Timeline of the Organization

1987 - 2000

MPS was officially founded in October, 1991. However, its founders have been collaborating informally since 1987 through the civil network Pacto de Grupos Ecologistas (Pact of Ecologist Groups ). From that point until the year 2000, we devoted ourselves to supporting the indigenous Zoque communities in the Chimalapas Jungle, located in the heart of the Tehuantepec Isthmus, on the border between Oaxaca and Chiapas.

Throughout years of intense work, we sought alternatives to the Biosphere Reserves the government had 'legally' imposed on local communities. And so, in cooperation with the Chimalapan people, we developed the concept "Ecological Campesino Reserve",

The process of constructing the Chimalapan Campesino Reserve involved a comprehensive program of Technical and Legal Assistance, which covered diverse topics, including: agro-ecology, sylvo-culture, community-based environmental regulation, nutrition and health, legal consul, organizational support, and autonomous administration.

To support these programs (During 11 years from 1990-2000) we received funds from the following international and national foundations, as well as some government support.

- World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
- Synergos
- The Rockefeller Foundation
- Department for International Development (DFID-Gran Bretaña)
- The MacArthur Foundation
- The Ford Foundation
- Fondo Mexicano para la Conservación de la Naturaleza
   (Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature)
- Instituto Nacional Indigenista;
   (National Indigenist Institute)
- Instituto Nacional de Ecología)
   (National Ecology Institute)

*Campesino: “adj. of the countryside; n. one who resides in the countryside”

2000

Despite our comprehensive and socially committed work, having obtained in 2001 the National Ecological Merit Award (Premio al Mérito Ecológico Nacional) among other recognitions, illegitimate political and economic interests saw themselves threatened by the political awakening of the Chimalapan communities, having much to lose as the people organized themselves and rightfully seized control over their land and natural resources. They began to exert an intense pressure against MPS, effectively declaring a “dirty war". This included physical threats, a smear campaign in the media, and the seeding of inter and intra-community divisions. The "dirty war" culminated in formal state and federal government petitions directed at our diverse donors to stop supporting us economincally. We regard August 2000 as the date of our “financial hanging”. We were forced to leave the Chimalapan region, no longer able to continue with our projects, many of which newly approved by the conservationist foundations in contact with us at the time. As a result, we had to personally look for alternative employment and started contracting out technical services in order to economically sustain MPS using only our personal incomes.

In light of these events, we switched headquarters to San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas in 2001. Since then we have expanded our socio-environmental investigations to the problems of the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve and the “Lacandon Community”. We began to educate the public about about the reality of the indigenous communities threatened by forced relocation or violent expulsion. Using our experience in the Chimalapas we proposed technical and social alternatives for sustainable community development, as well as the conservation of Montes Azules and the Lacandon Jungle. We began collaborating with social organizations and communities in the region, to whom we’ve offered workshops in "Agroecology", "Community-based Environmental Regulation", “Biodiversity and Plan Puebla Panamá”, “Agrarian History of the Lacandon Jungle”, and “Agrarian Environmental Problematics in the REBIMA”, among other topics.

2000 - 2006

In the period 2001-2006, we served as external advisors to the Council of Traditional Indigenous Doctors and Midwives from Chiapas (COMPITCh – Comité de Médicos y Parteras Indígenas Tradicionales de Chiapas) in their analysis of the ICGB-Maya bio-piracy project. Up until 2005, we served as resident advisors to the Organization for the  Defense of the Traditional Indigenous Medicine of Chiapas (ODEMITCh – Organización para la Defensa de la Medicina Indigena Tradicional de Chiapas, AC), supporting them in their process of internal organization and legal establishment, in the creation and management of projects, and in the facilitation of workshops on “Reflection and Self-Diagnosis”, “Officially-Recognized Forms of Organization”, “Biopiracy, Patents and Indigenous Rights”, “Production of Tinctures, Essential Oils, Syrups and Salves”, and  “Biodiversity and Plan Puebla Panamá”.

In 2004, under the name of Pronatura Chiapas, we carried out three projects of community-based environmental regulation in the Lacandon Jungle (two of which inside the Montes Azules Reserve). In addition we executed a small project of technical assistance and training in the Zamora Pico de Oro Ejido*, and two community-based ecotourism projects in the Marqués de Comillas region, Chiapas.

In 2005, MPS collaborated with Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (FRAYBA: Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, AC), consulting them on a Socio-Environmental Diagnosis of 14 indigenous groups displaced by political violence in Chiapas, the project financed by The Forum for Sustainable Development (FDS: Foro para el Desarrollo Sustentable, AC). We also researched the impact of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor (MBS) and the Program for Certification of Ejido Land Rights and Titling of Urban House Plots (PROCEDE: Programa de Certificación de Derechos Ejidales y Titulación de Solares) on community life and natural resources in Chiapas. In addition, with the financial, organizational and material support of both Frayba and FDS, we carried out plans for Community-based Environmental Regulation and Comprehensive Community Development in two displaced indigenous communities in the Lacandon Jungle and the Fraylescana region.

During the years 2005-2006, with economic support from the NGO Citizen Presence (Presencia Ciudadana, AC), we established and coordinated a small civil-society network in Chiapas to defend the public right to information established in the Federal Transparency Law of Access to Public Government Information (Ley Federal de Transparencia y Acceso a la Información Pública Gubernamental), specifically working in the topics of Territory, Strategic Resources (Biodiversity, Water, Forestal Cover) and the Rights of Indigenous People. We also produced the essay titled “The Rights of Indigenous People to Information about Territory and control of natural resources in the Lacandon Jungle, Chiapas”. With this work we won the 2006 National “Social Utility of Rights to Information” Contest (Certamen Nacional “La Utilidad Social del derecho a la información 2006”), convened by the Federal Institute of Access to Public Information (IFAI: Insituto Federal de Acceso a la Información Pública).

*ejido: “a tract of agricultural land designated for common use within a particular community, a term specific to the Mexican agrarian system ”

2006 to the present day

Throughout 2006, we developed another consultation for FDS, and created a map charting social conflicts fighting for access and control over natural resources in Chiapas. Also, we coordinated an interinstitutional project named “Monitor on the civil rights and politics of the Chiapan People, within the framework of electoral campaigns and The ‘Other’ Campaign.” (with PROPAZ Switzerland, Peace Watch Switzerland; SIPAZ: International Service for Peace; Frayba HRC, and Chiapas Civic Alliance)..

In 2007, we handled the coordination of operations for the project named “Context, Social Conflicts and Human Rights in Chiapas 2007” (PROPAZ Switzerland; Peace Watch Switzerland; and Chiapas Civic Alliance). In addition we did a few consultations including technical training and community-based environmental regulation for Caritas Chiapas, as well as a study named “Traditional Knowledge and Genetic Resources” for the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas),

Since 2006, we have maintained a volunteer-run weekly radio program named “J’natik (Our House): Ecology, Politics and Culture” (99.1 FM, Free Frequency, San Cristóbal), and in coordination with Kinoki Cultural Forum, a permanent monthly rotation of film debate called “Political Ecology and the People’s Rights”.

Since June of 2006 we have received only one grant from the Fund for Global Human Rights, which has been applied to the general development of MPS. We also have an agreement with the Iberoamerican University in Puebla (Universidad Iberoamericana), whose students come to collaborate with MPS as Social Service Volunteers.