TY - JOUR
T1 - The border-development-climate change nexus
T2 - precarious campesinos at the Selva Maya Mexico–Guatemala border
AU - Schmook, Birgit
AU - Mardero, Sofia
AU - Calmé, Sophie
AU - White, Rehema
AU - Radel, Claudia
AU - Carte, Lindsey
AU - Casanova, Grecia
AU - Cayetano, Jorge David Castelar
AU - Chang, Juan Carlos Joo
N1 - Funding: RMW, SC and BS were recipient of funding from Scottish Funding Council through the Global Challenges Research Fund (2017-18 and 2018-19). SM received a Postdoctoral Research Grant, CVU 292956, from CONACYT, BS participated and received funding from a CONACYT- FORDECYT project with grant number 281987 (Mexico).
PY - 2022/6/7
Y1 - 2022/6/7
N2 - Borderlands can be places of socio-economic tensions, development challenges and ecological risks, now exacerbated by climate change. We investigate the border-development-climate change nexus using research from Calakmul, Mexico and Petén, Guatemala, to detail the lived experiences and vulnerabilities of campesinos in the Selva Maya cross-border region. Our mixed methods approach combines historical analysis and ethnographic interviews with 70 campesinos. We demonstrate how large scale development approaches result in local and specific policy interventions, but produce mixed outcomes for campesinos, neglecting the most marginalized. Despite the absence of any major border crossings, a porous border in this area allows flows of people, goods, and services to connect the region, but there are differential national outcomes. In Peten, many campesinos suffer from ‘irregularity’ (lacking rights to the lands where they live and cultivate), preventing access to state development benefits. In Calakmul greater climate change demands adaptations beyond the scope of recent policy interventions. We consider how the border region includes biophysical processes as well as socio-political and cultural ones, and we argue that policy interventions are required at global, national, and local scales to address structural inequalities and co-create local solutions to development, migration and climate change challenges.
AB - Borderlands can be places of socio-economic tensions, development challenges and ecological risks, now exacerbated by climate change. We investigate the border-development-climate change nexus using research from Calakmul, Mexico and Petén, Guatemala, to detail the lived experiences and vulnerabilities of campesinos in the Selva Maya cross-border region. Our mixed methods approach combines historical analysis and ethnographic interviews with 70 campesinos. We demonstrate how large scale development approaches result in local and specific policy interventions, but produce mixed outcomes for campesinos, neglecting the most marginalized. Despite the absence of any major border crossings, a porous border in this area allows flows of people, goods, and services to connect the region, but there are differential national outcomes. In Peten, many campesinos suffer from ‘irregularity’ (lacking rights to the lands where they live and cultivate), preventing access to state development benefits. In Calakmul greater climate change demands adaptations beyond the scope of recent policy interventions. We consider how the border region includes biophysical processes as well as socio-political and cultural ones, and we argue that policy interventions are required at global, national, and local scales to address structural inequalities and co-create local solutions to development, migration and climate change challenges.
U2 - 10.18357/bigr32202220358
DO - 10.18357/bigr32202220358
M3 - Article
VL - 3
SP - 38
EP - 52
JO - Borders in Globalization Review
JF - Borders in Globalization Review
IS - 2
ER -