84 years of Mexico´s land use planning: reflections for biodiversity conservation

Abstract

The present work objective is to understad the changes in the planning and administration of land uses in Mexico and to explore its possible relationship with the current environmental crisis, this is carried out within the context of the complex relations between society and environment and politics. The work hypothesis assumes that Mexico, like other Latin American countries, has based its planning of land uses on the recommendations of international organizations for the benefit of society as a whole and this has eroded their natural capital. It presents in general the panorama of the biodiversity at world-wide level and the antecedents in the investigation of the factors influecing the changes of land use of the soil in Latin America. The results describe the complex of changes in the administration of land use and the state of natural resources in the period analyzed. Finally, we discuss international contexts and the role of social actors in landscape transformation in Mexico. Our approach to the analysies will provide feedback of the successes and errors in the design of Mexican public policies in land use, hopefully providing a gateway to opening-up a more honest debate on the subject.