c l i mat e ch a n g e
Climate Change, Forest Privatization, in Quintana Roo, Mexico is suffering from increased periods of drought associated with climate change. The drought inflicts enormous pressure on the community’s resources—the forest, wildlife, traditional agriculture—and is causing greater dependency on government subsidies. It is also resulting in migration to the “Riviera Maya,” where Maya are forced to seek work in the tourism industry that is often temporary and without benefits. Faced with these difficulties, local leaders are questioning the prospects for future generations. As a people that have endured profound struggles, including invasion and war, the Maya tend to respond with an apocalyptic sentiment—one that has nothing to do with the 2012 doomsday prophecy nonsense perpetuated by the media—but much to do with a history of colonization and socioeconomic disenfran- chisement. A History of Conflict and Change
José E. Martínez-Reyes, Ph.D.
T
ensions are brewing in the Máasewal communities of central Quintana Roo (known as Zona Maya) between those who want to continue the current system of ejido and those succumbing to the pressure to sell their ejido rights. Ejido was established during the Mexican Revolution as a system of communal land tenure that bestowed land rights to peasants and Indigenous groups. Since 1994, individuals have been permitted to sell their land titles. Contributing to the community’s strain is the recently formed de facto partnership between one of Mexico’s wealthiest couples and the United Nations program, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). The program issues carbon credits that are intended to help mitigate the effects of climate change, but so far their primary effect has been increased privatization of land and disenfranchisement of local Maya (the program imposes various compliance restrictions that dictate what they can do with their land in order to receive the credits). Additionally, Zona Maya 8 • www. cs. org
Most inhabitants of the Zona Maya are descendants of the rebel Cruzo’ob Maya who fought against Yucatecan elites during the Caste War from 1847-1901. Known for being fierce warriors, they kept Mexican capitalist extraction companies at bay until the Mexican army arrived in 1901. After the Mexican army took control of the region, it began constructing schools and other public institutions in order to quell the Mayas’ resistance. This was followed by a chicle (chewing gum) industry boom that opened the area to extensive forest exploitation. In the 1930s President Cárdenas implemented agrarian reform, and ejidos continued to be organized through the 1950s despite the fact that the Máasewal already had communal access to land. In the 1970s, the Mexican government began to promote tourism as a tool for economic growth. Spearheaded by the creation of Cancún, today Quintana Roo is one of the fastest growing states in Mexico. The tourism industry profoundly transformed the coast between Cancún and Tulum by creating tourist spaces along virtually every beach and re-conceiving it as the “Riviera Maya” for promotional purposes. The tourism boom has had enormous repercussions on Máasewal communities as many have journeyed north to work, abandoning their milpas (cornfields) and prompting changes in the quality of their nutrition and their relationship with the environment. By 1986, the landscape had been significantly altered again—this time by biodiversity conservation efforts, in particular the creation of the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve. In principle, nature reserves are a positive response to the rapid decline of biodiversity caused by the global expansion of extractive capitalism. However, the implementation of these reserves has been problematic. Those with ejido lands surrounding the Biosphere were pressured by NGOs to participate in oft-ill conceived “alternative development projects” in the hopes of deterring them from their traditional agriculture