James P. Robson - Communities Surviving Migration: Village Governance, Environment and Cultural Survival in Indigenous Mexico

Out-migration might decrease the pressure of population on the environment, but what happens to the communities that manage the local environment when they are weakened by the absence of their members? In an era where community-based natural resource management has emerged as a key hope for sustainable development, this is a crucial question.

Building on over a decade of empirical work conducted in Oaxaca, Mexico, Communities Surviving Migration identifies how out-migration can impact rural communities in strongholds of biocultural diversity. It reflects on the possibilities of community self-governance and survival in the likely future of limited additional migration and steady but low rural populations, and what different scenarios imply for environmental governance and biodiversity conservation. In this way, the book adds a critical cultural component to the understanding of migrationenvironment linkages, specifically with respect to environmental change in migrant-sending regions.

Responding to the call for more detailed analyses and reporting on migration and environmental change, especially in contexts where rural communities, livelihoods and biodiversity are interconnected, this volume will be of interest to students and scholars of environmental migration, development studies, population geography, and Latin American studies.

James P. Robson is Assistant Professor (Human Dimensions of Sustainability) at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.

Dan Klooster is Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Redlands, USA.

Jorge Hernndez-Daz is Research Professor at the Universidad Autnoma Benito Jurez de Oaxaca (UABJO), Mexico.

Routledge Studies in Environmental Migration, Displacement and Resettlement

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Edited by Ryo Fujikura and Mikiyasu Nakayama

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Edited by Susanna Price and Jane Singer

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The Peninsula Principles

Edited by Scott Leckie and Chris Huggins

Climate Change Induced Migration and Human Rights

Law and Policy Perspectives

Edited by Andrew Baldwin, Dug Cubie, Dimitra Manou, Anja Mihr and Teresa Thorp

Migration and Environmental Change in the West African Sahel

Why Capabilities and Aspirations Matter

Victoria van der Land

Climate Refugees

Beyond the Legal Impasse?

Edited by Simon Behrman and Avidan Kent

Facilitating the Resettlement and Rights of Climate Refugees

An Argument for Developing Existing Principles and Practices

Avidan Kent and Simon Behrman

Communities Surviving Migration

Village Governance, Environment, and Cultural Survival in Indigenous Mexico

Edited by James P. Robson, Dan Klooster and Jorge Hernndez-Daz

For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Routledge-Studies-in-Environmental-Migration-Displacement-and-Resettlement/book-series/RSEMDR

Village Governance, Environment, and Cultural Survival in Indigenous Mexico

Edited by James P. Robson, Dan Klooster and Jorge Hernndez-Daz

First published 2019

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2019 selection and editorial matter, James P. Robson, Dan Klooster and Jorge Hernndez-Daz; individual chapters, the contributors

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ISBN: 978-1-138-74002-0 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-18384-8 (ebk)

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James P. Robson, Assistant Professor in Human Dimensions of Sustainability (University of Saskatchewan), UNESCO Co-Chair in Biocultural Diversity, Sustainability, Reconciliation, and Renewal. PhD in Natural Resources and Environmental Management from the University of Manitoba, Canada. He conducts interdisciplinary and applied environmental research, with special emphasis on the drivers and impacts of demographic, social, and environmental change as they affect remote and rural communities. Current work focuses on community innovations, especially those targeted at or directly involving youth, to adapt customary systems of governance and resource use. His work on migration and change in Mexico has been supported by a Government of Canada Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, a University of Manitoba Graduate Fellowship, and an Aboriginal Issues Press Scholarship. He has an MA in Environment, Development, and Policy (University of Sussex, UK), and a BSc in Geography (University of Liverpool, UK).

Dan Klooster, Professor, Department of Environmental Studies (University of Redlands). PhD in Geography from the University of California-Los Angeles. His research examines sustainable community development strategies in Mexico, including community forestry, forest certification, payment for environmental services, and environmental dimensions of commodity chains involving certified community forests and direct marketing of cacao for chocolate. His teaching interests encompass conflicts between environment and development, environmental services and the socio-natural systems that produce and distribute food. He has been awarded university-wide teaching awards at Florida State University and the University of Redlands. His work on the ways that migration affects rural sustainable development in Mexico has been supported by the National Science Foundation (No. 1127534), a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Scholarship, the Center for USMexican Studies, University of California-San Diego, UC-Mexus, University of California-Riverside, and the University of Redlands.

Jorge Hernndez-Daz, Professor-Researcher, Instituto de Investigaciones Sociolgicas (Universidad Autnoma Benito Jurez de Oaxaca). PhD in Anthropology from the University of Connecticut, USA. Masters in Anthropology from the University of Brasilia, Brazil. His research focuses on the ways by which government recognition manifests and impacts Indigenous government and governance structures in Mexico and Latin America. He has authored and coordinated multiple books, including: