Research and Publications

Aside from our work in communities, Maderas is constantly researching political and environmental issues affecting indigenous populations today, and publishing our findings in books, pamphlets, and web publications. We promote community health education, and have published manuals on the production of medicinal tinctures and the construction of dry composting toilets. Currently we are working on a strategic map of the Montes Azules biosphere reserve, visually displaying the interactions of communities, land expropriations, and natural resource exploitation. We also distribute books, magazines, and documentaries on topics relevant to our work. If you would like to acquire some of our work, contact us. Materials are still only available in Spanish.

These are some of the publications we have produced in the past:

Books:

• “Chimalapas: Our Experience in Participatory Environmental Regulation” (DFID-MPS) August 2000
• “Chimalapas: Participatory Environmental Regulation, Reflections and Methodology” (DFID-MPS) August 2000
• “The Experience of Maderas del Pueblo in the Chimalapas” (Management of Natural Resources Project. Rockefeller Foundation) October 2001
• “No to Evictions: The case of the Montes Azules Reserve, an example of repeated failure in the conservationist politics of Mexico’s Natural Protected Areas, and the special interests that hide behind it” (Internet Publication) San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. June 2003
• “The Impact of the ‘Program for Certification of Ejido Land Rights and Titling of Urban House Plots (PROCEDE)’ on Natural Resources, Community Life, and the Social Fabric of Indigenous Tseltal Communities in the Northern Jungle Region of Chiapas” (Co-edited by the Forum for Sustainable Development, AC) San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. February 2006.
• “The right to information in support of Indigenous Rights to Territory and control over natural resources in the Lacandon Jungle, Chiapas” (Internet Publication), November 2006.

Informational Pamphlets:

• “Mechanical Measures (manual on soil conservation)”.
• “Short history of the alleged ‘Lacandon Community’”.
• “After 13 years, should we proceed with PROCEDE?
• “Food sovereignty and the corn crisis”
• “The right to territory and land”
• “Migration in Mexico and Chiapas”
• “Indigenous youth and their rights”
• “The right to water”
• “High electricity prices and the right to electricity”
• “Democracy, self-determination, and autonomy”