Doctoral Dissertation Research: Women and Environmental Identity in the Yucatan: Effects on Resource Access and Environmental Practice

这一博士论文研究项目探索了墨西哥尤卡坦半岛南部地区妇女的环境认同、代理以及农业和资源开采实践之间的关系。该项目还审查了在特定地点--卡拉克穆尔生物圈保护区附近的农村农业社区--妇女的利益和保护利益之间是否以及在什么情况下可以重合。随着国家和非政府组织保护和管理森林的努力，这一地点正在加强农用土地的利用。养护和发展项目以社区一级组织的妇女团体为目标，鼓励采用可持续农业做法和可持续林业用途。这一研究项目的中心论点是，一些妇女团体通过积极采用环境管理身份来应对这些项目的存在，这种回应与获得正式方案有关，这些方案的可持续发展项目影响到妇女及其家庭的机会和福祉。环境身份管理是一个更广泛战略的一部分，目的是实现个人和家庭的食品安全，并通过利用正规计划所提倡的“替代”做法来改善消费。研究集中在以下几个问题上：(1)卡拉克穆尔生物圈保护区周围的妇女团体如何响应当地的保护和发展项目？一种反应是积极管理群体的环境认同吗？(2)为什么一些妇女团体自认为是环境管理员，并采取更可持续的做法，而其他妇女团体则不是？以及(3)这些对策对以下方面有何影响：(A)妇女获得自然资源的机会；(B)各群体采用的农业和采掘业做法；以及(C)参与其中的妇女的福祉？该项目由两个主要部分组成：对家庭主要从事农业的小农妇女的个人访谈，以及对活跃在项目地区的六个妇女团体的民族志研究，包括一系列历史、活动和该团体自我认同为“绿色”的程度。在个人访谈中，研究人员将随机抽样访问妇女，其中包括35个参与“绿色”妇女团体的家庭和35个没有参与的家庭。每一次采访都会伴随着一次农场访问，研究人员将对采访回应进行统计分析。人种志研究试图了解群体过程的复杂性，并丰富和定位第一个研究组成部分的个人访谈数据。这项研究的意义在于，它集中在检查“可持续发展”中的共同想法，例如发展中国家农村妇女的利益与环境保护利益的一致性，可能正被群体利用为自己的利益。有一种将讨论两极分化为非此即彼的倾向：要么女性是天生的环境管理员，要么她们不是。认为尤卡坦半岛南部地区的妇女团体可能正在利用妇女作为自然环境管理员的概念来获取物质优势，这一论点并不一定意味着这些团体实际上没有采取更无害环境的做法。理论和保护与发展实践都将受益于对特定妇女何时、为什么以及在什么情况下认为自己是环境管理员，然后也从事相应的“绿色”活动的更微妙的理解。这些成果将有助于卡拉克穆尔生物圈保护区周围的地方可持续发展努力，并对世界其他地方的保护和发展努力具有比较大的意义。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。

This doctoral dissertation research project explores the relationships among women's environmental identity, agency, and agricultural and resource extractive practices in the southern Yucatan peninsular region of Mexico. The project also examines whether and under what circumstances there can be a coincidence between women's interests and conservation interests, in a particular location - the rural farming communities bordering the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. This location is undergoing an intensification of agricultural land-use in conjunction with state and non-governmental organization efforts to protect and manage the forest. Conservation and development projects target women's groups organized at the community level, encouraging the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices and sustainable forestry uses. The central thesis of this research project is that some women's groups respond to the presence of these projects through an active adoption of an environmental stewardship identity and that this response is associated with access to formal programs whose projects of sustainable development affect opportunities and constraints on the wellbeing of women and their households. The management of environmental identity is part of a broader strategy to achieve individual and household food security and pursue improvements in consumption by taking advantage of "alternative" practices promoted by formal programs. The research focuses on the following questions: (1) How do women's groups around the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve respond to local conservation and development projects? Is one response the active management of group environmental identity? (2) Why do some women's groups self-identify as environmental stewards and adopt more sustainable practices, while others do not? And (3) what is the impact of these responses on (a) women's access to natural resources, (b) agricultural and extractive practices adopted by the groups, and (c) the wellbeing of participating women? The project is structured into two primary components: personal interviews of smallholder women whose households are engaged primarily in farming, and an ethnographic study of six women's groups active in the project area, with a range of histories, activities, and degree to which the group self-identifies as "green." For the personal interviews, the researcher will interview a random sample of women, stratified to include thirty-five households with participation in "green" women's groups and thirty-five households without participation. A farm visit will accompany each interview, and the researcher will statistically analyze interview responses. The ethnographic research attempts to access the complexity of group processes, as well as enrich and situate the personal interview data of the first research component.The significance of this research centers on its examination of how common ideas within "sustainable development," such as the coincidence of rural women's interests in developing countries with environmental conservation interests, are perhaps being used by groups to their own advantage. There is a tendency to polarize discussion into either/or terms: either women are natural environmental stewards or they are not. The thesis that women's groups in the southern Yucatan peninsular region might be using the notion of women as natural environmental stewards to their material advantage does not necessarily mean that these groups are not in fact adopting more environmentally sound practices. Both theory and conservation and development practice will benefit from a more nuanced understanding of when, why, and under what circumstances particular women consider themselves to be environmental stewards and then also engage in corresponding "green" activities. The results will contribute to local sustainable development efforts around the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve and be of comparative interest to conservation and development efforts elsewhere in the world. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.