Abstract

CAMACHO-BERNAL, Teresita  and  TRENCH, Tim. From “Lands for the Poor” to Disputed Conservation Spaces: the Lacandon Forest and the Chiapas Sierra Madre from an Environmental Justice Perspective. LiminaR [online]. 2019, vol.17, n.2, pp.48-66. ISSN 2007-8900.  https://doi.org/10.29043/liminar.v17i2.674.

Abstract:This article considers an agrarian problem faced by a number of settlements in protected areas in two regions of Chiapas, the Lacandon Forest and the Sierra Madre, both important for their biological and cultural diversity. Through case studies, we show the varied legal situations and difficulties that exist in legalizing these settlements, located at an intersection of interests. Using an environmental justice approach, we conclude that land users in these settlements pay many of the costs of conservation and have been historically segregated in the two regions considered.

Keywords : environmental justice; conservation; protected areas; agrarian reform; irregular settlements.