In the year 2020, the Mexican state of Oaxaca faced a prevalent condition of moderate poverty, affecting around 39.6 percent of its inhabitants. The remaining 50.89 percent of the population either lived in poverty or faced challenging circumstances.

In 2022, approximately 4.7 percent of the Mexican population were living on less than 3.20 U.S. dollars per day, a considerable decrease in comparison to the previous year. Furthermore, unemployment rate in this Latin American country during this period was at 3.2 percent. Poverty is considerably higher in the South In 2022, the three states with the highest poverty rate in the Aztec country were Chiapas, Guerrero, and Oaxaca, all in the southern region. In contrast, the top eight federal entities with the lowest were all in the North. The clear division is further accentuated by the Northern Border Free Zone, which encompasses 43 municipalities in the Mexico-U.S. border with higher minimum wages and lower taxes. Poverty in states such as Chiapas reaches over 67 percent, which means two out of three residents are under the poverty line and almost one out of three under extreme poverty conditions.
A country troubled by inequality Poverty and inequality are no news in Mexico. In the most recent data, around 80 percent of the total wealth of the country was concentrated in the top 10 percent of the population. Moreover, the bottom 50 percent had a negative share, meaning that half of the Mexican population had more debts than assets. But inequality does not only encompass wealth distribution, but Mexico also has a problem regarding gender inequality. The government has failed to achieve many of its goals to reduce the gap between genders.

Crop diversity conservation in situ is an ecosystem service with benefits at household, community, and global scales. These include risk reduction and adaptation to changing physical and sociocultural environments—both important given the accelerating changes in climate, human migration, and the industrialization of agriculture. In situ conservation typically occurs as part of small-scale, traditionally based agriculture and can support cultural identity and values. Although decisions regarding crop diversity occur at the household level, few data detail the household context of in situ crop diversity management. Our research addressed this data gap for maize and Phaseolus bean in Oaxaca, Mexico, a major center of diversity for those crops. We defined diversity as farmer-named varieties and interviewed 400 farming households across eight communities in two contrasting socioecological regions. Our research asked, “In a major center of maize and Phaseolus diversity, what are the demographic, production, and consumption characteristics of the households that are stewarding this diversity?” We describe the context of conservation and its variation within and between communities and regions and significant associations between diversity and various independent variables, including direct maize consumption, region, and marketing of crops. These results provide a benchmark for communities to understand and strengthen their maize and bean systems in ways they value and for scientists to support those communities in dynamically stewarding locally and globally significant diversity. In-person interviews with randomly sampled households in 8 farming communities in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. The interview questions addressed five topics. First, farmer-reported maize and bean diversity in terms of named varieties. Second, household demographics, including age, sex, education, and primary language of the interviewee, household composition, and labor migration. Third, maize and bean farming practices, including seed sources, planting environments, production inputs, and yield estimates. Fourth, household use of maize and bean harvests, including direct consumption as food or feed, and sales. Fifth, values in farming, specifically attitudes toward risk and expectations for the future. Refer to the README.pdf file for more information about the dataset.

Abstract

The Community-based Forestry Development Project in Southern States (DECOFOS) was designed to address and overcome problems linked to deforestation and forest degradation in rural communities of marginalized forest areas in Campeche, Chiapas and Oaxaca. The project was carried out through the restoration and reforestation of degraded areas together with the provision of technical and financial support for the development of microenterprises and sustainable production initiatives. The project had the dual goal of improving the livelihood of people living in poverty and extreme poverty in degraded or marginalized areas and of contributing to climate change adaptation and mitigation through the restoration and revitalization of degraded lands and deforested areas as well as by supporting, both technically and financially, the implementation of sustainable productive activities.

For more information, please click on the following link https://www.ifad.org/en/web/knowledge/-/publication/impact-assessment-community-based-forestry-development-project-in-southern-states-decofos- .

Geographic coverage

marginalized forest areas in Oaxaca, Chiapas and Campeche.

Analysis unit

Households

Universe

Poor rural households

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

TDECOFOS target population reside in marginalized forest areas in Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Campeche. It is represented by ejidatarios, who are members of rural communities, ejidos, with land rights and involved in collective decisions about land administration and use, the group of posesionarios, who do not have any rights on the land they use and collectively administer, as well as the avecindados, individuals residing on common land without any land rights. The project covered a total of 79 municipalities: 47 (out of a total of 570) in Oaxaca, 21 (out of a total of 118) in Chiapas, and 11 (all) in Campeche. The initial sample comprised of a total of 110 communities/ejidos (half treatment and half control) while the total estimated sample comprises of 2,200 households. Ultimately, 108 ejidos were visited and a total sample of 2,230 households were interviewed (1,128 in treatment group and 1,102 in the control group).

Mode of data collection

Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]

Research instrument

The main data collection instruments for this impact assessment are household and community questionnaires. The data collection has been completed between December 2017 and January 2018. The information collected refers to the twelve months preceding the survey implementation. In particular, data on crop production take as reference period the last completed agricultural cycle, starting from June 2016 to July 2017.

The household questionnaire collected information at household level on a number of socio-economic characteristics, land and asset ownership, agricultural, agroforestry and livestock production and marketing, shocks and risk management strategies, dietary diversity and food security, access to financial services, social capital, participations to organizations and networks. The type of data collected through the community questionnaire included access to infrastructure and basic services, main economic activities, social capital and collective action, organizations and networks.

Note: some variables may have missing labels. Please, refer to the questionnaire for more details.