Participatory process design for territorial regeneration: community territorial planning in Cacahuamilpa ejido, Guerrero

Abstract

This article analyzes the design and implementation of participatory processes for territorial regeneration through Community Territorial Planning (CTP) in the Cacahuamilpa Ejido, Guerrero, Mexico. The agrarian nucleus, located in a peri-urban transition zone and bordering a National Park, faces critical challenges of landscape fragmentation and environmental degradation. Under a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach grounded in the principles of direct and cooperative democracy, technical geospatial analysis was horizontally integrated with local peasant knowledge. Through the autonomous use of mobile Geographic Information Systems (GIS) (Map Marker), community brigades operated an active territorial diagnosis. The results highlight the characterization of the karst hydrological system, the community validation of the Neotropical River otter (Lontra longicaudis annectens) as a watershed bioindicator, and the implementation of a post-process evaluation workshop (feedback) to measure social appropriation. The final planning model was organized into four Territorial Management Units (TMU): Protection and Conservation, Sustainable Use, Intensive Production—which articulated the productive inclusion of women and youth—and Human Settlements. It is concluded that CTP acts as a multidimensional regeneration tool (ecological, social, and institutional). Its binding institutional validation through the Extraordinary General Assembly and Internal Regulations provides the ejido with an instrument of agrarian sovereignty capable of mitigating urban conflicts and incorporating ex-ante solutions against contextual vulnerabilities, consolidating a replicable pathway toward peri-urban socio-environmental justice.