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Addressing vulnerabilities in small‐scale fisheries (SSF) has been gaining increasing attention due to their role in securing livelihoods of millions of people in the world, even though when they are subject to susceptible scenarios. We reviewed the literature with the aim of shedding light on the distribution, coping strategies, and common drivers of vulnerabilities in worldwide SSF. Seventy‐eight studied cases worldwide, 21 drivers of vulnerability, and 8 coping strategies were identified. Natural and human‐induced declining fish catches was the most common driver of vulnerability and disobedience of fishing rules the most common coping strategy. From the three dimensions of vulnerability, exposure (presence of vulnerable scenarios) was the highest (50%), followed by sensitivity (susceptibility to vulnerable scenarios) (29%) and adaptive capacity (ability to cope with vulnerable scenarios) (21%). The literature review highlights the need for adopting a context‐specific threefold (resource management and conservation, livelihoods development, and restructured governance) approach to SSF management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protected areas (PA) are effective means for protecting biodiversity, but less is known about their effect on the social-ecological system (SES). Using a semi-experimental approach and a descriptive case study based evaluation, we analyzed the effect of a PA in the Yucatan Peninsula on land-cover and household resource management strategies in time and space (before and after the PA establishment; inside and outside its limits). To assess the changes of land-use practices in the areas surrounding the communities inside and outside the PA, and their change over time (from 2003 to 2015), we used remote sensing analysis and semi-structured interviews. Our results show that after the PA was established, the forest increased and agricultural plots decreased inside and to a lesser extent outside the PA. However, fires reduced the area of old-growth forest and increased young secondary forest, highlighting the system's vulnerability to uncommon events. Resource management strategies were also affected: while inside the PA households tended toward specializing on tourism, outside the PA household strategies implied a diversification of productive activities. Overall, the establishment of the PA proved to be an effective tool to promote forest recovery and prevent deforestation in the regions surrounding the communities both inside and outside the PA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An unprecedented magnitude of land-use/land-cover changes have led to a rapid conversion of tropical forested landscapes to different land-uses. This comparative study evaluates and reconstructs the recent history (1976–2019) of land-use change and the associated land-use types that have emerged over time in two neighboring rural villages in Southern Mexico. Qualitative ethnographic and oral histories research and quantitative land-use change analysis using remote sensing were used. Findings indicate that several interacting historical social-ecological drivers (e.g., colonization program, soil quality, land conflicts with indigenous people, land-tenure, availability of surrounding land where to expand, Guatemala’s civil war, several agricultural development and conservation programs, regional wildfire, Zapatista uprising, and highway construction) have influenced each village’s own unique land-use change history and landscape composition: the smaller village is characterized by a dominating pasture landscape with some scattered agricultural and forest areas, while the larger village has large conserved forest areas intermixed with pastures, agriculture, oil palm and rubber plantations. The differential histories of each village have also had livelihood diversification implications. It is suggested that landscape history research in tropical agroforest frontiers is necessary because it can inform land-use policies and forest conservation strategies that are compatible with local livelihoods and conservation goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, we have witnessed a rapid increase in world aquaculture production, the so-called 'blue revolution'. So as to provide a holistic overview of the socio-ecological threats coupled with this increase, a literature review has been conducted. The following seven major socio-ecological impacts were identified: (i) the damage and destruction of natural environments, (ii) discharges; (iii) a risk to wild fish and shellfish populations, (iv) spatial conflicts, (v) threats to food security, (vi) unfairness in the access to commons; and (vii) the unequal distribution of benefits. So as to move forward from 'blue revolution' to a 'blue evolution' and attain sustainable aquaculture, the following tools have been identified as instrumental for the transition process: technical, management, governance and legal aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Summary: In any conservation programme, a variety of actors participate and interact in its different phases. They commonly have different perspectives and priorities regarding conservation, and diversity in the ensuing perspectives constitutes a barrier to effective conservation. In this paper, we analyse the different perspectives around the Programa de Conservación de Maíz Criollo (Programme for the Conservation of Native Maize in Mexico; PROMAC) in order to understand the possible causes that resulted in the programme not fulfilling its objectives. We used Q methodology and semi-structured interviews with farmers from a natural protected area to analyse the perspectives of the key actors who conceptualized, designed and implemented the programme and of the target population. Our research identified two different perspectives: (1) native maize can only be conserved with the support of community processes; and (2) the government, and not farmers, is responsible for the conservation of native maize. For farmers, native maize is key to their subsistence livelihoods, and they participated in the programme because of government monetary incentives. These differences contributed to dissimilar interpretations throughout the programme's implementation phase, which, in turn, likely contributed to PROMAC failing to meet its objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of resource management strategies is considered to be relevant to the conservation and sustainable use of ecosystems. In Mexico, ejidos are the most important of the land tenure institutions that grant access to resources inside communities. Although it is recognized that an ejido's internal structure creates different social groups, few studies have explored their resource management strategies. The aim of this study was to characterize natural resource management strategies in two ejidos in a highly biodiverse region on the southern coast of Jalisco, Mexico. We sought to identify differences in strategies and the variables that explain these differences. We took the household as the unit of analysis, and conducted 55 structured interviews that tackled different aspects of households' productive activities and natural resource management. We used cluster and ordination analyses to generate a typology of natural resources management strategies, and linear models to identify the variables that differed among groups. The results show that four different natural resources management strategies were strongly associated with differences in land tenure and the type of ecosystem that a household manages. This information can help us to enhance and diversify strategies for sustaining both ecosystems and community livelihoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: To manage widespread conservation conflicts, building a shared understanding among the parties involved has been considered key. However, there is little empirical evidence of the role this understanding might play in the context of imposed biosphere reserves. Using semi-structured and in-depth interviews in two communities within the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, we explored whether or not there is a shared understanding of conflicts between local people and reserve managers, and we analysed its contribution to conflict management. We found that a shared understanding is not a determining factor when the conflict solution demands actions that exceed stakeholders' functions. While a shared understanding helps with the global process of conflict management, there are other challenges: local impairment resulting from the exclusionary creation and the operation of protected areas and the need for action to solve a conflict that exceeds the functions of stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Community nurseries within natural protected areas (NPAs) represent an attractive option to link biodiversity conservation with socioeconomic development, yet their functioning lacks proper assessment. Here, we analyse the national context of community nurseries in Mexican NPAs and suggest a specific framework to evaluate their viability. First, we examine the impact of a major governmental funding programme on these projects. Next, we conduct a case study in a focal nursery to identify challenges faced by its operation. Despite the large number of community nurseries funded by the programme, current performance indicators are not suitable to assess their viability. In turn, the case study reveals this nursery's partial success, with a clear contribution to social development but a limited impact on economic improvement and vegetation conservation. Regardless of the characteristics of individual community nurseries, we suggest a framework that is potentially useful for evaluating community nursery viability, which enables agencies to detect problems, find solutions and use resources efficiently, while balancing biodiversity conservation and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies attempting to explain the factors that determine local participation in conservation initiatives have concluded that socio-political exclusion is the main barrier to being involved in such initiatives. Such studies have not differentiated between different types of conservation initiatives. In this paper, we contribute to the literature analyzing the socio-cultural correlates of participation, by differentiating between participation in three types of conservation schemes: protected areas, payment for environmental services, and community conservation. We use data obtained from six rural communities in Mexico, where different combinations of conservation schemes are found. Through linear regression analysis, we explore the relationship between participation and (1) the community of residence; (2) demographics; and (3) socioeconomic characteristics of individuals. Our results suggest that local participation in conservation strategies depends, to a large extent, on the socio-political context in which they are embedded and that the exclusion of women and young adults is clearly consistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gravity of hurricane effects on forests, livelihoods, and infrastructure is the product of social-political dynamics, land-use practices and decisions, and biophysical and meteorological factors that interact to make some societies more vulnerable than others to experiencing a hurricane event as a disaster. In this article, we discuss how three syndromes of vulnerability (elimination of natural vegetation cover, deficient land and ecological planning, and economic specialization) interact to determine the ecological and social vulnerability of nine rural communities located in the south coast of Jalisco, Mexico, after the passage of hurricane Jova in October 2011. Based on interviews with 80 families from these communities and visual interpretations of satellite imagery before and after the hurricane, we show how position in the landscape, economic specialization, land use practices, and non-fulfillment of the legal framework for protecting forests in risky areas combine to determine vulnerability of families and vegetation to the effects of hurricane. As disasters are the result of a complex combination of natural menaces and accumulated human actions that increase vulnerability, decreasing impacts of future hurricanes in the area will depend on a landscape planning, willingness to cooperate towards common objectives, change in land use practices, and a more proactive political interrelationship of local, state and federal government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Interactions between societies and nature are regulated by complex systems of beliefs, symbolism, customs, and worldviews (kosmos), ecological knowledge (corpus), and management strategies and practices (praxis), which are constructed as product of experiences and communication of people throughout time. These aspects influence social relations, life strategies, and cultural identity, and all of them in turn influence and are influenced by local and regional patterns of interchange. In this study, we analyze the interchange of wild and weedy plants and mushrooms in traditional markets of the Phurépecha region of Mexico. Particularly, the social relations constructed around the interchange of these products; how knowledge, cultural values, and ecological factors influence and are influenced by interchange; and how all these factors influence the type and intensity of biotic resources management. Methods: We studied three main traditional markets of the Phurépecha region of Michoacán, Mexico, through 140 visits to markets and 60 semi-structured interviews to sellers of wild and weedy plants and mushrooms. In nearly 2 years, we carried out 80 visits and 30 interviews in the "Barter Market", 20 visits and 15 interviews in the "Phurépecha Tiánguis", and 40 visits and 15 interviews to the "Municipal Market". We documented information about the spaces of interchange that form the markets, the types of interchange occurring there, the cultural and economic values of the resources studied, the environmental units that are sources of such resources, the activities associated to resources harvesting and, particularly, the management techniques practiced to ensure or increase their availability. We analyzed the relations between the amounts of products interchanged, considered as pressures on the resources; the perception of their abundance or scarcity, considered as the magnitude of risk in relation to the pressures referred to; and the management types as response to pressures and risk. Results: We recorded 38 species of wild and weedy plants and 15 mushroom species interchanged in the markets. We characterized the spaces of interchange, the interchange types, and social relations among numerous Phurépecha communities which maintain the main features of pre-Columbian markets. The products analyzed are differentially valued according to their role in people's life, particularly food, medicine, rituals, and ornamental purposes. The highest cultural values were identified in multi-purpose plant and mushroom resources and, outstandingly, in ornamental and ritual plants. In markets, women are the main actors and connectors of the regional households' activities of use and management of local resources and ecosystems. The interrelationships between worldviews, knowledge, and practices are visible through the interchange of the products analyzed, including the types of environments comprised in communitarian territories, agricultural calendars, and feasts. Those plants and mushrooms are highly valued but relatively scarce according to the demand on them receiving special attention and management practices directed to ensure or increase their availability. With the exception of most mushrooms and ornamental and ritual plants, which have high economic and cultural values, there are those that are relatively scarce and under high risk, but are obtained through simple gathering from the wild. Conclusions: Traditional markets are crucial part of the subsistence strategy of Phurépecha people based on the multiple use of resources and ecosystems at the local and regional levels. The markets influence social relations, cultural identity, and preservation of traditional knowledge and biodiversity. In general, the demand of products in markets enhances innovation and practices for ensuring or increasing their availability, particularly those that are naturally scarce. However, it was notorious that, althoug mushrooms and ritual plants have high demand and value in markets, most of them are obtained by simple gathering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Identifying factors influencing plant management allows understanding how processes of domestication operate. Uncertain availability of resources is a main motivation for managing edible plants, but little is known about management motives of non-edible resources like medicinal and ceremonial plants. We hypothesized that uncertain availability of resources would be a general factor motivating their management, but other motives could operate simultaneously. Uncertainty and risk might be less important motives in medicinal than in edible plants, while for ceremonial plants, symbolic and spiritual values would be more relevant. Methods: We inventoried edible, medicinal, and ceremonial plants in Ixcatlán, Oaxaca, Mexico, and conducted in-depth studies with 20 native and naturalized species per use type; we documented their cultural importance and abundance by interviewing 25 households and sampling vegetation in 33 sites. Consumption amounts and preferences were studied through surveys and free listings with 38 interviewees. Management intensity and risk indexes were calculated through PCA and their relation analyzed through regression analyses. Canonical methods allowed identifying the main sociocultural and ecological factors influencing management of plants per use type. Results: Nearly 64, 63, and 55% of all ceremonial, edible, and medicinal wild plants recorded, respectively, are managed in order to maintain or increase their availability, embellishing environments, and because of ethical reasons and curiosity. Management intensity was higher in edible plants under human selection and associated with risk. Management of ceremonial and medicinal plants was not associated with indexes of risk or uncertainty in their availability. Other sociocultural and ecological factors influence management intensity, the most important being reciprocal relations and abundance perception. Conclusions: Plant management through practices and collectively regulated strategies is strongly related to control of risk and uncertainty in edible plants, compared with medicinal and ceremonial plants, in which reciprocal interchanges, curiosity, and spiritual values are more important factors. Understanding how needs, worries, social relations, and ethical values influence management decisions is important to understand processes of constructing management strategies and how domestication could be started in the past and are operated at the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local people's involvement in the management of conservation initiatives is central to ongoing debates on the relative merits of distinct biodiversity conservation models. Since different governance models provide distinct opportunities for local people to participate in the management of protected areas, their knowledge of these governance models and motivation to collaborate will vary. This paper analyses cognisance and participation in (1) government-imposed biosphere reserves and (2) community conservation areas, in which ecotourism projects take place. Qualitative and quantitative data (n = 205) were gathered in two indigenous communities in Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Whereas local cognisance of community-driven conservation initiatives is not always greater than cognisance of government-imposed Biosphere Reserves, local participation is always greater. Cognisance of and participation in conservation initiatives depend on the management approach, extent of external resource support, and a community's social organization. Gender and land holding status influence access to information about conservation initiatives, since men with land rights had more access than other people. More participatory mechanisms for decision-making and direct communication strategies between managers and local people are required to improve communities’ involvement in conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The conservation of biodiversity in protected areas depends on the interests and agendas of stakeholders involved in the planning and enforcing of management actions. The challenge, therefore, has been to identify and include the perspectives of multiple participants important to local conservation. This paper describes the social context in which local conservation is conducted in a natural protected area in Yucatan, Mexico. In particular, it examines the agreement and expectations among local stakeholders on the main goals the reserve should achieve. Through participatory observation and semi-structured interviews, we analyzed the perceptions on conservation of the five groups relevant to the area management: 1) local people; 2) conservation government agency; 3) scientists; 4) non-governmental organization, and 5) a tourist agency. All actors agreed that the protected area should fulfill two main goals: i) to conserve biodiversity and, ii) to improve local welfare and development. In general, ecotourism is perceived as the best option for protecting the forest and promoting local development. Traditional agriculture, on the other hand, is perceived as the main conservation threat, but recognized as a crucial component of local wellbeing. We discuss these results in the context of the Yucatan Peninsula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractLand use change (LUC) alters habitat quality and the provision of ecosystem services that affect economic activities, such as beekeeping. For beekeeping, landscapes reveal individual decisions that determine its productive potential, thus, landscapes can be considered a common pool resource. To understand how land use preferences shape scenarios that suggest the aggregated effects of decisions on beekeeping in agricultural landscapes, a participatory valuation and an economic choice game were conducted in field workshops in Veracruz, México. We found that, although participants valued land use benefits differently, they integrated common benefits to create scenarios that sustained beekeeping, but these decisions were sensitive to external factors that disincentivize collective action. In addition, characteristics positively associated with collective action at the individual and group levels differ, suggesting emerging group identities. Exercises like these allow the exploration of CPR in complex scenarios such as landscapes, to understand the dynamics of individual and group preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional agroforestry systems (TAFS), which integrate crops with wildlife, are important reservoirs of human culture and technical experiences with a high capacity for biodiversity conservation. Our study aimed to evaluate the capacity of TAFS to conserve the floristic diversity of tropical dry forests (TDF) in the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley, Mexico. We compared TAFS and TDF by measuring their forest cover, floristic composition, and structure, in addition to documenting the motivations of people to maintain native vegetation in their agricultural fields. We conducted a restricted randomized sampling of perennial plant species, including nine sites of TAFS and nine of TDF to determine the alpha, beta, and gamma diversity. Furthermore, we conducted semi-structured interviews with peasants who managed the agricultural plots we studied. We also performed workshops with people of the communities where surveys were performed. Our findings show that TAFS can maintain, on average, 68% of the species (95% of them native to the region) and 53% of the abundance of individuals occurring in the adjacent TDF. TAFS harbour 30% (39 species) of plants endemic to Mexico. Total species richness of TDF and TAFS were similar, as well as the effective number of species or communities estimated for the alpha, beta, and gamma diversity, but differed in the abundance of individuals. The high species turnover recorded in TDF (72%) and TAFS (74%) has profound implications for conservation, suggesting that it would be necessary to maintain several sites in order to conserve the regional diversity of native vegetation. Material, non-material, and regulatory contributions were reported to be the reason that peasants take into account maintaining natural vegetation. TAFS associated with TDF in the region (also called "Apancles") contain an important richness, diversity, and endemism of components of natural ecosystems, as well as provide multiple socio-ecological contributions. These systems could represent a viable alternative to reconcile biological conservation with social well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1940s, the Costalegre, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, has been recognized as having a high potential for tourism. The aim of this paper is to understand tourism governance in a place where past and emergent luxury tourism co-exists with small-scale tourism in a largely rural and ecologically important landscape. We conducted in-depth interviews with 29 different stakeholders and administered a questionnaire survey to 27 tourist establishment owners and employees. We also held a workshop with 11 families from three rural communities and administered another questionnaire to a further 125 people from the same localities. Policy document analysis and participant observation completed the research. We found there to be strong discrepancies between the federal government's legal framework for tourism development and local views and attributes for action. Owners and new investors in luxury tourism developments are well organized and have the economic and political power to obtain authorization for their projects, even in cases where the projects have received negative assessments from environmental scientists. We discuss how an ineffective local governance mode enables the wealthy part of the private sector to prevail, jeopardizing the construction of a regional strategy that is socially just and takes into account the needs of local residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Values play an important role in farmers' land management decisions, becoming increasingly relevant when designing environmental policy. One key element that influences farming decisions is the land tenure under which farmers and their land are embedded, which represents different sets of rights for farmers. Therefore, the aim of this study was to elicit farmers' values regarding the social and ecological attributes of the landscape, and determine how these values vary according to differences in land rights. We performed this exercise in the two most important land tenure systems in rural Mexico. We carried out a choice experiment to understand preferences for different landscape attributes such as vegetation cover, surface water, terrain slope, and type of property. Then, we probed how these preferences change according to the land rights that farmers hold. We found that surface water was consistently the most important landscape attribute. However, there were clear differences that were related to land rights for some values, such as for example, vegetation cover. Institutional mechanisms such as boundary rules and conflicting values are part of the explanation of these differences. These results provide a bridge to understanding farmers' management decisions, and in the future, improving sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflicts are an inherent element in the establishment and management of protected areas. Even though there is ample literature about conflicts in protected areas and the field of conservation has investigated them for decades, no consensus exists about the object itself of analysis: the conflict. In this article, we describe three different approaches for understanding socio-environmental conflicts, and we illustrate them with cases from protected areas in Mexico. The principal objective of the article is to advance discussions about the importance of understanding the implications of the use of different approaches on socio-environmental conflicts, in the interest of providing elements to take better decisions about the management of the protected areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]