The Political Dimension of Environmental Management: An Analysis from the Territorial Transformations and the Conflict in Topilejo, Mexico City

Abstract

From an urban-environmental policy perspective, the southern periphery of Mexico City is strategic for the ecosystem services it provides. However, social, economic, and political interests persist despite State actions aimed at ecological territorial planning and conservation land management. Environmental management results from the interaction between multiple actors (State, social, and private) with diverse interests in natural resources. Therefore, we analyzed environmental management as a sociopolitical process with territorial expression. In particular, there is interest in understanding the role of actors and power relations in controlling strategic natural resources (such as forests and soil) and the environmental management of peri-urban territory. We based the research on ethnographic and documentary work conducted in the community of Topilejo. The results show that environmental management is not limited to State action, as it is mediated by power relations (with practices ranging from cooperation and defense of the common good to coercion and violence) between various actors (including extreme figures such as organized crime) who dispute peri-urban territory and impose their interests in a direction that may or may not coincide with environmental conservation.