Tuesday 26th November 2024, 4-5pm GMT
Title: Mexico’s challenging path towards integrated and intercultural fire management
Abstract
Over the last decades, researchers and practitioners have proposed integrated approaches to fire management, which consider fire ecology, and a focus on prevention and risk reduction. In some instances, this has also included a non-prohibitive treatment of traditional fire use by local communities. More recently, academics have started to highlight the importance of empowering communities to take an active role in fostering the resilience of their territories. This includes integrating their traditional and empirical knowledge in fire management strategies in dialogue with scientific and technical advances, resulting in what has been termed intercultural fire management. This presentation analyses how these concepts have been implemented in Mexico, identifying main factors facilitating and hindering them from gaining ground. The information results from revising official documents like laws and strategic plans of governmental organizations, participating in the consultation process for modifying a federal norm on fire use, organizing a workshop for fire managers, and fieldwork in several protected areas. The presentation shows that Mexico started implementing integrated fire management early on and has made significant advances, although resistance and backlashes still exist. Regarding local knowledge, no official mechanisms or programs have yet considered its integration; however, in practice, local fire managers and authorities have developed ways to move toward intercultural fire management.
Speaker Bio
Christoph Neger is a human geographer with a Master’s degree from the University of Graz, Austria, and a doctorate from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City. He works as a researcher at the Academic Unit for Territorial Studies Yucatán in Mérida, Mexico, belonging to the UNAM’s Institute of Geography. His studies focus on the governance of natural resources and socio-environmental risks, particularly in protected areas. Over the last five years, his main research interest has been the spatial configuration and governance of fire management and fire use in Southeastern Mexico.
Laura P. Ponce Calderón is a postdoctoral researcher at The College of the Southern Frontier (ECOSUR) in Mexico, working with a transdisciplinary and intercultural approach. She specializes in the study of society, spaces and culture in relation to fire. She is currently carrying out a research project on “Cultural Fire Management in the Comiteca Tojolabal Plateau, Chiapas”. Her contributions have been considered in the design of governmental projects in Mexico. She is also the founder of the “Los Sin Fuego” collective in Latin America.
