FROM “ORPHANS OF THE STATE” TO THE COMUNIDAD CONSERVACIONISTA INSTITUCIONAL: THE CASE OF THE LACANDON COMMUNITY, CHIAPAS

Author: Trench, Tim

Source: Identities: Global Studies in Power and Culture, Volume 15, Number 5, September 2008 , pp. 607-634(28)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

This article briefly traces the history of the Lacandon Community in the Lacandon rainforest of Chiapas to reflect upon the impact of growing state presence in a hitherto periphery region of southern Mexico. This agrarian community, created in 1972, and made up of Tzeltal, Chol, and Lacandon Maya groups, has become over the decades an important player in the current configuration of interests that purportedly aim to conserve the remaining forest in this strategic region. The article shows how these three ethnic groups have become gradually absorbed into the logic and practices of the state, developing a novel clientelistic relationship in the context of efforts at biodiversity conservation. But rather than becoming traditionally dependent political clients, the Lacandon Community has unusual leverage in its relationship with the state as the legal owner of 500,000 hectares of sub-tropical forest, containing seven protected areas. But the article concludes that despite the Lacandon Community's relative influence in the region (compared to other peasant indigenous communities with distinct political affiliations) and its sporadic struggles to attain more autonomy of action, this occurs within limits defined by the state; in other words, the state continues to define the plot, if not the exact script.

Keywords: Chiapas (Mexico); Lacandon Community; the state; agrarian history; biodiversity conservation; clientelism

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10702890802333827

Affiliations: 1: Program in Regional Rural Development, Universidad Autonoma Chapingo, Chapingo, Mexico

Publication date: 2008-09-01

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