| Kudos to author Lane Simonian
for producing the definitive English-language account of Mexican
environmental history. Defending
the Land of the Jaguar traces the history of conservation
and environmentalism in Mexico from the pre-Conquest era to roughly
1992 and the NAFTA debates.
Originally published by University
of Texas Press, it also available in Spanish from the National
Institute of Ecology.
The Spanish-language version is most welcome, since the history
of Mexican conservation that Simonian traces from indigenous cultures
to the early 1990s is absent from most histories of Mexico and
unknown to many Mexicans.
How many, for example, know that the Quevedo metro stop is named
after Mexico's conservationist hero, Miguel Angel de Quevedo.
Among his many successes were the naming of Desierto de los Leones
as a national park and a rethinking of much of the country's forest
policy. I read this book with some trepidation, since it's a subject
so close to my heart, having covered interior and border environmental
issues for the past decade. Conveniently, the book ends just at
the time that I entered Mexico. In some ways I wish I had had
this book when I first started reporting, but I guess I was lucky
to be able to explore some of these topics on my own.
Still, I wish that someone had introduced me to these pioneers
early on. For example, Miguel Alvarez del Toro inherited a gloomy
zoo in Chiapas and turned it into one of the hemisphere's premier
examples of natural interpretation. Enrique Beltran campaigned
for a the creation of a conservation organization in 1940s and
founded the Mexican Institute of Renewable Natural Resources.
These notable efforts should be more widely known, especially
to nay-sayers who ignore Mexico's conservationist history and
possibilities.
Defending
the Land of the Jaguar is a welcome title for any Mexicophile
and a must read for anyone interested in Latin American environmental
issues. Simonian is an author to take note of. His research is
extraordinary, and -- good news -- he is now working on a book
about the Andes.
EXCERPTS
The pre-Conquest Indians of Mexico were, with qualifications,
the region's first conservationists. In some instances, they carefully
managed the natural world in a conscious attempt to impede environmental
degradation... Yet at the same time, the ancient peoples of Mexico
often held religious belief and engaged in agricultural practices
that resulted in the exploitation of the environment. (p. 2)
By the time of Columbus' voyages to the New World, the Spanish
monarchy had begun to take steps to confront regional shortages
of wood. The Spanish crown promulgated conservation laws for their
colonies as well. (p. 29)
Early in the seventeenth century, the cosmographer Henrico Martinez
issued one of the most dire warnings. According to Martinez, soils
eroded from mountainous plots were filling in the lakes of the
region. Since the amount of rainfall remained constant, the water
had nowhere to go but over the rim of the lakes, inundating the
city. (p.29)
Quevedo cited Humboldt's observation that deforestation of the
mountains around Mexico City was responsible for the inundations
that the city suffered... He was also influenced by the Spanish
chronicler Juan de Torquemada, who thought that a reduction in
the size of the valley's lacustrine zone would produce a higher
incidence of disease because of swirling dust and bad vapors (which
he argued were diluted by the humid air coming from the lakes).
(p. 69)
Unlike Canada and the United States, where rain fell on a fairly
regular basis, Mexico experienced long dry spells punctuated by
brief periods of heavy rains and so was highly susceptible to
both droughts and flooding. Forests were a safeguard against both
of these disasters. (p. 77)
By his own admission, Cardenas had been inattentive to environmental
issues while governor of his native state of Michoacán (1928-1934).
Because of his neglect, many of Michoacán's beautiful forests
had been denuded and once large springs had dried up. (p. 86)
At the First World Conference on National Parks held in Seattle
in 1962, Beltran suggested that the conflict between preservation
and use could be avoided through a zoning system... A decade later,
zoning had become the dominate approach to wilderness protection
in the Third World. (p. 139)
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