Biocultural indicators in environmental management projects. The case of meliponiculture in Yucatan

Abstract

The present work reveals different criteria and methodologies for the exercise of the evaluation of environmental management projects. Together with the lack of evaluation instruments that incorporate impact indicators of the biocultural dimension, the tendency to privilege a mercantilist valuation of projects, with emphasis on environmental management, is confirmed. With the theoretical support of relational values and through the categorization of emerging codes from data collected through ethnographic methods, this work concludes with a proposal for the application of indicators to know the impact on the biocultural dimension in the case of projects to rescue meliponiculture, that is, the cultivation of the native bee commonly known as melipona bee or Xunancab (in Maya) (Melipona beecheii), in the Yucatan peninsula.