Eric Perramond – Research in Mexico.

For the past twelve years I have been conducting research in Mexico.  Much of my focus has been on land-use, specifically agriculture and ranching, and these interests continue to this day.  My dissertation focused on the economics and ecological management of private ranches in northern Mexico, in the state of Sonora, although I have moved my current research to Central Mexico.  Since beginning fieldwork in Guanajuato (MX), during the summer of 2000, I have pursued the issues and impacts of land reform reversals (what Michael Watts once referred to as "the privatization of everything").  In essence, reforms made back in 1992 now allow for communal land arrangements (called ejidos, in Mexico) to acquire specific, private land titles.  While many of my colleagues are investigating the socio-economic impacts of these changes (rightly so), I have largely been more interested in the potential environmental impacts of these changes (crop changes, soil erosion, water rights and degradation). The long-term goal of this research is to produce a comparative analysis of how different communities in Mexico are accommodating these changes in land tenure policy, and if these changes are affecting landscape processes at a local level. Two anticipated products are a book-length monograph on private cattle ranching in northern Mexico (“Private Revolutions: Political Ecologies of Cattle Ranching in Sonora, Mexico”) and an article submitted to the Geographical Review on recent land (counter) reforms in Mexico.

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