Mexico Indigenous Women Carry Out Conservation Work: “Where there is work, there is a woman”

Members of the women's work group:
Maria Rivera, Elvira Ruacho, Irene Romero, Rocío Cervantes amd Maria Corral
Foto: Manuel Guadarrama

Milenio: Brenda Alcalá

Translated by Roxy Thompson

In the Escobar y Anexos area of the municipality of Guanaceví [an area of over 2,000 sq. miles], in the heart of the mountains of northern Durango State, we met with the only women working with the Irritila Project, which pays them for environmental services and the preservation of water resources.

They work on remediation and conservation in the Upper Nazas River Basin, for which they receive economic benefits. Women of few words, but who speak forcefully, they assure us that where there is work, there are women, that they too can do it. They load stones or wood for the construction of filtration dams to raise the quality of the water that runs off into Comarca Lagunera [the lower Nasas River basin area that spans parts of the states of Durango and Coahuila], dig fire breaks to prevent fires and, without a care for the size of the slope, they walk for miles.

The oldest is 69 years old. There are 22 in total, and all of them note that outdoor work in the country is not alien to them. They are accustomed to working side by side with their partners, with their nearest and dearest. Already familiar with environmental topics, they feel satisfied to be conserving forests and they invite other citizens to continue the work, so that between them they can stop, and reverse, the degradation.

The name Irritilia refers to the peoples who formed part of the indigenous groups that first settled the Comarca Laguna territory, in a time before the advance of the Spanish colonists, in north-central Mexico. The Irritilas were a nomadic society who settled on the banks of the Nazas River.

The Irritila Project was put in place in 2010 by the Upper Nazas Basin Commission AC. The idea was to start a citizen’s movement to put a stop to the damage which has been suffered by the Basin, through paying volunteer citizens in exchange for environmental water services. The money is provided by the Water Operating Associations in the municipalities who support the agreement, that is, Gómez Palacio and Lerdo, in Durango, and Torreón, in Coahuila.

In addition to the municipalities, the National Forestry Commission (Conafor) worked with Irritilia, as did the Durango government, and particular companies and local associations. All of the benefiting ejidos [indigenous communities holding land in common] and communities signed agreements with the the National Forestry Commission and the Upper Nazas Basin Commission AC (Irritila), to carry out land and water conservation works in the Basin. The project is to benefit 14 ejidos in the municipalities of Santiago Papasquiaro and Tepehuanes.

Escobar y Anexos is the only area in the municipality of Guanaceví that is part of the Upper Nazas Basin, where resources were allocated to improve 724.52 hectares [1,789 acres] in 2013. This community is found little more than 500 km [310 miles] from the Comarca Laguna, where the municipalities of Torreón, Gómez Palacio and Lerdo meet.

Each area is provided 400 pesos [$31US] per hectare, that is, between 150 and 200 thousand pesos [$11,700 to $15,600US] a year, which must be shared only between those who participated in the work. The authorities divide the work and the resources, and the projects are supervised by Conafor and more personally, by the civil association, who audit and document the advances in work through video and photos.

In Escobar y Anexos there are around 40 families. The main activities are ranching and seasonal agriculture. Maria Rivera Sánchez, 69, is the one who always works from 8am, and finishes up “”the latest”, at 6pm, even though before going out she has to do the housework, feed her family and prepare her “lunch box” to eat while working.

“We gather stones, we sweep, we make fire breaks, we get up early to do tasks. We have always worked the land. We know how to harvest, how to weed, how to spread fertilizer, just as well as the men. With what we do now, we help, yes, but also we feel pride in seeing that we work with the forest” says the woman, with a smile on her face.

Elvira Ruacho Márquez, 55, is much quieter, but equally as forceful. She is another of the women of Irritila. 

“We have to work so that we can buy tortillas. Also, our husbands can come [and work] when they don’t have to supervise the animals. We go together to a site, from there we head down in two little vans, we are many. Just the same as the men, we women work here” she says.

Irene Romero García, 23, feels happy with her work. The money she receives helps her family, but she explains that they are also helping the environment. She recognises that there are more women than men and that they owe it to their community to go out and work.

“Here, women have always worked the earth. Wherever there is work, there is a woman.”

Twenty-four year old Lirio Rocío Cervantes Baltiérrez, assures us that the women are hard working and hope to go on tending the forests of the region, and if it helps the Comarca Lagunera, it pleases them.

“Whatever a man can do, here a woman can do just as well. We make filtration dams and fire breaks to prevent fires. We see the crystallization of our work and it pleases us because everything begins to turn green as the filtration dams fill.”

María Corral Alvarado is 54. She has lived in this region since she was 32. She says that they have a ‘work culture’. She says that in some cases the men come, too, but the majority are women. She knows exactly where the Irritila project gets it resources and thanks those who make two things possible.

“That the women can have work in such a remote region which doesn’t have permanent sources of income, and that they worry about the Upper Nazas Basin and its forests, which are everyone’s forests.”

Meanwhile, Héctor Jesús Jiménez Hernández, the head of the department of Environmental Services, Forestry Management Unit of Tepehaunes, Durango, assures that they have put in motion land conservation works and the women, voluntarily, have decided to participate.

“The principal benefit is the economic improvement that is achieved in exchange for the work they do, which satisfies them, and they also take this home, but equally, they know what they achieve in the forests with this work. They, in some way, occupy themselves in helping their parents or husbands in cattle ranching and agriculture.” he commented.

This year they have created 12 km [7 miles] of fire breaks to avoid fires moving into susceptible areas; they have to clean a space three metres wide [10 ft.] for this objective. Also, they placed informative signs at the four main access points to the ejido and the conservation area, [built] around 50 cubic metres [65 cubic yards] of filtration dams and 20 metres [26 yards] of gully heads.

“On occasion, when I have come, they are getting rid of the dry vegetation with a broom. They are activities in which they participate; it’s not about extremely heavy work, but completing a determined function. Women are more detail-oriented, so they can use their skills doing this work,” he commented.

The ejido counts only on the help of the Irritila Project and funds from Conafor, which provides an additional amount of resources for the program. Finally, they invite people to keep making economic contributions, so between them all they take care of the Upper Nazas River Basin, whose conservation benefits more than a million residents in the Comarca Lagunera. Spanish original