Linguistics

Philosophy

Ecology

Biology

Ethnic group

Psychological resilience

Government (linguistics)

Indigenous

Tourism

Archaeology

Political ecology

Environmental governance

Anthropology

Business

Corporate governance

Environmental planning

Psychology

Politics

Geography

Political science

Legitimacy

Environmental resource management

Psychotherapist

Sociology

Environmental science

Environmental protection

Finance

Maya

Sustainability

Employing resilience as the theoretical and methodological framework and focusing on governance, this long-term anthropological study analyzes the socio-ecological system of a small indigenous community, with community-based tourism development. After 10 years of ethnographic and participatory work with the Lacandon Maya of Nahá, Mexico, our anthropological research explores the complexities of community governance and its role in protecting the socio-ecological system. The processes of land restitution initiated by the Mexican government and the arrival of migrants from different ethnic groups in the surrounding areas have resulted in significant socio-ecological adjustments being made at the community level. A self-regulated governance system is evaluated to understand the drivers and variables that generated vulnerabilities in the system, as well as the factors that fostered resilience in the establishment of the Nahá’s Natural Protected Area of Flora and Fauna. Our results show that although the current Lacandon political organization is fairly recent, pressures from neighboring communities have fostered resilience responses. To protect their space from such pressures, the Lacandon, convinced of their ethnic legitimacy as guardians of the Lacandon Jungle, have internalized the official political-environmentalist discourse. This role has had critical implications for the birth and development of the Indigenous tourism system.

Governance, Community Resilience, and Indigenous Tourism in Nahá, Mexico