ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how indigenous communities of Oaxaca, Mexico, have entered the politics of climate change and focuses on how they have both incorporated and contested those policies. History, senses of community and opportunities play a critical role in how indigenous communities have dealt with compulsory new rules of climate change mitigation while creating their own ways of dealing with climate variability. A multistage environmental state formation took place in the Sierra, not only emerging in the narratives and rules of government institutions but also in the practices of group organisation of the indigenous communities. Providing legal guaranty to communal land possession became a priority for the federal government because communal land conflicts among indigenous communities would make investment in climate change mitigation difficult. Environmental conflicts arise because climate policy encounters various historical ways of living in local territories where relational natures based on demands for autonomy and self-determination thrive.
