2012-2013 Decree to establish La Montaña Biosphere Reserve, and regional mobilization of indigenous communities against the initiative

In 2012, the Mexican federal government agency, the National Commission for Protected Nature Areas (CONANP) and the Guerrero state Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources initiated the legal process to establish a Biosphere Reserve in La Montaña region of Guerrero. This involved quietly trying to convince some communities in the Alta Montaña region to accept the proposal without providing full information on its implications or conducting a full and open consultation with all indigenous communities affected to ensure their free, prior and informed consent (CDHM Tlachinollan, 2013: 157).

The General Law on Ecological Equilibrium and Environmental Protection sets out the framework for Protected Natural Areas (áreas naturales protegidas, ANP) which are established through presidential decree. In theory, ANP status provides additional protection to environmentally threatened regions. However, as communities became aware of the proposal, there were increasing concerns that the law, which is focused on federal control of ANPs, would deprive communities of their age-old right to autonomously continue their culture and agricultural practices. In effect, communities believed ANP status threatened to undercut the Agrarian Law which empowered the collective agency of the community assembly in favour of Federal agency management of the park (Ibid: 157-168). Behind this lay the suspicion that the Biosphere Reserve status was primarily intended to permit private companies’ access to the region to exploit resources and potentially limit or displace indigenous community life from their ancestral lands (CDHM Tlachinollan, 2021: 24).

As the 13 communities directly affected by the proposed Declaration of a Biosphere Reserve, including San Miguel del Progreso, were also at risk from mining concessions on their territory, the threat posed to the life of the communities by the Reserve became clear. This was also exemplified by the way the authorities attempted to manipulate members of the communities to suggest consent for the Reserve (CDHM Tlachinollan, 2013: 162-163). As a result, the affected communities began to organize and exchange information. In October 2012, the Regional Council of Agrarian Authorities in Defence of Territory against the Biosphere Reserve Project and Mining in La Montaña of Guerrero (CRAADET) was created to lead political action, including protests, to demand the cancelation of the proposed Reserve.

On 15 May 2013, the Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources of Guerrero State publicly announced that the proposed declaration to establish the Reserve had been cancelled due to community opposition (Ibid: 166).