The forest transition as a window of opportunity to change the governance of common-pool resources: The case of Mexico’s Mixteca Alta

Matthew Lorenzen, Quetzalcóatl Orozco-Ramírez, Rosario Ramírez-Santiago and Gustavo G. Garza

World Development, 2021, vol. 145, issue C

Abstract: The notion of windows of opportunity, developed in the literature on adaptive governance, refers to the existence of circumstances or events that trigger and promote governance changes to manage ecosystems and common-pool resources more sustainably. Research has largely focused on windows of opportunity such as natural disasters and environmental crises. This paper contends that windows of opportunity should be viewed with a wider lens and include other phenomena that do not necessarily involve a growing pressure or negative impact on ecosystems and common-pool resources. Based on information gathered from interviews and the analysis of official statistics and land use/cover maps, we first show that our study area in Mexico’s Mixteca Alta region, in the state of Oaxaca, has experienced a recovery of woody vegetation—a forest transition—through secondary succession because of depopulation, deagrarianization, agricultural intensification, the decline or change in livestock, and the decline in the use of farmland, grazing lands, and local natural resources. Building on these results, we examine how these demographic, socioeconomic, and land-use changes, along with the emergence of new national institutions and local non-governmental organizations focused on the environment, provided a window of opportunity for communities to change the governance of their forests and grazing lands through the establishment of rules to limit grazing and logging, while also carrying out reforestations. These processes contributed to the further expansion of wooded areas in a positive feedback loop.

Keywords: Deagrarianization; Depopulation; Reforestation; Common-use lands; Adaptive governance; Mexico (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:145:y:2021:i:c:s0305750x21001285

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105516

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