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Chapter 5. Drought in the Yucatan : Maya perspectives on tradition, change and adaptation

By: Material type: ArticleLanguage: English Series: Current Directions in Water Scarcity ResearchPublication details: Amsterdam (Netherlands) : Elsevier, 2019.ISBN:
  • 978-0-12-814820-4
Subject(s): In: Drought challenges : policy options for developing countries Amsterdam (Netherlands) : Elsevier, 2019. v. 2, p. 67-75Summary: The impacts of climate change on Indigenous peoples' livelihoods are often overlooked in academic research. In Yucatan (Mexico), Maya communities, which continue to be centered on millennia-old milpa-based agricultural systems, are particularly vulnerable to climate change-related impacts such as drought. The Yucatan Peninsula is located between the Gulf of Mexico (to the North) and the Caribbean Sea (to the South), covering an area of nearly 44,000 km2. Geopolitically, the Peninsula incorporates parts of the Mexican states of Yucatan, Campeche, and Quintana Roo, in addition to northern Belize and Guatemala's El Petén Department. Scientific evidence shows that the Yucatan's climate has been getting hotter and drier, with more frequent unpredictable weather patterns. It is also clear that the effects and impacts of climate change in the Yucatan, such as drought, will continue to increase in severity in coming years and decades. Thus, climate change will increasingly pose a challenge to the Yucatec Maya in their milpa-based land-use patterns and activities. However, what is less clear is how exactly climate change is influencing and reshaping Maya land-use patterns and practices. In this chapter, I present new empirical data about how climate change affecting the relationships between the Maya and the land, particularly in their traditional milpa farming practices, as well as some possible policy implications of community-based adaptations to climate change in the Yucatan.
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The impacts of climate change on Indigenous peoples' livelihoods are often overlooked in academic research. In Yucatan (Mexico), Maya communities, which continue to be centered on millennia-old milpa-based agricultural systems, are particularly vulnerable to climate change-related impacts such as drought. The Yucatan Peninsula is located between the Gulf of Mexico (to the North) and the Caribbean Sea (to the South), covering an area of nearly 44,000 km2. Geopolitically, the Peninsula incorporates parts of the Mexican states of Yucatan, Campeche, and Quintana Roo, in addition to northern Belize and Guatemala's El Petén Department. Scientific evidence shows that the Yucatan's climate has been getting hotter and drier, with more frequent unpredictable weather patterns. It is also clear that the effects and impacts of climate change in the Yucatan, such as drought, will continue to increase in severity in coming years and decades. Thus, climate change will increasingly pose a challenge to the Yucatec Maya in their milpa-based land-use patterns and activities. However, what is less clear is how exactly climate change is influencing and reshaping Maya land-use patterns and practices. In this chapter, I present new empirical data about how climate change affecting the relationships between the Maya and the land, particularly in their traditional milpa farming practices, as well as some possible policy implications of community-based adaptations to climate change in the Yucatan.

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