Implementation challenges of climate change adaptation initiatives in coastal lagoon communities in the Gulf of Mexico

Abstract

This paper explores some key challenges the Mexican government may face when implementing climate change adaptation initiatives in coastal lagoon communities in the Mexican state of Tabasco, in the Gulf of Mexico. I discuss some challenges state initiatives of this type may encounter considering the existence of local contentious political issues among various actors – fishers and the state-owned oil industry – that are at the core of the emergence of coastal environmental changes in the study site. A close analysis of local political, economic and environmental processes in coastal lagoon communities illustrates the existence of contentious issues among powerful actors over territory and its resources. It is in the context of these local, on the ground, issues that I argue that climate change adaptation interventions become highly political. I also argue that climate change policy analysis must be done in light of past and failed state interventions in Tabasco that have had a negative impact on ecosystems and fishers’ livelihoods. My analysis of climate change adaptation initiatives and fishers’ views on their local environmental problems is based on political ecology approaches to environmental narratives and critical literature on climate change.