Abstract

GASCA ZAMORA, José. Gobernanza y gestión comunitaria de recursos naturales en la Sierra Norte de Oaxaca. Región y sociedad [online]. 2014, vol.26, n.60, pp.89-120. ISSN 2448-4849.

In the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca (Southern Mexico) are located various municipalities that have developed organizational and productive strategies where the social actors and their communal government bodies have positioned themselves as key agents. These experiences occur in territories that, in addition to having forest resources, have "rediscovered" new ways to use water, landscape, and other resources. The area is mainly inhabited by indigenous populations that have communal systems of land tenure, and use of its main natural resources is carried out through community enterprises. This article explores the context in which this production mode emerged and aims to identify and explain the factors affecting its performance. Three points are highlighted: the spaces of social governance and resource management, cooperative work and reciprocity strategies, and the construction of a socio-ecological rationality that prefigures certain conservation strategies in areas of high environmental value.

Keywords : community enterprises; communal resources; communal resource management; communal forestry; indigenous communality; Sierra Norte de Oaxaca.