Sophia Siegel
Territorial Healing and Alternative Forest Relations in Mexico
In my dissertation project, I collaborate with Indigenous women’s collectives and other community members in La Malinche (Matlalcuéyatl) national park in Central Mexico, to ethnographically examine how they perceive environmental degradation and how local actors develop and enact alternative forms of forest protection and care.
Forest areas surrounding the Matlalcuéyatl volcano face accelerating droughts, wildfires, and the spread of bark beetle infestations, alongside illegal logging and broader extractive dynamics. These overlapping crises are reshaping rural livelihoods and intensifying conflicts over land use and authority.
In response, predominantly Indigenous women’s collectives have taken on responsibilities for reforestation, environmental education, and care work − often filling gaps left by state institutions. Drawing from the notion of Planetary Healing as a conceptual lens, my research explores how local forms of care, multispecies relations, and ecological knowledge enact alternative logics of protection − grounded in reciprocity, responsibility, and repair. I understand these practices as forms of collective and ecological healing.