Conserving Borderlands? 2019-2020

The project “Conserving Borderlands? The Maya Forest” started in November 2019.

Rainforest - Usumacinta
Canyon of Usumacinta (Hanna Laako)

During the year 2019-2020, the project focused on exploring the origins of the Maya Forest concept. We also examined conservation laws, strategies and protected areas in Southern Mexico, Department of Petén in Guatemala and Belize.

The project analyzed and mapped also other Latin American cases of transboundary conservation.

Theoretically, the concepts of borderlands, frontiers and ecofrontiers were developed.

Research Team

Team members
Esmeralda Pliego, Hanna Laako and Miguel Urbina during fieldwork (Esmeralda Pliego 2018)

Dora Ramos Muñoz

Dora Ramos is Senior Researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR). She currently researches heritage sites, feminine work force, oil industry, information technology and Mesoamerica.

Esmeralda Pliego Alvarado

Esmeralda Pliego is Postdoctoral Researcher at Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS). She currently researches water management, conflicts, civil society, and climate politics in Southern Mexico.

Beula Márquez

Beula Márquez holds a BA in Biology. During the year 2019-2020, she carried out research on the Maya Forest conservation at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR).

Miguel Urbina Pérez

Miguel Urbina holds a MA in Anthropology. During the year 2019, he conducted fieldwork with the team in Campeche and Quintana Roo, Mexico. He is specialized in environmental issues, socio-environmental conflicts, water politics and Mesoamerica.

This first stage of the research was carried out in El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR), funded by the Mexican Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT).

CONACYT.
ECOSUR.