BOOTLEGGING ON A DESERT MOUNTAIN - THE POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF AGAVE (AGAVE SPP) DEMOGRAPHIC-CHANGE IN THE SONORA-RIVER-VALLEY, SONORA, MEXICO

Recent studies suggest that wild agave (Agave spp.) plants in Sonora, Mexico, are being over-harvested by mescal makers on communal lands. U sing the conceptual framework of regional political ecology (Blaikie a nd Brookfield, 1987), I discuss the ecological processes of agave depl etion, and investigate the social, economic, and political contexts in which unsustainable harvest practices arise. Whereas all the mescal m akers have knowledge of sustainable harvest methods, population growth , expansion of agriculture onto ecologically marginal lands, and incre asing dependence on wild harvested products from communal lands create d the socioeconomic context for increased demand for mescal income. Th e ideology of household autonomy, and the belief that the village has no right to internally regulate use of the commons, created the politi cal context for rapid, unsustainable harvesting - a tragedy of the com mons. However, recent cultural changes have caused a reversal of this trend, and some wild agave populations may be recovering.