Conservation strategies :

What about indigenous populations ?

The case of Southern Mexico.

By Charlotte Colleu.

Introduction :

Sustainable development is an expression frequently used since it was consecrated in the 1982 Rio Hearth Conference. But what does it refers to exactly? It appears that sustainable strategies of development are still to be invented and implemented.

At the same time raises the question of the compatibility between sustainable development and conservation strategies. These two concepts should work together, but it is not really the case. As a matter of fact, they sometimes refer to two different conceptions of nature conservancy. We could say, to be short, that some activists are focussing on biological considerations while others are taking into account the human and social aspect of ecology (they tend to qualify themselves as socioecologists). Surely, the frontier between those two trends is not so clear and each group has valuable arguments.

A clear illustration of the debate is the place that indigenous populations are given in conservation plans. If the indigenous population were once presented as the natural protectors of environment, this essentialist assertion is largely questionable. But at the same time, we can’t reject the fact that if one takes a map of the regions of major biodiversity and then another one locating indigenous populations, they will largely coincide.

This is the case of Southern Mexico. The area is well known for its political instable situation, its extreme poverty, and its deficit in what concerns human, political and social rights. It also faces a great number of unresolved land tenure conflicts. Eventually, a development plan called the Plan Puebla Panama, which entails the construction of a large range of infrastructures, has been launched in 2001 by the president Vicente Fox. As a consequence of this situation, we could think that ecological issues are not the priority.

However, this region has been chosen to give an overlook of our problematic because it is an area of great biodiversity and because indigenous populations are more and more using ecological arguments in their struggles for rights and land. This will appear clearly with the case of the Chimalapas forest, in the state of Oaxaca, but it can also be relevant for states as Chiapas or Guerrero.

Then, what should be the place of indigenous population in conservation plans? Is their nature management a possible illustration of what could be sustainable development? Can they administrate themselves the area of great biodiversity where they live or should Protected Area be created?

The selected articles are quite militant and generally in favour of local populations participation. It can be seen as a bias but they were chosen because controversy permits to raise crucial questions. Moreover, they place the conservation issue in a wider social-political context.