IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i18p7562-d413244.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Contributions of Urban Collective Gardens to Local Sustainability in Mexico City

Author

Listed:
  • Karla Guzmán Fernández

    (Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores (ENES), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro 8701, Morelia 58190, Michoacán, Mexico)

  • Ana I. Moreno-Calles

    (Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores (ENES), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro 8701, Morelia 58190, Michoacán, Mexico)

  • Alejandro Casas

    (Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro 8701, Morelia 58190, Michoacán, Mexico)

  • José Blancas

    (Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Conservación, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Avenida Universidad 1001, Colonia Chamilpa, Cuernavaca 62209, Morelos, Mexico)

Abstract

Urban collective gardens (UCG) are considered alternatives to face the environmental problems generated by urbanization, contributing to the sustainability of cities. This study aims to characterize UCG and its contributions to the local sustainability in Mexico City (CdMx). From bibliographic searches, consultation on social networks, and expert suggestions, our research group identified 40 gardens for CdMx, based on which we constructed a UCG typology. For deeper studies, we selected 19 UCGs based on several criteria: Number of members (at least three persons managing UCG), UCG age (at least one year), disposition of collaborating in the study, and availability for evaluation. The selected UCGs were evaluated qualitatively following the Framework for the Evaluation of Natural Resource Management Systems incorporating Sustainability Indicators (MESMIS, for its acronym in Spanish) through in-depth interviews and participant observation. We identified critical points or factors that drive or limit UCG (e.g., biological diversity, training of people participating, social and economic stability, access to space and financial support, economic diversification, input dependency, security of land tenure, and contamination risk). We concluded that UCG of CdMX contribute to local sustainability through processes like creating jobs, recovering connections with nature, knowledge transmission, experimental practices, and offers of therapeutic benefits, among others.

Suggested Citation

  • Karla Guzmán Fernández & Ana I. Moreno-Calles & Alejandro Casas & José Blancas, 2020. "Contributions of Urban Collective Gardens to Local Sustainability in Mexico City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-23, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:18:p:7562-:d:413244
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/18/7562/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/18/7562/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gail Feenstra, 2002. "Creating space for sustainable food systems: Lessons from the field," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 19(2), pages 99-106, June.
    2. Bob Evans & Marko Joas & Susan Sundback & Kate Theobald, 2006. "Governing local sustainability," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(6), pages 849-867.
    3. Adela Chávez & Juan Ariosto Palacios Vásquez, 2017. "Importancia De Los Cursos De Agricultura Urbana Ante El Cambio Climã Tico Y La Seguridad Alimentaria En Mã‰Xico," Desarrollo local sostenible, Servicios Académicos Intercontinentales SL. Hasta 31/12/2022, issue 28, february.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ebru Alakavuk & Duygu Cinar Umdu, 2023. "Urban Open Therapy Gardens in EU Cities Mission: Izmir Union Park Proposal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-19, April.
    2. Martine El Ouardi & Françoise Montambeault, 2023. "COLLECTIVELY GARDENING THE URBAN PUBLIC SPACE IN MEXICO CITY: When Informal Practices Interact with the State," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 201-220, March.
    3. Bohong Zheng & Francis Masrabaye & Gerald Madjissembaye Guiradoumngué & Jian Zheng & Linlin Liu, 2021. "Progress in Research on Sustainable Urban Renewal Since 2000: Library and Visual Analyses," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-28, April.
    4. Claudia A. Ochoa-Noriega & Juan F. Velasco-Muñoz & José A. Aznar-Sánchez & Ernesto Mesa-Vázquez, 2021. "Overview of Research on Sustainable Agriculture in Developing Countries. The Case of Mexico," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-20, July.
    5. Chethika Gunasiri Wadumestrige Dona & Geetha Mohan & Kensuke Fukushi, 2021. "Promoting Urban Agriculture and Its Opportunities and Challenges—A Global Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-22, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michael Howes & Liana Wortley & Ruth Potts & Aysin Dedekorkut-Howes & Silvia Serrao-Neumann & Julie Davidson & Timothy Smith & Patrick Nunn, 2017. "Environmental Sustainability: A Case of Policy Implementation Failure?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-17, January.
    2. Alison Blay-Palmer & Roberta Sonnino & Julien Custot, 2016. "A food politics of the possible? Growing sustainable food systems through networks of knowledge," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 33(1), pages 27-43, March.
    3. Bartlett, Jannette R. & Tackie, Nii O. & Jahan, Mst Nusrat & Adu-Gyamfi, Akua & Quarcoo, Francisca A., 2015. "An Analysis of the Characteristics and Practices of Selected Alabama Small Livestock Producers: A Focus on Economics and Marketing," Professional Agricultural Workers Journal (PAWJ), Professional Agricultural Workers Conference, vol. 3(1), pages 1-25.
    4. Brent Hammer & Helen Vallianatos & Candace Nykiforuk & Laura Nieuwendyk, 2015. "Perceptions of healthy eating in four Alberta communities: a photovoice project," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 32(4), pages 649-662, December.
    5. Ozgul Calicioglu & Alessandro Flammini & Stefania Bracco & Lorenzo Bellù & Ralph Sims, 2019. "The Future Challenges of Food and Agriculture: An Integrated Analysis of Trends and Solutions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-21, January.
    6. Alejandro Rojas & Will Valley & Brent Mansfield & Elena Orrego & Gwen E. Chapman & Yael Harlap, 2011. "Toward Food System Sustainability through School Food System Change: Think&EatGreen@School and the Making of a Community-University Research Alliance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(5), pages 1-26, May.
    7. Antoinette Pole & Margaret Gray, 2013. "Farming alone? What’s up with the “C” in community supported agriculture," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 30(1), pages 85-100, March.
    8. Anastasia COSTANTINI & Gianluca PASTORELLI & Alessia SEBILLO, 2019. "How Social Enterprises Contribute to Alternative Food Systems," CIRIEC Working Papers 1914, CIRIEC - Université de Liège.
    9. H. Doležalová & K. Pícha & J. Navrátil, 2009. "Analysis of the organic food marketing - chain store companies (South Bohemia)," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 55(9), pages 446-458.
    10. Carmen Echebarria & Jose M. Barrutia, 2013. "Factors Affecting the Attitude of Local Authorities towards Local Agenda 21," ERSA conference papers ersa13p1082, European Regional Science Association.
    11. Fabiola Sánchez-Galván & Horacio Bautista-Santos & José Luis Martínez-Flores & Diana Sánchez-Partida & Arely del Rocio Ireta-Paredes & Gregorio Fernández-Lambert, 2019. "Backyard Agricultural Production as a Strategy for Strengthening Local Economy: The Case of Chontla and Tempoal, Mexico," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-13, September.
    12. Carrie Furman & Carla Roncoli & Donald Nelson & Gerrit Hoogenboom, 2014. "Growing food, growing a movement: climate adaptation and civic agriculture in the southeastern United States," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(1), pages 69-82, March.
    13. Simon Berner & Hartmut Derler & René Rehorska & Stephan Pabst & Ulrike Seebacher, 2019. "Roadmapping to Enhance Local Food Supply: Case Study of a City-Region in Austria," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-16, July.
    14. Alma Elisabeth Peirson & Gina Ziervogel, 2021. "Sanitation Upgrading as Climate Action: Lessons for Local Government from a Community Informal Settlement Project in Cape Town," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-18, August.
    15. Amy Trauger & Carolyn Sachs & Mary Barbercheck & Kathy Brasier & Nancy Kiernan, 2010. "“Our market is our community”: women farmers and civic agriculture in Pennsylvania, USA," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 27(1), pages 43-55, March.
    16. William Lacy, 2023. "Local food systems, citizen and public science, empowered communities, and democracy: hopes deserving to live," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(1), pages 1-17, March.
    17. Sundkvist, Asa & Milestad, Rebecka & Jansson, AnnMari, 2005. "On the importance of tightening feedback loops for sustainable development of food systems," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 224-239, April.
    18. Christopher D. Murakami & Mary K. Hendrickson & Marcelle A. Siegel, 2017. "Sociocultural tensions and wicked problems in sustainable agriculture education," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(3), pages 591-606, September.
    19. Beau Warbroek & Thomas Hoppe, 2017. "Modes of Governing and Policy of Local and Regional Governments Supporting Local Low-Carbon Energy Initiatives; Exploring the Cases of the Dutch Regions of Overijssel and Fryslân," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-36, January.
    20. Riccardo Testa & Antonino Galati & Giorgio Schifani & Anna Maria Di Trapani & Giuseppina Migliore, 2019. "Culinary Tourism Experiences in Agri-Tourism Destinations and Sustainable Consumption—Understanding Italian Tourists’ Motivations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-17, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:18:p:7562-:d:413244. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.