Looking at the Landscape from the Sócio-Environmental History. Territorial Reconfiguration in las Cañadas de Ocosingo, Chiapas (1995-2018)

Abstract

The Cañadas Avellanal and Taniperlas in 24 years went through a process of structural change that differentiated and modified them in their processes of territorial appropriation and land use. Between the 80-90s it was the productive specialization and the ELZN. Today (2018) they are the autonomous regime with Earth Theology and the conservationist with environmental policies. In these transitions, forests and jungles have been reduced 30.31% and 46.47% respectively. This article aims to explain the socio-environmental history of Avellanal and Taniperlas, and the social relationships in which the change in the landscape is expressed, through participant observation, field trips, interviews and meetings with key subjects, documentary review and satellite images. Three historical periods are observed where changes in the landscape are mainly explained by sociopolitical dynamics after the EZLN, more than for other reasons. 1.- Critical period of environmental deterioration, social destructuring, political-ideological dispute and the struggle for the leadership of Las Cañadas (1995-2001), 2.- Reconfiguration and political differentiations that seek to coexist (2002-2011) and 3.- Decline of common use areas in ejidos, land distribution, deforestation and intermittent migration (2012-2018). In each temporality the ecological and social processes were defined that, in continuous agreement, marked the evolution of the socio-environmental history of the regions and express the current landscape. Therefore, changes in the landscape are not unicausal, nor linear, but generally occur within the framework of social relations (at different scales) and in the social organizational capacity in the face of social and environmental conditions. The regional context in this case becomes relevant and its consideration is necessary in the elaboration of rural development proposals.