Protected Areas from arid lands: The forgotten spaces of environmental governance?

Keywords: Nature conservation, Political ecology, Arid lands, habitat loss, Mexico
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Protected Areas (PAs) are cornerstone for nature conservancy efforts worldwide. Arid lands are fragile ecosystems and studies of PAs in such environments are under-represented in science literature. Understanding environmental change requires an awareness of the interdependencies between environment and human well-being. This study, undertaken from the perspective of political ecology, unravels the processes that affect, condition, determine, and trigger degradation of nature of three PAs in the Chihuahuan Desert of northern México. These PAs are home to threatened and endangered species, and are critical stops for migratory birds. This assessment combines the theory of land use-cover change and vegetation-landscape ecology to help explain the socioenvironmental causes and effects of habitat loss. Using mixed methods, geospatial technologies, multi-sited fieldwork, and community engagement research, the results show that habitat loss is triggered by misunderstandings surrounding the importance of local inhabitants in economic development. A chain of facts is traced. In critical zones, inhabitants deal with loss of access to both vegetation-ecosystem services and livelihood activities. Finally, in the social sphere the conservation-induced displacement concept materializes through the (re)production of human migration processes. It is an indirect form of displacement. The conclusions discuss environmental governance and cast doubt on the paradigm of PAs from arid lands as sustainable models.