UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA
Ecological Democracy and Forest-Dependent Communities of Oaxaca, Mexico by
Ross Edward Graham Mitchell
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Rural Sociology
Department of Rural Economy
Edmonton, Alberta
Spring 2005
ABSTRACT The theoretical concept of ecological democracy has emerged in recent years, but has been neglected as a topic of both theoretical and empirical inquiry. In Chapter 2, a discussion of relevant theoretical literature leads to a conceptual definition of ecological democracy. Four comparative scenarios help illustrate this concept, and several hindering and facilitating factors that influence the emergence and consolidation of ecological democracy are discussed. Two empirical examples from Mexico - one focused on industrial pollution and the other on community forestry - are compared in reference to the aforementioned factors. In Chapter 3, the intersection of forest management, forest trade, and local democracy are examined on selected Mexican forest-based communities. Common-pool resource regimes are explicitly linked to a historical context of intertwined social and political relations. The thesis tested is whether collective decision-making within common property forest systems is feasible in the face of mounting pressures for land privatization and trade liberalization. Mexico was selected for this study for its uniqueness of many successful common forestry arrangements. Key themes of democracy, forest trade, and socio-environmental wellbeing help assess whether social, historical, and other processes are responsible for the successes achieved to date. In Chapter 4, two guiding questions are whether local political mobilization occurs in response to changes in forest management regimes, and whether indigenous forms of forest management illustrate ecological democracy. Two forest communities selected for comparison in the Sierra Norte in Oaxaca, Mexico have taken different forest use paths: the former has opted for community-based forest management, whereas the latter has taken an anti-logging approach and struggled with its neighbours on a shared landbase for almost 50 years. Four key themes of ecological democracy - local governance, equitable decision-making, forest management, and environmental awareness - are described and discussed in relation to the two communities studied. In summary, this research found that achieving ecological democracy through an indigenous community forest model is both possible and, in certain cases, preferable to other alternatives. It also brings new insight into the meaning of democratic decision-making and environmental management.
