Browsing by Subject "Mexico"
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Item Open Access A bottom-up electricity demand model for the residential sector in Querétaro, Mexico(2016-12-12) Hernandez, Mauricio; Cao, SunzheThere is a growing interest in reducing energy consumption and its associated greenhouse gas emissions from every sector of the economy. The residential sector is a substantial consumer of energy in every country and understanding which factors affect the energy consumption in this sector is crucial for policy makers, investors, utilities, and other stakeholders. This study contributes to a better understanding of these factors through a case study in Queretaro, Mexico. Particularly, this study sheds light on two different methods for collecting detailed information on the end uses of energy in homes, and for assessing the relationship between energy consumption and demographic and socioeconomic indicators. The data used for this study were collected through face-to-face surveys in 32 households and by tracking real-time electricity consumption in a subset of these households. Finally, a bottom-up model was used to estimate the electricity demand of the households surveyed, with the results suggesting a correlation with income, number of lightbulbs, dwelling size, and the number of days the household was occupied. The results of the study motivated the authors to recommend the extension and replication of this study, to assess the role of private transportation in energy consumption, and to improve the use of technology for the collection and analysis of data.Item Open Access A Preliminary Examination of the Impacts of Faith and Religion in the Use of Common-Pool Resources: The Case of Artisanal Fisheries in Kino Bay and Punta Chueca, Mexico(2012-04-27) Acton, LeslieResearchers studying common-pool resources have historically not given enough attention to the influence of faith and religion among fisheries resource users. However, the ethics and value systems taught by religious leaders and understood by faithful peoples might play an important role in individual decision-making and community dynamics. To increase our understanding of the relationship between faith, religion and fishing common-pool resource use patterns, I conducted a pilot study to explore this issue in Kino Bay and Punta Chueca, two small-scale fishing communities located in the Gulf of California. These two communities are heavily dependent, both economically and culturally, on the health of nearby fishing grounds. I collected data using participant observation and semi-structured interviews with fishers over the course of 52 days in the field during May, June, July and October of 2011. Interviews explored the effects of faith and religion on fishers’ perceptions of fisheries management, fishers’ behavior while fishing, and interactions between fishers. Findings from this pilot study suggest that faith and religion play an important role in the lives of fishers in both Kino Bay and Punta Chueca. Most of the interviewees in both communities believe that human behaviors impact the quantity of fish which God provided. Evangelical interviewees in Kino Bay indicated that their churches teach strict adherence to secular fishing laws, and that their interactions with Catholic and non-religious fishers in this community sometimes result in tension and unequal treatment within the fisheries. Conversely, interviewees in Punta Chueca, which houses only one Evangelical church and no Catholic church, suggest fewer direct impacts and conflicts due to religion in their fisheries. These preliminary findings provide a useful basis for future research to validate, triangulate, and explore the issue in greater depth. They also add to the limited, but growing collection of studies examining the role of faith and religion in common-pool resource management.Item Open Access A spark for collective action: Challenges and opportunities for self-governance in temporary fisher-designed Fish Refuges in Mexico(2020) Quintana, Anastasia Compton ElunedDespite decades of study, the question of how to achieve sustainable small-scale fisheries is unresolved. Because small-scale fishing is diverse and hard to control, one management approach places fishers at the center of decision-making. Common-pool resource theory has assembled a large body of evidence that resource users, without top-down state control, are able to devise and enforce rules that lead to long-term sustainable resource harvest. The social and ecological characteristics (“design principles”) are well known for systems where this collective action is predicted to spontaneously emerge. However, it is poorly known what precipitates collective action when these design principles are absent. This dissertation draws insights about this question from a seemingly successful case from Baja California Sur, Mexico, where fishers have voluntarily created no-fishing areas (“Fish Refuges” or “Zonas de Refugio Pesquero”) in collaboration with the government fisheries agency and a non-governmental organization, Niparajá, in the absence of the design principles. This work is based on an in-depth study of these Fish Refuges including 180 days in the field from 2016-2018, participant observation, informal interviews, journaling, and semi-structured interviews (n=66). First, I found that collective action was possible because stakeholders had three competing visions about what the Fish Refuges were, each associated with criteria and evidence of whether the Fish Refuges were effective. This implies that policy flexibility to accommodate competing goals and evaluation criteria could facilitate collaboration for fisheries management. Second, I found that fishers’ knowledge was integrated in a process that did not recognize its legitimacy though what I call “ping-pong hybridization”, where the locus of decision making moved between stakeholders who could draw on their own knowledge systems. This implies that policies may be able to integrate multiple knowledge systems if the locus of decision-making moves back and forth. Third, I found that the property rights regime change away from de facto open access was possible because fishers were able to trade formal fishing rights for informal management rights, closing a fishing area to gain government trust and partnership. This work implies that insecure, unofficial, and tenuous property rights may be a first step of property rights regime change to achieve sustainable fisheries. In conclusion, bottom-up approaches to fisheries management may benefit from processes where different stakeholders can define the goals and methods used, and draw on their own knowledge systems to assess success. Shifts away from open access may be precipitated when fishers demand decision-making rights, even if these rights are tenuous.
Item Open Access Analyzing Household Drivers of Residential Electricity Consumption in Mexico(2020-04-24) Siegel, Jess Sonya; Ullman, Amanda; Wu, KarenIn this study, we analyze the drivers of household appliance saturation in Mexico in order to support the ongoing development of a computer-based model for long-term projections of residential electricity consumption. Our findings inform future decisions regarding energy efficiency policies and capacity expansion plans of the electric power sector. With the most carbon-intensive electricity grid in Latin America, a growing population, and a growing energy-intensive middle class, Mexico has set goals to reduce energy consumption by 30% in their residential sector by 2030. In this project, we analyze 2008-2018 data from Mexico’s National Survey of Household Income and Expenditure (ENIGH) to investigate how household characteristics have influenced the adoption of various types of HVAC, lightbulbs, televisions, washing machines, and other household appliances. Additionally, we analyze how regional and climatic differences have especially affected heating and cooling technologies. Finally, we review electricity policies in Mexico to explore their effects on appliance adoption and make recommendations for future policies. Our findings indicate that, although the saturation of each appliance is influenced to varying degrees by different factors, socioeconomic status was a common significant factor across all appliances. The country could enhance its appliance adoption and replacement programs catered towards low income communities, enforce stricter energy efficiency standards at a faster pace, and continue collecting detailed data on household energy use.Item Open Access Anarchism and Visual Culture in Greater Mexico, 1910-1950(2019) Romero, RosaliaThis dissertation explores the influence of anarchism on the development of modern art in Mexico and the Americas from 1910 to 1950. It argues that art was an integral component of anarchist movements and that the philosophy and politics of anarchism guided major aesthetic debates about modern art in Mexico. Two key figures anchor this study: Ricardo Flores Magón (1874-1922) was an anarchist writer, activist, and head of the Junta Organizadora del Partido Liberal Mexicano, an anarcho-communist group of exiled Mexican anarchists living in the U.S. Dr. Atl (1875-1964) was a landscape painter, early proponent of muralism, and promoter of Mexican folk art. These figures are a starting point for unveiling a wide network of well-known and marginalized artists, writers, and intellectuals who engaged with anarchist philosophies. Using previously unexplored archival sources, correspondence, and unpublished manuscripts, this study examines a range of different artistic works—paintings and murals, cartoons and drawings, correspondence and book illustrations—that ranged in form and style from realism to impressionism and expressionism. By examining the reproduction and translation of these works throughout Mexico, the U.S., and South America, this dissertation also shows how anarchist art production transcended linguistic and cultural divides and furthered efforts to construct a hemispheric network of transborder solidarity.
Item Open Access Atmospheric Pressure: An Ethnography of Wind, Turbines, and Zapotec Life in Southern Mexico(2018) Friede, StephanieAs one of the windiest places in the world, it is no surprise that companies have flocked to Mexico's Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a narrow neck of land connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Primarily foreign corporations have installed more than1500 wind turbines in less than ten years' time. While wind energy appears an ethereal, amorphous, and limitless resource, the wind can only become electricity through turbines that require vast tracts of land. The question of land ownership — a historical flashpoint in the region — has amplified tensions between residents, straining the already frayed web of social relations that have long bound this indigenous Zapotec community to one another.
Many of the indigenous Zapotec residents are thrilled these once bothersome winds are becoming productive — as profits, job security, and perhaps their shot at progress. Landowners are among the most ardent supporters of wind energy development, tending their livestock in the morning, leveraging their land in exchange for more favorable lease agreements with executives in the afternoon. Opponents of the industry liken their boosters to an earlier colonial power, asking, "What are we going to eat if you turn everything into gold?" – depicting wind energy as merely the latest in a long history of dispossessions. For them, the wind has always been productive, an actor in their everyday lives: it awakens the fruits of the sea, sustaining fishermen and feeding their families; it causes illness and destroys property, and it conjures residents to recall the joys of living in this place. What Istmeños are aware of are the stark geopolitical realities that have brought wind turbines to their doorstep.
In a moment when Mexico's oil reserves are dwindling and the state searches for alternative revenues, the case of wind energy development on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec complicates the utopian narrative that industry and government advocates recount regarding the so-called win-win possibilities for green energy development across the global South. What happens when the wind is transformed from its unruly natural state into a natural resource? Far from an isolated case, this dissertation draws upon broader theories of power, both electrical and economic, to show how individuals, institutions, and experts are laying claim to nature's force. Neither the fable of green techno-optimism nor a return to some mythical nature adequately explains the messiness of the everyday realities I observed. Based on more than 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork, I trace the generative possibilities of the wind, reconfiguring social relations through technological change. Ultimately, however, it is the imponderability of the natural world, its scale and power, and the very real consequences that efforts to mitigate global climate change are having in one particular place that I hope to convey in this work.
Item Open Access "Capitalizing Subjects: Free African-Descended Women of Means in Xalapa, Veracruz during the Long Seventeenth Century(2013) Terrazas Williams, Danielle L"Capitalizing Subjects: Free African-Descended Women of Means in Xalapa, Veracruz during the Long Seventeenth Century" explores the socioeconomic worlds of free women of means. I find that they owned slaves, engaged in cross-caste relations, managed their estates, maintained profitable social networks with other regional elites, and attempted to secure the economic futures of their children. Through an examination of notarial, ecclesiastical, and viceregal sources, I highlight the significant role this group played in the local economy and social landscape. My work demonstrates that free women of African descent engaged in specific types of economic endeavors that spoke to their investments in particular kinds of capital (economic, social, and cultural) that allowed them greater visibility and social legitimacy than previously documented. This dissertation, further, challenges a historiography that has over-emphasized the roles of race and gender in determining the lives of all people of African descent in colonial Latin America.
Item Open Access Climate Change Adaptation Strategies for the State of Oaxaca, Mexico(2012-04-20) Muñoz, SofiaPolicy Question: What policy strategies should the government of the state of Oaxaca implement to adapt to climate change? The Mexican government and the international community have identified climate change as one of the most difficult challenges of the century. This is especially true for developing countries and their poor populations, since climate change impacts will be a constant threat to achieve international and national development goals. Although climate change mitigation strategies are essential to reduce these impacts in the future, the historic and present emissions level will have impact in the short, medium, and long term. Therefore, adaptation strategies are critical to overcome these impacts and to be able to achieve development. The World Bank in Mexico, through the Latin America and Caribbean Regional Environmental Unit, is working with the Mexican federal and state governments to develop climate change adaptation plans. Together with the World Bank, the government of the state of Oaxaca is creating a climate change adaptation plan that will be an instrument to face the challenges that climate change will have in the state. As part of that project, this policy paper provides a broad perspective of climate change impacts for the state of Oaxaca, with a specific focus on problems for urban areas. It provides recommendations on different adaptation measures that should be included in the state’s adaptation plan, all of which can be applied for the state’s urban areas. The first part of this policy paper includes an analysis of the different problems that the state of Oaxaca will have as a consequence of climate change. After defining the problem, the following section presents a set of criteria which where considered in defining the alternatives. The analysis section focuses on weighing the alternatives against the criteria, which sets the ground for the final recommendations. Problem Definition Oaxaca is one of the poorest states in Mexico. It lacks economic opportunities and education and human development remains behind compared to the rest of the country. People’s strong dependence on agriculture increases the possible threat of climate change on their livelihoods, but the lack of economic resources and investments in other sectors make it a state that has been left behind. Urban areas in the state are growing. Population growth is a main cause, but the disorganized growth increases the challenges in urban areas. There is a lack of planning and future vision of the needs for organized and sustainable urban systems. The impacts of climate change in these areas, especially those lying in the coasts, are likely to be significant and in many cases devastating. Poor infrastructure in transportation and communications increases the threats of extreme weather events and climate related disasters. Likewise, the significant impacts on water availability, accessibility, and quality will have important impacts on health, economic activities, and social welfare. One of the main challenges is the complexity of actors and stakeholders involved in the issue. While everyone will assume the consequences of climate change, the implementation of adaptation strategies is highly dependent on government policies, actions, and cooperation. International organizations have played, and will increasingly play, an important role in the application of these plans and on helping the governments lead toward climate change actions. The private sector, on the other hand, is key to encourage economic growth and support through investments, but its participation has been poor, especially in the state of Oaxaca. Alternatives The alternatives analyzed in this paper are divided in two groups: building adaptive capacity and delivering adaptation actions. The first group is based on generating the necessary information and conditions that will support climate change adaptation. These alternatives include increasing knowledge on the impacts of climate change, promoting education and understanding of the impacts, achieve economic development, encourage economic diversification, encourage multilevel governance and cooperation across actors, and promote insurance and financial mechanisms. The second group of alternatives is focused on reducing the vulnerability of the damages caused by climate change: investing in physical infrastructure, such as transportation or water, and improving urban planning. Recommendations The paper shows the important role that all of the alternatives play in achieving adaptation to climate change, and how all of these meet to a certain extent the main criteria: encouraging achievement of development goals, feasibility, cost-effectiveness, implementation in the near future, reducing long-term vulnerability, and scalability. Therefore, the recommendations include all of the alternatives but should be implemented in three different stages. The first stage is can be implemented within the existing policy frameworks and will have a positive impact in achieving the rest of the alternatives. These alternatives include: • Increase knowledge of the impacts of climate change at the local and state levels • Promote education and understanding of the impacts of climate change • Encourage multilevel governance and cooperation across actors in different sectors The second stage includes strategies that need more investment from public and private sources and that are necessary in order to achieve the last stage. These include: • Improve urban planning • Invest in physical infrastructure (transportation, water, and communications) • Promote insurance and financial mechanisms For these strategies to be successful, the government needs to establish the necessary conditions, which can result from the improved cooperation between the private and public sectors, as well as a multilevel governance framework. Investments in urban planning, physical infrastructure, and insurance and financial mechanisms can lead to more sustained economic development and diversification. Therefore, the last stage of alternatives includes both: • Achieve economic development • Encourage economic diversification Economic development and diversification are key strategies and play a very important role in climate change adaptation. Since both of the strategies are a consequence of education, human development, infrastructure, competitive urban spaces, and efficient governance, they should be seen as alternatives that will be developed throughout the process rather than addressing them independently in the far future. All of the alternatives are applicable in urban areas in the state of Oaxaca. Improving knowledge on the local impacts that climate change will have on Oaxaca’s cities will allow for a more accurate design of policies and instruments for climate change adaptation. Community participation through education and communication is even more important in urban contexts, where there tends to be fragmentation between social groups and where the impacts of climate change are imbalanced for different population groups. Coordination between different levels of government is highly needed in cities; urban sprawl has increased the complexity of the cities’ jurisdictional structure and the daily interaction of different actors brings more complex challenges in the urban context. Urban planning is becoming a priority for development and climate change. It should include investments in infrastructure for water service provision, transportation, and communications. Although this requires high investments and mobilization of financial resources, there are possible opportunities to access those resources. In this matter, the active participation of the World Bank plays a crucial role. The organization can invest in projects, but also act as intermediary with the private sector to attract more investments into the state. The insurance market needs further development especially in Oaxaca. Designing good insurance mechanisms can increase private sector investments and participation, encouraging economic growth and development. In this case also, international financial institutions can play a vital role in designing and implementing these mechanisms and they can help the local and state governments create an inviting environment. Finally, due to the socioeconomic conditions in Oaxaca, economic development and diversification become a central issue regarding climate change adaptation. In the case of urban areas, economic diversification becomes very important.. In the past years Oaxaca has attracted attention for its natural resources and cultural richness and has gained national and international notice. This is an important opportunity to foster entrepreneurship that promotes social welfare and environmental sustainability, to put Oaxaca as a national example. This can help achieve economic growth and development, but also increase awareness on the needs to preserve natural resources and therefore adapt to and mitigate climate change. Active participation and cooperation between the local, state, and national governments is necessary to implement every strategy. The role of the World Bank is significant and should be considered as such in the implementation process. The World Bank has an important position for advising governments on the design of policies, but also to set the stage for active private sector participation. In designing the policies, the World Bank can act as an intermediary between the different levels of government to ensure that there is cooperation and that the application of the strategies is consistent. Likewise, the World Bank’s participation designing and investing in specific projects, like transportation or water infrastructure, can promote private sector’s participation because they can be confident that the there is more likely to be clear spending and accountability for each of the projects. Development is a key issue for governments and a constant and important challenge. Climate change and its consequences will make this challenge even more complicated, especially in places where there is a lack of economic development or capacity building. Oaxaca already has several challenges regarding development, but it is also a place that is highly vulnerable to climate change. Therefore, the application of clear and well-designed adaptation measures is necessary to reduce the threats of climate change for the people, the ecosystems, and the economy. These strategies should be a priority for the government and development agencies working in the state, so as to increase people’s wellbeing and achieve local, national, and international development goals.Item Open Access Climate Change Adaptation Strategies for the State of Oaxaca, Mexico(2012-04-19) Muñoz, SofiaPolicy Question: What policy strategies should the government of the state of Oaxaca implement to adapt to climate change? The Mexican government and the international community have identified climate change as one of the most difficult challenges of the century. This is especially true for developing countries and their poor populations, since climate change impacts will be a constant threat to achieve international and national development goals. Although climate change mitigation strategies are essential to reduce these impacts in the future, the historic and present emissions level will have impact in the short, medium, and long term. Therefore, adaptation strategies are critical to overcome these impacts and to be able to achieve development. The World Bank in Mexico, through the Latin America and Caribbean Regional Environmental Unit, is working with the Mexican federal and state governments to develop climate change adaptation plans. Together with the World Bank, the government of the state of Oaxaca is creating a climate change adaptation plan that will be an instrument to face the challenges that climate change will have in the state. As part of that project, this policy paper provides a broad perspective of climate change impacts for the state of Oaxaca, with a specific focus on problems for urban areas. It provides recommendations on different adaptation measures that should be included in the state’s adaptation plan, all of which can be applied for the state’s urban areas. The first part of this policy paper includes an analysis of the different problems that the state of Oaxaca will have as a consequence of climate change. After defining the problem, the following section presents a set of criteria which where considered in defining the alternatives. The analysis section focuses on weighing the alternatives against the criteria, which sets the ground for the final recommendations. Problem Definition Oaxaca is one of the poorest states in Mexico. It lacks economic opportunities and education and human development remains behind compared to the rest of the country. People’s strong dependence on agriculture increases the possible threat of climate change on their livelihoods, but the lack of economic resources and investments in other sectors make it a state that has been left behind. Urban areas in the state are growing. Population growth is a main cause, but the disorganized growth increases the challenges in urban areas. There is a lack of planning and future vision of the needs for organized and sustainable urban systems. The impacts of climate change in these areas, especially those lying in the coasts, are likely to be significant and in many cases devastating. Poor infrastructure in transportation and communications increases the threats of extreme weather events and climate related disasters. Likewise, the significant impacts on water availability, accessibility, and quality will have important impacts on health, economic activities, and social welfare. One of the main challenges is the complexity of actors and stakeholders involved in the issue. While everyone will assume the consequences of climate change, the implementation of adaptation strategies is highly dependent on government policies, actions, and cooperation. International organizations have played, and will increasingly play, an important role in the application of these plans and on helping the governments lead toward climate change actions. The private sector, on the other hand, is key to encourage economic growth and support through investments, but its participation has been poor, especially in the state of Oaxaca. Alternatives The alternatives analyzed in this paper are divided in two groups: building adaptive capacity and delivering adaptation actions. The first group is based on generating the necessary information and conditions that will support climate change adaptation. These alternatives include increasing knowledge on the impacts of climate change, promoting education and understanding of the impacts, achieve economic development, encourage economic diversification, encourage multilevel governance and cooperation across actors, and promote insurance and financial mechanisms. The second group of alternatives is focused on reducing the vulnerability of the damages caused by climate change: investing in physical infrastructure, such as transportation or water, and improving urban planning. Recommendations The paper shows the important role that all of the alternatives play in achieving adaptation to climate change, and how all of these meet to a certain extent the main criteria: encouraging achievement of development goals, feasibility, cost-effectiveness, implementation in the near future, reducing long-term vulnerability, and scalability. Therefore, the recommendations include all of the alternatives but should be implemented in three different stages. The first stage is can be implemented within the existing policy frameworks and will have a positive impact in achieving the rest of the alternatives. These alternatives include: • Increase knowledge of the impacts of climate change at the local and state levels • Promote education and understanding of the impacts of climate change • Encourage multilevel governance and cooperation across actors in different sectors The second stage includes strategies that need more investment from public and private sources and that are necessary in order to achieve the last stage. These include: • Improve urban planning • Invest in physical infrastructure (transportation, water, and communications) • Promote insurance and financial mechanisms For these strategies to be successful, the government needs to establish the necessary conditions, which can result from the improved cooperation between the private and public sectors, as well as a multilevel governance framework. Investments in urban planning, physical infrastructure, and insurance and financial mechanisms can lead to more sustained economic development and diversification. Therefore, the last stage of alternatives includes both: • Achieve economic development • Encourage economic diversification Economic development and diversification are key strategies and play a very important role in climate change adaptation. Since both of the strategies are a consequence of education, human development, infrastructure, competitive urban spaces, and efficient governance, they should be seen as alternatives that will be developed throughout the process rather than addressing them independently in the far future. All of the alternatives are applicable in urban areas in the state of Oaxaca. Improving knowledge on the local impacts that climate change will have on Oaxaca’s cities will allow for a more accurate design of policies and instruments for climate change adaptation. Community participation through education and communication is even more important in urban contexts, where there tends to be fragmentation between social groups and where the impacts of climate change are imbalanced for different population groups. Coordination between different levels of government is highly needed in cities; urban sprawl has increased the complexity of the cities’ jurisdictional structure and the daily interaction of different actors brings more complex challenges in the urban context. Urban planning is becoming a priority for development and climate change. It should include investments in infrastructure for water service provision, transportation, and communications. Although this requires high investments and mobilization of financial resources, there are possible opportunities to access those resources. In this matter, the active participation of the World Bank plays a crucial role. The organization can invest in projects, but also act as intermediary with the private sector to attract more investments into the state. The insurance market needs further development especially in Oaxaca. Designing good insurance mechanisms can increase private sector investments and participation, encouraging economic growth and development. In this case also, international financial institutions can play a vital role in designing and implementing these mechanisms and they can help the local and state governments create an inviting environment. Finally, due to the socioeconomic conditions in Oaxaca, economic development and diversification become a central issue regarding climate change adaptation. In the case of urban areas, economic diversification becomes very important.. In the past years Oaxaca has attracted attention for its natural resources and cultural richness and has gained national and international notice. This is an important opportunity to foster entrepreneurship that promotes social welfare and environmental sustainability, to put Oaxaca as a national example. This can help achieve economic growth and development, but also increase awareness on the needs to preserve natural resources and therefore adapt to and mitigate climate change. Active participation and cooperation between the local, state, and national governments is necessary to implement every strategy. The role of the World Bank is significant and should be considered as such in the implementation process. The World Bank has an important position for advising governments on the design of policies, but also to set the stage for active private sector participation. In designing the policies, the World Bank can act as an intermediary between the different levels of government to ensure that there is cooperation and that the application of the strategies is consistent. Likewise, the World Bank’s participation designing and investing in specific projects, like transportation or water infrastructure, can promote private sector’s participation because they can be confident that the there is more likely to be clear spending and accountability for each of the projects. Development is a key issue for governments and a constant and important challenge. Climate change and its consequences will make this challenge even more complicated, especially in places where there is a lack of economic development or capacity building. Oaxaca already has several challenges regarding development, but it is also a place that is highly vulnerable to climate change. Therefore, the application of clear and well-designed adaptation measures is necessary to reduce the threats of climate change for the people, the ecosystems, and the economy. These strategies should be a priority for the government and development agencies working in the state, so as to increase people’s well-being and achieve local, national, and international development goals.Item Open Access Community‐based conservation strategies to end open access: The case of Fish Refuges in Mexico(Conservation Science and Practice, 2021-01) Quintana, ACE; Basurto, XItem Open Access Contesting market-based conservation: Payments for ecosystem services as a surface of engagement for rural social movements in Mexico(Human Geography: a new radical journal, 2013) Shapiro-Garza, EThe Mexican National Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) programs, which provide financial incentives for rural landholders to conserve forest, were originally designed under the logic of market-based conservation. Based on a multi-sited, multi scalar ethnography of the Mexican national PES programs, this article examines the process through which a national rural social movement was able to redefine the market-based narrative of PES, the historical and political context that provided this window of opportunity, and the ways in which their engagement led to a hybridization of the policy itself. The involvement of the rural social movement introduced a very different conception of PES – as a recognition by Mexico’s federal state and urban society of the value of campesino environmental stewardship and an economic support to allow them to remain on the land. Their direct involvement in the redesign of the programs had a significant impact on their conformation that reflected this vision of revaluing the rural: the inclusion of agroforests and sustainably managed timber lands; requirements for self-defined forest management plans; provision of dedicated funding for technical assistance; and the training of local extensionists. I believe that in mapping the evolution of the Mexican national PES program we can begin to see how, in this particular place and time, rural social movements employed PES as a "useful surface of engagement" (Escobar 1999, p. 13) for contesting the market-based notions of the federal state, international lending institutions and conservation NGOs. I position this analysis in the context of the global project of “grabbing green” and as an example of the frictions that can inhibit and even partially reverse the logic of the seemingly inexorable rise of market-based conservation policy and projects.Item Embargo Contests over Contraception in Late Twentieth-Century Mexico(2024) Gasparowicz, NatalieContests over Contraception in Late Twentieth-Century Mexico follows how the birth control pill became immoral and centers Mexican Catholics in this history. From the early 1960s to the early 1970s, Mexican Catholic bishops, priests, and married couples debated the morality of the pill. Because the pill was primarily a hormonal invention, as opposed to a barrier method, it inspired many questions and debates about the purpose of sex. In the 1960s, the Church was reevaluating its doctrine—including its approach to sex and marriage—amidst modernization, social change, and cultural upheaval. Instead of assuming a monolithic Mexican Church, Contests over Contraception centers on the diversity of Catholic actors and their ideas. I argue that at the heart of these pluralistic debates about the morality of the pill was the contested place of nonprocreative sex in marriage, otherwise known as conjugality, marital intimacy, and pleasure. My work places the question of marital intimacy at the center of these debates, unsettling many of the dominant narratives about the Church in Mexico and Latin America in this period: a critic of economic oppression or a defender of family values. Just as much as the very real economic circumstances led many Mexicans to be concerned with family size, this concern was not mutually exclusive with concerns over marital intimacy and pleasure, as often inadvertently assumed. The fear of couples resorting to abortion was powerful enough to reconcile many of these different concerns and push Mexican Catholics to consider approving the pill.This dissertation demonstrates that this history is much more than one of Catholic dissent or obedience in response to the Pope's prohibition of the pill in 1968. When we turn to Mexico, we see that these debates were about how couples, not individuals, made these decisions about their reproductive lives together. And so, marital intimacy—when and why couples should have sex and whether the pill could facilitate this process—was an important one. Concerns over economic circumstances only raised the stakes. This research suggests that the question of birth control is distinct from abortion, and invites a different set of questions, especially when studied in Mexico. Contemporary terminology used to discuss sexuality and reproduction (such as left/right or pro-life/pro-choice) did not apply to these complex debates in the 1960s. Centering on how Mexican Catholics conceived of conjugality, or pleasure between spouses, moves away from the equally important focus of individual rights and autonomy when discussing reproduction and sexuality. Historicizing how and when the pill became immoral in Mexico suggests reproductive matters were politicized at different rates across the world.
Item Open Access Contribution of Subsidies and Participatory Governance to Fishers’ Adaptive Capacity(Journal of Environment and Development, 2016-12-01) Nenadović, M; Basurto, X; Weaver, AH© 2016, © The Author(s) 2016. The need for strengthening fishers' adaptive capacity has been proposed in the literature as an important component of effective fisheries governance arrangements in the presence of rising numbers of external drivers of change. Within the context of small-scale fisheries, government subsidies have been the main tool used for increasing adaptive capacity. We examine the relationship among adaptive capacity, subsidy programs, and fishers' participation in fisheries management, as a potentially important mediating factor affecting outcomes using a data set from two periods of a fishing community in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Our results show a correlation between those fishers with access to decision-making venues and their reception of subsidies, yet the effect of participation and subsidies on fishers' adaptive capacity is limited. This appears to be due to the authorities' lack of commitment to strengthening fishers' adaptive capacity through subsidies programs, and fishers' lack of trust in the governance processes.Item Open Access Detecting structure of haplotypes and local ancestry.(Genetics, 2014-03) Guan, YongtaoWe present a two-layer hidden Markov model to detect the structure of haplotypes for unrelated individuals. This allows us to model two scales of linkage disequilibrium (one within a group of haplotypes and one between groups), thereby taking advantage of rich haplotype information to infer local ancestry of admixed individuals. Our method outperforms competing state-of-the-art methods, particularly for regions of small ancestral track lengths. Applying our method to Mexican samples in HapMap3, we found two regions on chromosomes 6 and 8 that show significant departure of local ancestry from the genome-wide average. A software package implementing the methods described in this article is freely available at http://bcm.edu/cnrc/mcmcmc.Item Open Access Efficacy of interferon beta-1a plus remdesivir compared with remdesivir alone in hospitalised adults with COVID-19: a double-bind, randomised, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial.(The Lancet. Respiratory medicine, 2021-12) Kalil, Andre C; Mehta, Aneesh K; Patterson, Thomas F; Erdmann, Nathaniel; Gomez, Carlos A; Jain, Mamta K; Wolfe, Cameron R; Ruiz-Palacios, Guillermo M; Kline, Susan; Regalado Pineda, Justino; Luetkemeyer, Anne F; Harkins, Michelle S; Jackson, Patrick EH; Iovine, Nicole M; Tapson, Victor F; Oh, Myoung-Don; Whitaker, Jennifer A; Mularski, Richard A; Paules, Catharine I; Ince, Dilek; Takasaki, Jin; Sweeney, Daniel A; Sandkovsky, Uriel; Wyles, David L; Hohmann, Elizabeth; Grimes, Kevin A; Grossberg, Robert; Laguio-Vila, Maryrose; Lambert, Allison A; Lopez de Castilla, Diego; Kim, EuSuk; Larson, LuAnn; Wan, Claire R; Traenkner, Jessica J; Ponce, Philip O; Patterson, Jan E; Goepfert, Paul A; Sofarelli, Theresa A; Mocherla, Satish; Ko, Emily R; Ponce de Leon, Alfredo; Doernberg, Sarah B; Atmar, Robert L; Maves, Ryan C; Dangond, Fernando; Ferreira, Jennifer; Green, Michelle; Makowski, Mat; Bonnett, Tyler; Beresnev, Tatiana; Ghazaryan, Varduhi; Dempsey, Walla; Nayak, Seema U; Dodd, Lori; Tomashek, Kay M; Beigel, John H; ACTT-3 study group membersBackground
Functional impairment of interferon, a natural antiviral component of the immune system, is associated with the pathogenesis and severity of COVID-19. We aimed to compare the efficacy of interferon beta-1a in combination with remdesivir compared with remdesivir alone in hospitalised patients with COVID-19.Methods
We did a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial at 63 hospitals across five countries (Japan, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, and the USA). Eligible patients were hospitalised adults (aged ≥18 years) with SARS-CoV-2 infection, as confirmed by a positive RT-PCR test, and who met one of the following criteria suggestive of lower respiratory tract infection: the presence of radiographic infiltrates on imaging, a peripheral oxygen saturation on room air of 94% or less, or requiring supplemental oxygen. Patients were excluded if they had either an alanine aminotransferase or an aspartate aminotransferase concentration more than five times the upper limit of normal; had impaired renal function; were allergic to the study product; were pregnant or breast feeding; were already on mechanical ventilation; or were anticipating discharge from the hospital or transfer to another hospital within 72 h of enrolment. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive intravenous remdesivir as a 200 mg loading dose on day 1 followed by a 100 mg maintenance dose administered daily for up to 9 days and up to four doses of either 44 μg interferon beta-1a (interferon beta-1a group plus remdesivir group) or placebo (placebo plus remdesivir group) administered subcutaneously every other day. Randomisation was stratified by study site and disease severity at enrolment. Patients, investigators, and site staff were masked to interferon beta-1a and placebo treatment; remdesivir treatment was given to all patients without masking. The primary outcome was time to recovery, defined as the first day that a patient attained a category 1, 2, or 3 score on the eight-category ordinal scale within 28 days, assessed in the modified intention-to-treat population, defined as all randomised patients who were classified according to actual clinical severity. Safety was assessed in the as-treated population, defined as all patients who received at least one dose of the assigned treatment. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04492475.Findings
Between Aug 5, 2020, and Nov 11, 2020, 969 patients were enrolled and randomly assigned to the interferon beta-1a plus remdesivir group (n=487) or to the placebo plus remdesivir group (n=482). The mean duration of symptoms before enrolment was 8·7 days (SD 4·4) in the interferon beta-1a plus remdesivir group and 8·5 days (SD 4·3) days in the placebo plus remdesivir group. Patients in both groups had a time to recovery of 5 days (95% CI not estimable) (rate ratio of interferon beta-1a plus remdesivir group vs placebo plus remdesivir 0·99 [95% CI 0·87-1·13]; p=0·88). The Kaplan-Meier estimate of mortality at 28 days was 5% (95% CI 3-7%) in the interferon beta-1a plus remdesivir group and 3% (2-6%) in the placebo plus remdesivir group (hazard ratio 1·33 [95% CI 0·69-2·55]; p=0·39). Patients who did not require high-flow oxygen at baseline were more likely to have at least one related adverse event in the interferon beta-1a plus remdesivir group (33 [7%] of 442 patients) than in the placebo plus remdesivir group (15 [3%] of 435). In patients who required high-flow oxygen at baseline, 24 (69%) of 35 had an adverse event and 21 (60%) had a serious adverse event in the interferon beta-1a plus remdesivir group compared with 13 (39%) of 33 who had an adverse event and eight (24%) who had a serious adverse event in the placebo plus remdesivir group.Interpretation
Interferon beta-1a plus remdesivir was not superior to remdesivir alone in hospitalised patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. Patients who required high-flow oxygen at baseline had worse outcomes after treatment with interferon beta-1a compared with those given placebo.Funding
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (USA).Item Open Access Empirical Evaluation of DSGE Models for Emerging Countries(2009) Garcia Cicco, JavierThis dissertation is the collection of three essays aimed to evaluate the empirical performance of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models in explaining the behavior of macroeconomic dynamics in emerging countries.
Chapter 1, which is joint work with M. Uribe and R. Pancrazzi, investigates the hypothesis that a real business cycles model driven by permanent and transitory productivity shocks can explain well observed business-cycle fluctuations in emerging countries. The model is estimated using more than a century of Argentine data.
In Chapter 2, a comprehensive real DSGE model of an emerging country is estimated using Bayesian techniques, expanding the data set used in Chapter 1. The goal is to characterize the relative relevance of ten different business cycles' drivers: three sectorial technology shocks, embodied and disembodied non-stationary technology, terms of trade, the world interest rate, trade policy, government expenditures and the country premium.
Finally, Chapter 3 estimates (using Mexican data) a DSGE model of an emerging country containing many frictions, as has been recently argued, that impose non-trivial constraints for monetary-policy design. In particular, the framework features a sectorial decomposition of the productive sector, intermediate inputs, imperfect pass-through, endogenous premium to finance capital accumulation, a liability-dollarization problem, currency substitution, price and wage rigidities, and dynamics driven by eleven shocks.
Item Open Access Environmental Activists as Agents of Social Democratization: a Historical Comparison of Russia and Mexico(2009) Dolutskaya, Sofia I.This study is a comparative historical analysis of the link between environmental activism and state-society relations in 20th century Russia and Mexico. It explores the three main currents of environmentalism that originated in these two countries under non-democratic political systems that originated in the social revolutions of 1910 (Mexico) and 1917 (Russia) and the roles that each current has played in the process of democratization that began in the 1980s. It is based on critical evaluation and synthesis of the following theoretical fields: collective action, social movements, political regime change and democratic transition. Scholarly literature and press sources are used to corroborate and evaluate findings from in-depth qualitative interviews with environmental activists, researchers, lawyers, and journalists as well as data from participant observation conducted by the author in Russia and in Mexico. The main findings of the study are two-fold. 1) Environmental activism affects social rather than political democratization. 2) The type of environmental activism that has the most significant impact on social democratization is social environmentalism - the current that emphasizes the synergy between the struggles for social justice and civil rights on the one hand and against environmental degradation on the other.
Item Open Access Flawed Tactics: A Discussion of the U.S. Government’s Faulty Approach to Criminal Drug Flow and the International Framework Required to Address it(2010-05-10T17:35:34Z) Haraldsdottir, KarolinaItem Open Access Identifying multiple origins of polyploid taxa: a multilocus study of the hybrid cloak fern (Astrolepis integerrima; Pteridaceae).(American journal of botany, 2012-11) Beck, James B; Allison, James R; Pryer, Kathleen M; Windham, Michael DPREMISE OF THE STUDY: Molecular studies have shown that multiple origins of polyploid taxa are the rule rather than the exception. To understand the distribution and ecology of polyploid species and the evolutionary significance of polyploidy in general, it is important to delineate these independently derived lineages as accurately as possible. Although gene flow among polyploid lineages and backcrossing to their diploid parents often confound this process, such post origin gene flow is very infrequent in asexual polyploids. In this study, we estimate the number of independent origins of the apomictic allopolyploid fern Astrolepis integerrima, a morphologically heterogeneous species most common in the southwestern United States and Mexico, with outlying populations in the southeastern United States and the Caribbean. METHODS: Plastid DNA sequence and AFLP data were obtained from 33 A. integerrima individuals. Phylogenetic analysis of the sequence data and multidimensional clustering of the AFLP data were used to identify independently derived lineages. KEY RESULTS: Analysis of the two datasets identified 10 genetic groups within the 33 analyzed samples. These groups suggest a minimum of 10 origins of A. integerrima in the northern portion of its range, with both putative parents functioning as maternal donors, both supplying unreduced gametes, and both contributing a significant portion of their genetic diversity to the hybrids. CONCLUSIONS: Our results highlight the extreme cryptic genetic diversity and systematic complexity that can underlie a single polyploid taxon.Item Open Access Improving environmental and social targeting through adaptive management in Mexico's payments for hydrological services program.(Conserv Biol, 2014-10) Sims, Katharine RE; Alix-Garcia, Jennifer M; Shapiro-Garza, Elizabeth; Fine, Leah R; Radeloff, Volker C; Aronson, Glen; Castillo, Selene; Ramirez-Reyes, Carlos; Yañez-Pagans, PatriciaNatural resource managers are often expected to achieve both environmental protection and economic development even when there are fundamental trade-offs between these goals. Adaptive management provides a theoretical structure for program administrators to balance social priorities in the presence of trade-offs and to improve conservation targeting. We used the case of Mexico's federal Payments for Hydrological Services program (PSAH) to illustrate the importance of adaptive management for improving program targeting. We documented adaptive elements of PSAH and corresponding changes in program eligibility and selection criteria. To evaluate whether these changes resulted in enrollment of lands of high environmental and social priority, we compared the environmental and social characteristics of the areas enrolled in the program with the characteristics of all forested areas in Mexico, all areas eligible for the program, and all areas submitted for application to the program. The program successfully enrolled areas of both high ecological and social priority, and over time, adaptive changes in the program's criteria for eligibility and selection led to increased enrollment of land scoring high on both dimensions. Three factors facilitated adaptive management in Mexico and are likely to be generally important for conservation managers: a supportive political environment, including financial backing and encouragement to experiment from the federal government; availability of relatively good social and environmental data; and active participation in the review process by stakeholders and outside evaluators.
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