Outcomes of Conservation Alliances with Women's Community-Based Organizations in Southern Mexico

Abstract

Through alliances with local community-based organizations, including groups of women, conservationists have used integrated conservation and development projects as a strategy to integrate conservation and poverty alleviation goals; yet an antiessentialist critique of ecofeminism suggests little grounds for alliances between women and conservationists. This study questions that premise through a presentation of analysis results from interviews with women in three communities surrounding Mexico's Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. I compare the households of conservation-allied women with other households, on (1) the use of various farming practices on women's group parcels and on other land managed by households (conservation-related outcomes) and (2) women's access to and control of land and project income (women's livelihood-related outcomes). I find that alliances were partially successful in meeting conservation interests, contributed to the production of livelihoods for the women, and increased their relative position within households and communities through changes in the gendered control of resource decision making.