147
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
S. Lucatello et al. (eds.), Stewardship of Future Drylands and Climate
Change in the Global South, Springer Climate,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22464-6_9
Chapter 9
The Construction and Sabotage
of Successful Agricultural Lands
in Semiarid Lands: A Case Study
of Vitivinicultural Areas in Northern
México
I. Espejel, G. Arámburo, N. Badan, L. Carreño, A. Cota, G. Gutiérrez,
L. Ibarra, C. Leyva, T. Moreno-Zulueta, L. Ojeda-Revah, L. Pedrín,
C. Uscanga, M. Reyes-Orta, J. C. Ramírez, P. Rojas, J. Sandoval,
C. Turrent, Á. Vela, and I. Vaillard
Abstract The land-use planning effort for a semiarid watershed where wine is the
staple economic product was evaluated. Over the last 30 years, three top-down local
public policies have been in effect with the shared objective of building a sustainable
valley where rural settlements, Mediterranean-type crops, and tourism can thrive. The
evaluation result was that most of the proposed guidelines were not implemented. The
questions addressed in this chapter are: what are the main reasons behind the noncompliance of regulations in land-use planning and what kind of alternatives can be
proposed? To answer these questions, documental analysis of land-use planning publications, reports, and laws was analyzed. All findings were interpreted by a transdisciplinary team (the coauthors: local producers, government stakeholders, ecosystems
management researchers, and graduate students). The main results behind the unsuccessfulness of the evaluated public policy instruments are: (1) unclear land tenure, (2)
ambiguous laws and lack of by-laws, (3) corruption between buyers and government
agents, and (4) lack of awareness by users. Our alternative proposal is a bottom- up
transdisciplinary plan with five main strategies: (a) a participatory observatory as a
I. Espejel (*)
Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California UABC,
Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico
e-mail: ileana.espejel@uabc.edu.mx
G. Arámburo
Facultad de Ciencias Administrativas y Sociales, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California
UABC, Ensenada, Mexico
N. Badan · P. Rojas
Rancho El Mogor, Ensenada, Mexico
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
S. Lucatello et al. (eds.), Stewardship of Future Drylands and Climate
Change in the Global South, Springer Climate,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22464-6_9
Chapter 9
The Construction and Sabotage
of Successful Agricultural Lands
in Semiarid Lands: A Case Study
of Vitivinicultural Areas in Northern
México
I. Espejel, G. Arámburo, N. Badan, L. Carreño, A. Cota, G. Gutiérrez,
L. Ibarra, C. Leyva, T. Moreno-Zulueta, L. Ojeda-Revah, L. Pedrín,
C. Uscanga, M. Reyes-Orta, J. C. Ramírez, P. Rojas, J. Sandoval,
C. Turrent, Á. Vela, and I. Vaillard
Abstract The land-use planning effort for a semiarid watershed where wine is the
staple economic product was evaluated. Over the last 30 years, three top-down local
public policies have been in effect with the shared objective of building a sustainable
valley where rural settlements, Mediterranean-type crops, and tourism can thrive. The
evaluation result was that most of the proposed guidelines were not implemented. The
questions addressed in this chapter are: what are the main reasons behind the noncompliance of regulations in land-use planning and what kind of alternatives can be
proposed? To answer these questions, documental analysis of land-use planning publications, reports, and laws was analyzed. All findings were interpreted by a transdisciplinary team (the coauthors: local producers, government stakeholders, ecosystems
management researchers, and graduate students). The main results behind the unsuccessfulness of the evaluated public policy instruments are: (1) unclear land tenure, (2)
ambiguous laws and lack of by-laws, (3) corruption between buyers and government
agents, and (4) lack of awareness by users. Our alternative proposal is a bottom- up
transdisciplinary plan with five main strategies: (a) a participatory observatory as a
I. Espejel (*)
Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California UABC,
Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico
e-mail: ileana.espejel@uabc.edu.mx
G. Arámburo
Facultad de Ciencias Administrativas y Sociales, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California
UABC, Ensenada, Mexico
N. Badan · P. Rojas
Rancho El Mogor, Ensenada, Mexico