Participación social y desarrollo rural sustentable en microcuenca Lagunillas, Jalisco, México.

In 1997, in Lagunillas, a municipality of Atemajac de Brizuela, south of Jalisco, Mexico, a Sustainable Rural Development project was put into effect via the program Manejo Integral de Microcuencas (Comprehensive Management of Micro-Basins) under the coordination of the Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del Agua (IMTA). This intervention was based on two premises: 1) institutional attendance and the participation of the local population in the proper management of natural resources, and 2) the development of alternative means to increase production and improve the quality of life but sustaining the basin's functioning as an ecosystemic unity. The following paper presents parts of the results compiled in the authors' PhD theses worked out from February 2004 to January 2007, where they analyze the experience of Lagunillas in order to document the sustainable rural development practices therein implemented, particularly those aspects which have to do with the participative processes of the local inhabitants, the lessons learned, and the pending challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]