Agrarian Reform Process Research Articles

Poaching and hunting, conflicts and health: human dimensions of wildlife conservation in the Brazilian Cerrado

IntroductionUnderstanding human-wildlife interactions is critical to overcoming the socio-environmental crises we face worldwide. Among these interactions, poaching and hunting, human-wildlife conflict, and transmission of zoonotic diseases are major causes of biodiversity loss and detrimental to human well-being. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze wildlife poaching, feral pig hunting, human-wildlife conflict, and health issues in a region of the Brazilian Cerrado, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The study also focused on the lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris), a poached species listed as vulnerable to extinction.MethodsFrom October 2016 to September 2017, we conducted face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 51 local people from nine stakeholder groups. Interview answers and additional information compiled during the study were evaluated using coding, narrative, and co-occurrence analyses.Results and discussionWe found that the main human-wildlife conflict in the region involves feral pigs, and hunting is practiced as a population control strategy. The lowland tapir is not considered a conflictual species, as it is beloved by most people. However, tapirs are still poached, although less so than in the past, mainly for cultural reasons. Culture was the main motivation behind wildlife poaching in general. We identified 28 species and five taxa currently poached in this Cerrado region, of which 11 are used for medical and aphrodisiac purposes. Historically, wildlife poaching was linked to poor livelihood conditions and lack of support from governmental institutions during the Agrarian Reform process, becoming a cultural habit over the years. Nevertheless, wildlife poaching is less frequent than in the past, and its main barriers are surveillance, poaching prohibition by landowners, and social norm. Therefore, promoting a change in the way people relate to nature, meeting socioeconomic needs, and increasing surveillance appear to be important conservation strategies. Although feral pig hunting may replace wildlife poaching, some hunters still poach wild species, especially peccaries. Hence, it is necessary to keep hunters under surveillance, raise awareness among them, and make them allies in conservation strategies. We found a worryingly low level of awareness about disease transmission risk through bushmeat manipulation and consumption, highlighting the importance of One Health approaches.

Have Women gained Access to Land in Cuba? Gender, Agrarian Reform and Re-Peasantisation, 1959-2018

Cuba represents a paradigmatic case where the peasantry is not an anachronism. The Cuban peasantry played a key role in the past and returned to the political agenda after the Revolution with special emphasis under the government of Raúl Castro (2008-18). However, the role of peasant women has not been significantly explored with a long-term vision that links post-revolutionary achievements from a gender perspective with the agrarian reform process initiated in 1959 and continuing today. Through secondary sources and a historical review of Cuba’s agrarian reform process, this article attempts to answer –from a qualitative perspective– the following questions: What role have women played in the celebrated process of agrarian reform and re-peasantisation in the past and present, and what are the real opportunities for peasant or landless women through the new Decree-Laws from 2008 to 2018?

Karadağ'daki Ortodoks Kilisesi Ile Ilgili Olarak Radikal Ateizm 1945-1960

The roots of radical atheism in Montenegro can be found at the beginning of the existence of the Yugoslav state in the interwar period. The Podgorica Assembly, which had the goal of formalising the unification of Montenegro with Serbia and other Yugoslav provinces, was held in November 1918. The Assembly proclaimed the decision to merge Montenegro with Serbia. Three members of parliament (MPs) came forward with radical atheistic requests at the Assembly, demanding that all the church’s property should be confiscated and handed over to the state. Some churches and monasteries were to be turned into public chapels for burials, and the others into schools and cultural institutions. During the interwar period, the Communist Party existed mostly illegally in Montenegro, and did not show any greater intent to impose radical atheism. During the Second World War, a strong revolutionary movement led by the Communist Party developed in Montenegro, as did also a counter-revolution. At that time the Communist Party and the partisan movement showed a strong degree of radical atheism, with elements of militant atheism, especially in the killing of a large number of church clergy (monks, priests and graduate theologians) during the war. However, the Communist Party did not implement radical atheism in the fields of ideology and the economy. It would do that only after the Second World War, when it assumed power over all spheres of social and public life. At that time, within the process of nationalisation and agrarian reform, significant material goods (buildings, land, forests and movable property) were taken away from the Orthodox Church in Montenegro. The same was done to the Catholic Church and the Islamic religious community. The process of radical atheism in an ideological sense took place parallel with this process. The intention of the Communist Party was to completely remove the church from social life, and implement atheism among the people, and practically turn them into believers of the new Marxist-Leninist ideology.

Historia política de Chile, 1810–2010. Vol. 3, Problemas económicos

In Latin America, the bicentennial of independence and the influence of the new political history have sparked interest in the process of state formation, political communities, ideas, and the role of the state in society and the economy. In light of this historiographical turn, Historia política de Chile, 1810–2010, a four-volume series coordinated by Iván Jaksić, examines the history of the country through the lens of the state and political processes. Previously published volumes addressed political practices (volume 1) and the state and society (volume 2). The volume under review, edited by Jaksić, Andrés Estefane, and Claudio Robles, focuses on the relationship between the state and the national economy, including issues such as industrialization, taxation, and foreign missions. The volume is not, the editors warn us, a comprehensive economic history of the country but an interdisciplinary discussion of some key elements of Chile's political economy.In their introduction, the editors proposed a common framework and set of theses that tie the essays together: the national state has played a critical role in the economy and the solution of economic problems in areas such as agriculture, mining, and income distribution; foreign capital and powerful economic groups have played an influential role in the country, especially in the mining sector but also in the design of economic policy; and power relations and political conflicts have shaped and transformed economic policies. Building on the editors' main arguments, each of the volume's 11 essays offers a synthesis and long-term historical perspective on an economic sector (for example, mining, agriculture, or industry) or an economic problem (such as taxation or inequality).In the first chapter, Alejandra Irigoin revisits the economic history of independence from Spain. Placing the history of Chile in a global framework and emphasizing both breaks and continuities, she offers a detailed analysis of taxes, fiscal policies, trade, and institutions during the late colonial and early national periods. The next four chapters summarize the traditional sectors of the national economy—mining, agriculture, and industry—as well as foreign trade. William Sater offers a concise view of the development of the mining sector, from the rise of small-scale copper mines in the nineteenth century to the nitrate boom and the large-scale copper industry. Cristóbal Kay and Claudio Robles return to the debate over the modernization of Chilean agriculture, the transition to capitalism, and the process of agrarian reform. Especially noteworthy is the authors' effort to go beyond a traditional economic and political analysis and to incorporate the social, labor, and gender aspects of the countryside's transformation. In chapter 4, Luis Ortega Martínez analyzes the difficult and slow path to industrialization from 1870 to 1970. Focusing on industrial policies and the role of the state, he argues that the state commitment to industrialize was short-lived and only started in the 1950s. Ignacio Briones and Gonzalo Islas, two economists, discuss the evolution of foreign trade and trade policies, emphasizing the historical tension between protectionism and open-market policies.Chapters 6 through 8 focus on specific economic policies. Claudio Agostini and Gonzalo Islas look at taxation and, specifically, the relationship between income tax and economic inequality. In the next chapter, Gonzalo Durán also looks at economic inequality, but from the point of view of wages. Building on both quantitative and qualitative methods, Durán calls attention to the need to analyze wages and salaries in connection to economic growth, unionization rates, and political projects. In chapter 8, renowned Chilean economist Ricardo Ffrench-Davis reviews the history of macroeconomic policies and economic instability since the 1950s. The end of the book brings three distinctive topics. Guillermo Guajardo Soto provides an interesting overview of the history of public companies, demonstrating that they have always been present in the country's history. Manuel Gárate Chateau writes an original essay about foreign missions and their influence on the state and on economic policy design. Gárate Chateau also demonstrates how Chile not only welcomed foreign experts but, after 1980, exported ideas and became a neoliberal model for the rest of the world. José Edwards closes the volume with a brief history of economic thought from nineteenth-century liberalism to the Chicago Boys.The third volume of Historia política de Chile furthers our understanding of the state's changing role in the economy. The editors do an excellent job of connecting the different chapters, offering readers a solid, up-to-date, and well-researched overview of the main debates in the history of political economy. Continuing the proposal of Historia política de Chile's previous volumes, this third volume also questions the old paradigm of Chile's exceptionalism, placing the country into a larger transnational and comparative framework. However, the chapters could have addressed how gender, race, class, and national origin shaped economic policies. The question of gender remains mainly absent in economic history.

Resilience of Traditional Livelihood Approaches Despite Forest Grabbing: Ogiek to the West of Mau Forest, Uasin Gishu County

This paper is a summary of the findings of research work conducted in two case studies in the Rift Valley, Kenya. This study used the Neo-Institutional theory to interrogate how the rules and regulations (institutions involved) of the agrarian reform process in Kenya are constantly changing and helping to shape the livelihoods of social actors around Mau Forest. The first case study—Ndungulu, is a settlement scheme where the Ogiek ethnic community were resettled between 1995 and 1997 after the land clashes of 1992. The second case study is the Kamuyu cooperative farm, a post-colonial settlement scheme owned by a cooperative society that was founded in 1965 by members from the Kikuyu ethnic group. This study employed qualitative data collection methods intermittently between 2012 and 2017 for a total of two years. A total of 60 interviews were conducted for this research. Thirteen (13) of these were key informant interviews with experts on land. The qualitative interviews were complemented by participant observations and nine focus group discussions. The qualitative data from the interviews and focus group discussions were transcribed, coded and analyzed thematically. Observations documented as field notes were also analyzed to complement the study findings. In this paper, the challenges, bargaining position and power play between social actors and government institutions implicated in the agrarian reform process in Kenya has been brought to the forefront. For instance, due to the structural issues that date back to the colonial period, the Ogiek have found innovative ways to maintain their daily existence (e.g., maintaining traditional methods of apiculture in Mau Forest). However, constraints in accessing forest land has resulted in them taking desperate measures, namely; selling off land to the Kalenjin in what is called “distress land sales”. On the contrary, the neighboring Kikuyu have maintained their land ownership status despite recurrent ethnic clashes that have occurred during general election years.

Seleção de indicadores de paisagem para as áreas ambientais em assentamento rural

Os Assentamentos Rurais (ARs) são a materialização do processo de reforma agrária no Brasil, sendo caracterizados pela sua multifuncionalidade. Com relação à função ambiental, os ARs devem respeitar os dispositivos legais da Política Nacional do Meio Ambiente (PNMA), com a conservação das áreas de preservação permanente (PP) e de reserva legal (RL); áreas ambientais do AR. Desta forma, é de extrema importância a seleção e a utilização de indicadores para auxiliar na avaliação e monitoramento destas áreas em ARs, associando-se a Sistema de Informação Geográfica (SIG). Neste contexto, o objetivo deste estudo é selecionar indicadores de paisagens para as áreas ambientais em ARs, exemplificado no AR Rosa Luxemburgo II, em São Cristovão, Sergipe. Após revisão bibliográfica, definiu-se oito indicadores de paisagem da categoria 'Uso da Terra', associando-se a utilização de ferramentas de processamento digital de imagens e plataforma SIG. Como principais resultados, têm-se que, no AR estudado, na fase de ordenamento espacial do AR, existe significativa omissão das áreas de PP; cerca de 61% e 48% das áreas ambientais e de RL, respectivamente, estão efetivamente ocupadas com vegetação nativa, necessitando a recomposição florestal das demais áreas ambientais, para a plena disponibilidade dos serviços ecossistêmicos; e, a existência da Assessoria Técnica, Social e Ambiental à Reforma Agrária (ATES) não representou ações ambientais de conservação e de proteção das áreas de PP e RL. Como conclusões, tem-se que os indicadores de paisagem, no modelo DPSIR, são importantes para a avaliação e o monitoramento das áreas ambientais em ARs, mostrando-se uma ferramenta efetiva para o planejamento e a gestão ambiental de ARs.

Memorias de mujeres campesinas del valle de Aconcagua a 50 años de la Reforma Agraria Chilena

The article presents the results of an investigation that aims to rescue and value the collective memory of rural women who were part of the Agrarian Reform process in the Aconcagua Valley, Valparaiso Region, Chile. The methodology is guided by studies of collective memory, defining time and space within the framework of the Chilean reform process. The research group corresponds to peasant women linked to farmers benefited by the Agrarian Reform process. The information was collected through biographical interview and documentary review, allowing to interpret personal memories and endow them with stability and collective transcendence. The analysis considers the documentary information available and the memories of the peasant women compiled. The results indicate that peasant women were direct recipients of government actions that claimed their social rights and contributed to the improvement of rural living conditions in the areas of health, housing and education. The main conclusion is that the right to land of the peasant woman was mediated by her conjugal relationship with a beneficiary peasant or assignee of the process, through the exercise of the right of conjugal partnership or inheritance. Five decades after the Chilean reform process, it can be affirmed that the Agrarian Reform promoted structural transformations that had a direct impact on the living and working conditions of the peasant family, being the peasant man his main economic protagonist in the farm and the peasant woman his main social beneficiary in the home.

Reforma agrária e identidade nacional no conto “Nos han dado la tierra”, de Juan Rulfo: uma crítica social

Neste artigo, desenvolvi uma análise do conto “Nos han dado la tierra”, do mexicano Juan Rulfo, pertencente ao livro El llano en llamas (1953), destacando o processo de reforma agrária. No conto, está presente uma crítica à distribuição de terras inférteis por parte do governo que, ao invés de atenuar as desigualdades sociais, acaba por perpetuá-las e, em alguns casos, por extremá-las. Para construir minha proposta de leitura, dividi o texto em três partes: na primeira, realizei um resgate da história mexicana durante o período revolucionário (início do século XX); na segunda, estabeleci uma discussão sobre a questão do pertencimento nacional e a importância de possuir uma fração do território de um país; na terceira parte, apresentei uma interpretação do conto de Rulfo associando as discussões estabelecidas nos itens anteriores.

Comunidades campesinas y reforma agraria en Huancavelica

Este artículo presenta a través de hechos protagonizadas por las comunidades campesinas del departamento de Huancavelica, las luchas por la tierra durante el proceso de reforma agraria. La línea temporal sigue desde la constitución de la SAIS Huancavelica hasta 1980, año en que Sendero Luminoso irrumpe en la región, iniciando de este modo un nuevo capítulo en la historia de los Andes.

Conflictos agrarios y formación de un poder político agrario en Santiago Tuxtla, Veracruz (1922-1950)

El objetivo del trabajo es mostrar el complejo proceso de reforma agraria que se llevó a cabo en la población de Santiago Tuxtla, Veracruz, donde los campesinos lograron mantener las tierras que les otorgaron en dotación provisional merced a las alianzas establecidas con actores políticos como el ayuntamiento y la guerrilla campesina. En este proceso destaca el papel de Antonio Alvarado, quien logró mantener su dominio sobre el comisariado ejidal durante más de 15 años, lo que permitió que Santiago Tuxtla se convirtiera en uno de los últimos bastiones del proyecto agrarista del tejedismo.

The agrarian reform under the Portuguese revolution, 1974–76: Its roots and reversal

The makers of the Portuguese revolution of 1974 sought not only the overthrow of a dictatorial regime, but also a reorganisation of Portugal’s economy on new lines, securing control of agriculture and industry in the name of workers. The present paper examines the process of revolutionary agrarian reform in the Alentejo region, a major agricultural zone, and describes how, after the end of the revolutionary period, 1974–76, the reforms of that period were reversed when the Socialists and Social Democrats successively gained power.

Estado, movimentos e reforma agrária no Brasil: reflexões a partir do Incra

Neste artigo, procuramos analisar um dos actantes centrais nos processos de reivindicação por terras no Brasil contemporâneo: o Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária (Incra). Debatendo com a literatura que analisa as relações entre Estado e movimentos sociais por meio da constituição de políticas públicas, trazemos dois estudos de caso realizados no Incra, nos estados do Pará e de Pernambuco, na última década. Em ambos, a relação entre Estado e movimentos altera a forma e o tamanho do Instituto, transformando as funções e rotinas de seus servidores. Nossa principal conclusão é de que a heterogeneidade das conexões que formam o Incra tornam o Estado permeável simultaneamente na produção, distribuição e aplicação das políticas de reforma agrária, reforçando simultaneamente o papel do Estado e dos movimentos sociais nesse processo.

Between Yoris and Guarijíos: Chronicles of Anthropology: Introducing Between Yoris and Guarijíos

Between Yoris and Guarijíos: Chronicles of AnthropologyIntroducing Between Yoris and Guarijíos María Teresa Valdivia Dounce (bio) Translated by Jeffrey M. Banister, Editor I have been connected with the Guarijíos since the summer of 1978, when I was commissioned by the Instituto Nacional Indigenista (the National Indigenist Institute, or INI) to introduce federal government programs into the region.1 At that time the Guarijíos had nothing, and delivering the services that they were requesting was not an easy task because they did not even have access to land where we could set up our installations. It might seem an exaggeration to say that they lacked everything, but there are times when reality outstrips imagination. They had no land or homes of their own. They did not have access to potable water or medical care, and there were no roads or electricity. Nothing. Just their poverty. Some still wore loincloths and shawls and lived in caves. They were peones acasillados2 for the large ranchos owned by Yoris.3 And although for the average anthropologist such circumstances would in no way be surprising—and even less a reason for making snap judgments—for me they definitely were, from the very first general assembly of Guarijíos that I attended, where I was to learn about the different problems facing them. My reasons for surprise came in the form of the fetid odor of hunger that emanated from that collection of empty stomachs and which, that same year, led to the starvation and death of two adults. And so it is no exaggeration to say that in the summer of 1978 the Guarijíos had nothing. Referring to that time, Cipriano Buitimea said, “We had problems that were so great we could not see the edge.” [End Page 371] I started my work as an indigenista with one idea in mind: to help the Guarijíos get their land. But at the first opportunity, I spread the word about the state they were in because I believed that one of the causes of their situation was the isolation in which they lived, both the Guarijíos and the Yoris. Getting into the agrarian reform process pushed me to write a short historical synthesis in order to establish their rights to the land on which they were working as peones acasillados. The document formed part of the petition we filed for the case. Needless to say, the Ministry of Agrarian Reform (SRA) did not use it in its decision even though it was required. Ultimately, the land was returned to the Guarijíos as part of a politically driven decision (absurd as it seems, according to the SRA Indians, Mexico’s aboriginal population had to demonstrate that their rights were based on use of said land for a legally mandated amount of time). Nevertheless, the historical research did help me in developing a brief ethnographic essay, which the INI had requested. When I thought that we were coming close to getting the lands, José Zazueta and I designed a plan based on three types of land use: production, basic services, and homes. Yet, as land conflicts are at one and the same time juridical, economic, and political matters, they often turn into violent disputes that only the strongest win. The latter was not the case for me, and because of it I had to quit my post at the INI two years following the granting of ejidal4 lands to the Guarijíos, but not without denouncing once again their desperate and critical circumstances. In 1981, I returned to the region as a visitor and I could see that our land-use plan had become a tangible reality. And it is perhaps for this reason that I drifted away from my Guarijío friends in the following years, conducting research within different institutions. Before doing that, however, I made sure that the work we did in Sonora could be written in a way that made sense. In this case it was as my undergraduate thesis. A short time later I returned to work for the INI, though without having set foot in Guarijío country for some time...

La reforma agraria en Campeche, ¿permanencia de una cultura indígena?

En este trabajo mostraremos el proceso históricode la reforma agraria mexicana del siglo XXy cómo se dio en el estado de Campeche. Veremoscómo un intento de los gobiernos posrevolucionariospor restituir y dotar de tierras a lascomunidades se convirtió en la oportunidad derescatar y consolidar la tenencia comunal. Tambiéncómo las omisiones e inconsistencias delas leyes durante el proceso dio lugar a errorescomo no contemplar que las comunidades tuvieranaún tierras y no saber cómo clasificarlas.En la mayoría de la veces estos desaciertos permitieronque los campesinos obtuvieran grandesextensiones de tierra. Finalmente discutiremoscómo la reforma agraria permitió lapermanencia de un elemento cultural como loes posesión en común, el cual ha formado partede la identidad de los grupos mayas del estadode Campeche.

La cuestión de la tierra y la transición chilena al capitalismo agrario

Hoy en día la agricultura chilena se ha recuperado de años de rendimientos decrecientes. La misma ardua labor llevada a cabo por una mano de obra agrícola en descenso repentinamente ha alcanzado una mayor productividad y, por tanto, ha logrado el crecimiento económico. Este artículo sugiere que Chile ha experimentado una serie de cambios fundamentales en el último cuarto del siglo XX, los que han intensifi cado su desarrollo capitalista. Además, observa que el proceso de reforma agraria (1964-1973) y la contrarreforma capitalista “parcial” (1974-1980) permitieron la culminación de la largamente aplazada transición al capitalismo moderno y dio lugar al ascenso de un empresariado agroindustrial y de una agricultura exportadora integrada en la nueva economía mundial.

A decision support methodology for increasing public investment efficiency in Brazilian agrarian reform

AbstractThe Brazilian Agrarian Reform Program has subsidized the settlement of over 425,000 destitute families on previously unproductive land in what has become a very effective vehicle for social inclusion and productivity growth for those settlers who reach the final stage of the process and receive definitive title to the land. Unfortunately, there is a large difference in efficiency and productivity between more and less successful settlements – fewer than 10% of relocated families have received title and over 25% of them have abandoned the property to which they were assigned. This paper presents a decision support methodology for increasing the efficiency of public investments in agrarian reform that includes a data envelopment analysis model and a mechanism for building consensus among the various constituencies of the agrarian reform process, who not infrequently have conflicting objectives. The OR model described herein uses principal component analysis and data envelopment analysis to identify the most important success factors for relocated families leading to an increase in the chance of both autonomous integration with the market economy and definitive entitlement by these displaced families as well as an increase in the predictability of future settlement success. The model was implemented successfully in Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil, and was partially used in a pilot project for the countrywide agrarian reform accelerated consolidation program.

Land consolidation as a factor for rural development in Moldova

This article draws on data from several recent surveys in Moldova to examine the question of land consolidation within the process of agrarian reform. It suggests that larger individually owned farms produce higher family incomes than smaller ones and thus farm augmentation makes a positive contribution to the well being of the rural population. Also, for farms of a given size, productivity increases as the number of parcels decreases. The article then proceeds to discuss the actual use of various market mechanisms for land consolidation, including leasing as well as buying and selling of land. According to various surveys, farms with leased land are in fact larger than farms that rely on owned land only. The article argues that land consolidation leads to better economic performance, while land leasing is actually used as a market mechanism for consolidation, which benefits both lessees, through increased farm incomes, and lessors, through income from lease payments for their land.

Environmental impact of the Brazilian Agrarian Reform process from 1985 to 2001

During the past 20 years, most settlements of the Brazilian Agrarian Reform (AR) have been established in or near better-preserved natural ecosystems, where environmental impact is likely to be negative and contribute to natural resources degradation. The objective of this work is providing a first, comprehensive insight of the impacts related to the environmental quality of these settlements, based on the primary survey of 4,340 AR settlements installed between 1985 and 2001. An index was calculated to integrate different aspects of environmental impacts in one single number. The index showed significant regional variation, with lower values (low environmental quality) for the North and Northeast of Brazil, intermediate values for the Central-west and Southeast, and high values for the South. Environmental impacts resulting from AR and settlement creation are slowly decreasing with time, but are still very high in absolute values. The lack of protection of riparian areas, cultivation of legal reserves, and deforestation, are the main concerns related to environmental impacts.

The Mexican model of community forest management: The role of agrarian policy, forest policy and entrepreneurial organization

Abstract In Mexico, the “democratization of natural assets” through an agrarian reform process laid the territorial foundation for the establishment of a large community forest sector. The common property regime and agrarian policies established by the Mexican Revolution also created a common form of governance for all of rural Mexico. Concepts from common property theory and social and natural capital are used to analyze this sector and its emergence. It is argued in this paper that agrarian reform laws have been more crucial in creating a large CFE than specific forest legislation. Agrarian reform distributed forest lands to communities and provided a template for community governance that could later serve as an institutional platform for the development of CFEs. Forest laws and programs have been important in different places and periods in developing this potential, by providing subsidies, training, and markets for incipient CFEs. Forest legislation also served, at different periods, to empower communities to take more responsibility for managing their own forests. More recently, major new funds have been directed at subsidizing some aspects of community forest management. The agrarian governance platform has shown flexibility in being able to develop and adapt more entrepreneurial organizational forms. However, there are a wide range of forms that have evolved, ranging from making the enterprise directly dependent on the community governance structures to creating a clear division between community and entrepreneurial governance through Community Councils and Managers, and to dissolution of the single CFE model into subcoalition enterprises. This variety shows that it is possible to combine community governance forms and entrepreneurial organizational forms to compete successfully in the marketplace. The Mexican case provides a model for the world-wide devolution of forest lands to local communities, and shows that community initiatives and policy support can result in common property regimes that can organize to compete in the marketplace and deliver social, economic and ecological benefits.

The institutional drivers of sustainable landscapes: a case study of the ‘Mayan Zone’ in Quintana Roo, Mexico

Research on the dynamics of tropical forest land use and cover change (LUCC) has focused on the three scenarios: (1) deforestation/degradation; (2) settled, degraded areas in recovery, and (3) sparsely settled, expansive, intact forest. Through examination of a central Quintana Roo, Mexico case study we propose a fourth scenario of a ‘sustainable landscape’: an inhabited, productively used, forested landscape that nonetheless shows little change or net gains in forest cover over the last 25 years. We use Landsat images to demonstrate a low incidence of net deforestation, 0.01% for the 1984–2000 period, the lowest recorded deforestation rate for southeastern Mexico. Institutional innovations such as an agrarian reform process that established large common property forests for non-timber forest product extraction, and later innovations such as sustainable forest management institutions have driven the outcome of low net deforestation, added to multiple organizational processes that promote sustainable land use.