Environmental democracy and co-production of local cognitive resources for the management of biodiversity in biosphere reserves

How can we make biodiversity, a common good for humanity, remain a collective resource for human communities depending directly on it for subsistence? This is the topic analyzed here, which has been institutionalized by the creation of biosphere reserves in Mexico and other parts of the world. Although the preservation of biodiversity is of common interest, the creation of biosphere reserves implies for the resident populations an alteration of modalities of appropriation and access to resources essential for them. This article addresses these issues based on the case of the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve (REBIMA) and the Lacantún Biosphere Reserve (REBILA) in Chiapas. It is a contribution to the discussion on the importance and challenge of building environmental democracy by exposing different rationalities interacting in the REBIMA. It also discusses the need to create consensus among the actors involved, which lead to processes of co-construction of local cognitive resources for the use and management of biodiversity in order to solve the question formulated above.