Public policies and socio-territorial vulnerability in Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, México

Abstract

This paper addresses the socio-territorial vulnerability generated in the 20th century with continuation in the 21st century in a Mexican indigenous town, known because the Mazatec shaman María Sabina “the Sage of sacred mushrooms” lived there. The town is situated in the higher parts of the mountains in the Sierra Mazatec. The historical and contemporary interactions between the physical environmental processes and the public policies, especially the indigenous, resulted in a continuous modification of the natural physical environment and degradation of the biocultural heritage. Huautla is a territory vulnerable in it socio-economic and medium environmental, presenting high levels of marginalization, human settlements on slopes susceptible to landslides and deforestation leading to a reduction in the water delivery to the city. The research is based on the historical time depth review of Mexican and indigenous public policies, and the confrontation of findings with the transformations that occurred in the studied territory.