustainable model of energy.

The aim of this paper was to analyze the social factors that promote species richness in family vegetable gardens in three rural localities in the State of Mexico. The livelihood  strategy theoretical approach was used to investigate the actions carried out by low-income people in these locations. The methodology consisted of the selection and characterization of the study area; a description of the families and family vegetable gardens; an analysis of the agroecosystem management, species richness  and its  use; and the exploration of social factors associated with species richness. The results reveal a large variety of plants, with 128 species registered in the three locations, used for various purposes. Values in the Simpson D index showed that species diversity in family gardens is low (> 0.9). The family distributes management practices, which involve local beliefs, customs, and traditions. Factors that encouraged species richness included  religion, occupation and the usage value of family vegetable gardens. The social factors identified promote agrobiodiversity, influencing the livelihood strategy of family vegetable gardens.

This paper analyzes the features, principles and functioning of the citizen participation mechanism implemented by the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) on the Mexico-U.S. border, contrasting it with other similar mechanisms for transboundary water management. Based on the perspectives of public participation, water governance and water security, this paper examines the case of the IBWC’s Citizens Forum, specifically the one set up to tackle Colorado River issues in the Mexicali and San Luis Río Colorado region. The author observes that participatory mechanisms existed even before NAFTA’s environmental side agreements, and the way they have the potential to transfer learning experiences in order to involve local communities in water projects. The study shows the existence of active citizen participation, supported by regulations in keeping with a governance strategy, whose main obstacle is paradoxically the organizations that should be promoting and guaranteeing it. Finally, the author suggests transferring positive experiences in order to improve participatory water management in the region.

The Anthropocene has involved the  transformation of the humanities,  giving rise  to a posthuman or environmental shift within them. This shift  was a result of the need to consider the non-human realities that constitute our environment at a time when anthropogenic climate change threatens to increase the vulnerabilities of  various minorities and subalternities. Accordingly, in this text, we are  writing about worlds in collision since the Anthropocene/Capitalocene and climate change emerge as forces threatening the survival of many cosmologies and perspectives, whose understanding of the world occurs through situated experiences that are not  necessarily intertranslatable into the language of science. Our aim is therefore to articulate an ecofeminist proposal within this environmental shift that uses a set of tools from  the feminist epistemology of testimonials to theorize about  the epistemic injustices created by this era. We attempt to outline an interpretive apparatus capable of  resisting the temptation to reduce the effects of this climate crisis to an objectified list of losses while overlooking the significance these  losses have for concrete experiential positions.

In Mexico, there are very few studies on solid waste (SW) production and management in rural communities located within Natural Protected Areas. The purpose of this research was to identify the relationships existing in the Los Angeles ejido, Villaflores —located in the La Sepultura Biosphere Reserve, Chiapas—regarding SW management within a framework of governance analysis. Twenty-three semi-structured interviews were applied to determine the actors involved and the actions they have implemented in the past eight years. The results showed of the thirteen actors involved, the community clinic is the local actor with the most consistent results for regulating SW management, through the participationof women beneficiaries of the Social Inclusion Program (PROSPERA). Among local actors, there are virtually no relations concering SW management. However, more links and cooperation for observing their objectives are observed among external actors.The author concludes that there is no SW governance but rather hierarchical relationships, in which its management reflects the policies and rules of both external and government actors.

The objective of this paper is to determine the capacity in Technology and Innovation (STI) in the state of Tabasco, which lags behind other Mexican states in this field. The analysis is set within the context of Climate Change which is a factor that obliges the state to face the negative effects of this phenomenon and redefine its development model in accordance with criteria of sustainability; STI is offered as a strategic tool to address these challenges. The methodology consists of an approximation to the socio-environmental impacts of the current development model and the status of STI capabilities in the state. Results show that in the context of Global Change, Tabasco has to redefine its development model, which is currently anchored in hydrocarbons, to one with sustainable criteria. Technology and innovation are offered as a cornerstone for that new model; hence the urgency to strengthen scientific, technological and innovation capacities. The article provides a scientific-technological dimension to the problem of Global Change, which is frequently omitted by political and academic actors in Tabasco, and suggests a base from which to build a new development model.