Mexico

Partnerships

See other partnerships

ACCES, through its members, has been involved in establishing academic-community cooperation through partnerships with communities and non-governmental organizations in Latin America. To date we have carried out partnerships in Mexico, Uruguay and Chile.

International Partnerships

These are projects that our members have been involved in and which reflect ACCES’mission and objectives.

Mexico

In September of 1996, GEMA, the QPIRG McGill and residents of the community of Huitzilac, in the state of Morelos, Mexico, ventured into an innovative project for sustainable development, ACCES. ACCES had as a goal to strengthen the capacity of a community to analyze and describe its environment and thus encourage and support their active participation in

environmental decision-making processes from which communities have too often been excluded, resulting in unfair and ineffective conservation practices. For the purpose of strengthening the organizational capacity of communities, we set out to determine the appropriateness of integrating scientific information and environmental popular education. Through popular education, we set out to encourage community participation in defining the community’s environmental and socialconcerns as well assustainable.
For both GEMA and QPIRG McGill, this project was a new experience in the field of “partnerships”.

The challenges of working together were facilitated by our shared enthusiasm and commitment to collective decision-making, to finding sustainable ways of living and community based development. We learned from each other and we saw the fruits of sharing our strengths in our work with the community of Huitzilac. This project offered the opportunity to share experiences on environmental work and we saw this as a benefit to all of its participants. For the community of Huitzilac, it meant an opportunity to discuss environmental and socio-economic concerns with a focus on possible alternatives. It made academic information accessible to people and thus supported their initiatives. For academics, it provided the opportunity to give their research more relevance at the local level and it was a learning experience in participatory research. For the NGOs involved, it has provided the opportunity to continue to do local work while incorporating a global perspective. For more on this partnership

Chile

In 2002 one of our members, Gisela Frias, received an IDRC internship award. Through this award she established a partnership with the Unión de Comunidades Mapuche Lonko Leftraru and the Mapuche Communication Group Lulul Mawhida. In collaboration we designed a participatory research process to jointly understand the impact that the establishment of forest monoculture plantations of pine and eucalyptus are having on Mapuche communities.

The research took place in the Municipality of Lumako in the province of Malleco in Chile. Five Mapuche communities participated in this initiative.The participation of Jeannette Paillán, a Mapuche film–maker, member of Lulul Mawhida, allowed us to document the entire participatory research process in video. Through the process the communities collectively identified the historical process that has alienated them from their land, leading to the establishment of forest plantations starting in 1974 during the dictatorship. They also examined how these plantations are having an impact on every aspect of their lives and kme mogen (well being).The findings and process was documentedin a

written document in Spanish, Invasión Forestal Khla Nagnegei Taiñ Weichangepan. A video is also being produced. See PDF document >>

with pictures or a light version without pictures.

Uruguay

An ACCES member, Beatriz Oliver, is doing doctoral work linked with the non-governmental organization (NGO) Red de Ecología Social (REDES) and a project called “Uruguay Sustentable” (Sustainable Uruguay). The research is about small-scale farming and proposals for sustainable agriculture in Uruguay. Many research questions were identified together with REDES and with a rural women's network in Uruguay (Red de Grupos de Mujeres Rurales). Both conventional anthropology and participatory action methodologies are employed in the study.

Uruguay Sustentable is an effort to create a comprehensive plan of action for socially just and environmentally sustainable development in Uruguay. It is related to similar initiatives in other South American countries as part of a larger network called Sustainable Southern Cone (“Cono Sur Sustentable”). Uruguay Sustentable unites NGOs, unions, grassroots groups, cooperatives and research institutions. Some faculties of the national university are involved through a formal agreement. There are contributions from agronomists, economists, anthropologists, sociologists, geographers, biologists, and other researchers.

A major objective of Uruguay Sustentable is to propose changes to the agricultural system in order to improve protection of the environment and maintain rural livelihoods. A guiding principle is that the formulation of such a proposal requires uniting the knowledge and strengths of different social movements. Participating in Uruguay Sustentable are organizations of small- and medium-size farmers, and of rural women.
The plan is being developed in a horizontal way through forums to analyze current problems in different areas (e.g. energy, agriculture, water, etc.) and put forward alternative solutions. Some immediate results of this endeavour are the increased collaboration of the organizations involved and the creation of policy recommendations for use in campaigns. The first step of the project was to carry out an initial analysis (which was completed), followed by further steps to strengthen the research and proposals.

TOP