Sustainable management of natural resources guided by scientific projects at the Mexican Mixteca Poblana

Abstract

Sustainable management of natural resources guided by scientific projects at the Mexican Mixteca Poblana.

We raised the necessity of an effectively and fast transfer of the results obtained by researchers to inhabitants of the natural areas. This necessity is more peremptory in the case of the developing countries, and when researches work in the management of natural resources. It is the case of  the  research  group  of  the  Laboratory  of  Ecology  of  Communities  at  the  UNAM,  which  simultaneously  develops  diverse  projects  of research to analyze the human effect on natural ecosystems and generated models of sustainable development. The area of research is mainly  the  Reserve  of  the  Biosphere  of  Tehuacán-Cuicatlán,  a  zone  of  high  biological  and  cultural  diversity,  but  also  of  high  social marginalization. In this manuscript we present two examples: the extensive goat ranch and the use of Agave species for mezcal production. We show how scientific studies and cooperative work with human communities inhabiting the zone, we improve the use and conservation of natural resources.