ABSTRACT
This chapter presents two initiatives taken within indigenous communities in southern Mexico; initiatives designed to ensure the rural poor’s control over their physical and social resources. The different socio-political dynamics within and surrounding these communities, the environmental context, and the historical experiences with state-led development programmes are considered as background to the different forms of activism adopted. The studies show how a threat to the natural resource base and local livelihoods, either by direct outside intervention or by environmental deterioration, can trigger concerted community action. In addition, the immediate need to ensure daily income may move the rural poor to initiate their own production projects, which subsequently extend to encompass environmental issues and political action concerning control over natural resources.
