Session 9. 11.

This study investigates the governance challenges faced by ejido communities of the municipalities of Lázaro Cárdenas, Bacalar, and Felipe Carrillo Puerto in Quintana Roo, exacerbated by the Tren Maya megaproject and the tourism and real estate boom present in the region in the last two decades. Through a media analysis and a sociodemographic vulnerability assessment, it highlights the interplay between factors such as gender, ethnicity, and access to communication media and networks that contribute to exclusionary practices on the decision-making of common lands. The findings reveal that women, youth, and Indigenous non-Spanish speakers, are systematically excluded from ejido decision-making processes. This exclusion perpetuates inequality and undermines community cohesion. The study also addresses the environmental and social impacts on common land resources of infrastructure and real estate development due to pressures from tourism in Quintana Roo. The research calls for institutional approaches that prioritize inclusivity and sustainability to ensure the long-term well-being of the ejidos of the Yucatan Peninsula.

This study examines the social perception of socio-environmental conflicts arising from the implementation of the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (CIIT), an infrastructure megaproject in southern Mexico. The research focuses on how land tenure and governance influence the perspectives and responses of local communities to the project's impacts. Semi-structured and open interviews were conducted with key stakeholders from four ejidos in the Isthmus region. The snowball sampling technique was used to select participants, resulting in a total of 70 interviews between July and August 2024.

Preliminary findings reveal a range of perspectives among community members. While most participants expressed optimism regarding potential benefits for the Mexican government and local communities, concerns about environmental impacts were more prominent in one of the four ejidos. Additionally, the qualitative analysis suggests that although residents anticipate economic opportunities, they acknowledge that a substantial portion of the direct benefits may be absorbed by private companies rather than the community itself.

Using the Atlas.ti qualitative analysis software, key themes were identified, and a word cloud analysis highlighted the main concerns and expectations of the interviewees. This research contributes to understanding the complexities of local perceptions regarding large-scale infrastructure projects, emphasizing the need for inclusive decision-making processes that address socio-environmental concerns. Further analysis will delve into aspects of land tenure and governance in relation to the community's evolving perspective on the CIIT project.

Climate change has become an existential threat to small island developing states in the South Pacific. Many Pacific Island residents have been predicted to be forced to move from coastal areas due to sea-level rise, coastal inundation from storm surges and a higher intensity of cyclones and floods. The Fijian government announced in 2017 that more than 800 coastal communities require planned relocation due to climate-associated risks over the next decades. Yet several case studies in Fiji have shown that a combination of tangible losses (access to fisheries, agriculture) and various forms of intangible losses (connection to place, cultural identity) can occur in planned relocation processes, even if physical risk is reduced. Community-based micro-mobility strategies, building on communal resources and collective action, may offer alternatives to government-initiated planned relocation. Drawing on place-based integrative research in collaboration with climate-affected communities in Fiji and Samoa, this study examines whether and how temporary and short-distance movements can contribute to climate-affected people’s ability to remain in their area of origin. A particular form of micro-mobility identified in Samoa is fa’a-'āigalua, a cultural practice that involves maintaining two or more residences, allowing people to shift between them as needed. This practice is enabled by the system of communal land rights where customary land can be allocated for different uses, such as residential areas, plantations, and forests. Fa’a-'āigalua allows Samoans to diversify both their livelihoods and living arrangements, often moving between coastal and inland areas or between different villages. This flexibility enhances their ability to adapt to climate change and associated risks. Findings from our study reframe Pacific Islanders as active agents who deploy micro-mobility strategies to adapt to changing environmental conditions. The study supports the revision of climate adaptation policies, displacement frameworks and planned relocation guidelines in Fiji and Samoa and across other Pacific Island nations.

The socio-environmental impacts and conflicts resulting from the implementation of offshore oil and gas industry in Brazilian coastal zone (Walter et al, 2019) are often responsible for creating numerous challenges to the territorial security of artisanal fishery communities (Melo, Tometich, Walter and Umpierre, 2024) and for greater accuracy require a critical lens of socio-environmental impact assessment (Walter, Caldasso and Verly, 2023). Although Brazilian environmental licensing is able to support a certain level of self governance in the context of traditional artisanal fishery communities by setting license conditions such as the implementation of regional environmental programs (24º article of MMA, nº 422, 2011), the public private institutional arrangement is a complex matter in relation to commons management by artisanal fishery communities. Therefore the posed research question is in what measure territorial security instruments can support the maintenance of commons (waters and fish stock) management done by artisanal fishery communities in the past century that have been impacted by offshore oil and gas industry on Brazilian Coastal zone? The methodology used is the case study that according to Yin (2001) allows research into a contemporary phenomenon within its real context, in a situation based on various sources of evidence in an investigation that can benefit from previous theoretical propositions to conduct data collection and analysis. The preliminary results show that strengthening territorial security can address commons management challenges such as water management, but it is not possible to observe the impacts on fish stocks. The final paper intends to consider Ostrom principles of long enduring commons organizations and the territorial securities dimensions in order to provide a better framework analysis for Brazilian environmental licensing public policy.