Interactions between community traditions and geospatial technology in natural resource management: case studies from common property regimes in rural southern Mexico

Canto Vergara, Jose (2015) Interactions between community traditions and geospatial technology in natural resource management: case studies from common property regimes in rural southern Mexico. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

Issues related to improving community participation and the effectiveness of green economy instruments are central to current debates regarding progress towards sustainable development. Information technology, such as Geographic Information Systems, may be able to play an important role in addressing these challenges. In this
study an experiment with introducing geospatial technology was conducted with four rural communities at different levels of engagement with institutional frameworks of payments for ecosystem services in Chiapas, Mexico. The purpose was to examine the impacts of such an intervention and evaluate whether it had the potential to enhance
collective understanding of natural resource management practices, lead to better shared decisions and enhance community social capital. By exploring the outcomes it was also possible to assess the conditions that enable or constrain such implementation processes. Five key themes (i.e. social structure, IT skills, participation in development,
external relations and power structures) were identified in an evaluation framework informed by actor-network theory concepts, and these guided the collection of evidence and data analysis. The results indicated that all of these factors had some influence over the success of geospatial technology analysis transfer, with community political decisionmaking
processes and previous involvement of external agents in local natural resource management activities being of particular importance.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
Depositing User:	Users 2593 not found.
Date Deposited:	10 Mar 2016 09:44
Last Modified:	10 Mar 2016 09:44
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/57409
DOI:

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