Introduction

The establishment and management of ANP in Mexico, is a key strategy for the conservation of biological and cultural diversity, as well as habitats and endangered species; however, their effective management faces several challenges; one is that the paradigms, strategies and instruments of governance of ANP have changed greatly during the last thirty years (^{Grimble et al., 1995}). It has recently been questioned both political and academic environment, the legitimacy and viability of traditional conservation policy; based for decades in implementing-sometimes forcing a decision taken by central authorities "from above", without the inclusion of the affected populations.

In the Mexican case, until 1990s, social participation in the nomination process or management of ANP was not considered necessary at all (^{Paz Salinas, 2005}). There was also no compensation programs to provide economic alternatives to the limitations on the use and access for natural resources (^{Brenner, 2009}). Therefore, it was not surprising that some authors (^{Chapela and Barkin, 1995}; ^{Barkin, 2000}; ^{Merino and Hernández, 2004}) observed a widespread rejection of the establishment of new ANP in Mexico, as well as resistance against the action to give practice environmental regulations (^{Brenner, 2010}), highlighting the limited legitimacy and efficiency of environmental policy, and criticized the social consequences of these measures (^{Paré and Fuentes, 2007}).

In order to address environmental problems and social disorganization, has begun to seek new ways and means more participatory, legitimate and efficient governance in ANP; Therefore, to ensure good governance of extensive rural areas, now considered crucial for conservation. As will be seen below, the governance is not a politically neutral paradigm, but, first, a model of public management which recognizes the need to involve and influence of different agents involved in the process of conflictive decision making. However, being a model is an idealized form of governance, which is forged in ideologies and contexts of public policy (^{Esquivel et al., 2013}).

Given the considerable resources invested in Mexican ANP for tourism development, the need to critically assess the impact of tourism investment; not only in terms of their efficiency for environmental conservation, but also with respect to their social and economic implications at the community level. This becomes important compared to the profound consequences of boosting tourism in ANP for internal social organization of rural communities as well as the distribution of costs and benefits at the local level.

Governance for tourism in rural areas; can be addressed through public policy networks as consisting of a variety of members who have their own goals and strategies. A policy is a result of the interaction between many of these; i. e., it is defined as a set of decisions or actions intentionally coherent, taken by different participants, public or sometimes not public, whose resources, links, institutions and variant interests to resolve in a timely manner a problem politically defined as collective. This set of actions and decisions leading to formal events with a varying degree of obligation, aimed at changing the behaviour of social groups that are supposed to have originated the collective problem to be solved (target groups), in the interests of social groups suffering the negative effects of the problem in question (final beneficiaries) (^{Subirats, 2008}).

Thus, a network is a lot of relationships among its members, as it consists of a set of direct and indirect links defined by mutual dependency relationships (^{Scharpf, 1978}) or, it is conceived as the totality of all units which are connected by a certain type of relationship, and was built by identifying the links between all organizations in the study population (^{Scharpf, 1978}).

These elements are useful for addressing governance in rural areas, and tourist use of natural resources, because it allows not only to focus on patterns of relationship between the participants in that form, but also their interdependencies and how influence within the network.

The analysis of policy networks from governance put in manifest each sector of public activity is comprised of a network of public and private agents in these areas, whose relations are given in an institutional framework and influence both the behaviour of agents and policy outcomes. The public and private agents are not inherently free; they face a number of possibilities and constraints from the political-institutional, more or less permanently in space and time. However, institution building is a continuous process, based on the rule base on socially aspects constructed in particular in historical and political contexts. However, no matter how solid and permanent the institution appear, agents can choose certain options and break certain rules. These, then, are not permanent and may change, in part; based on the strategic decisions of the agents within the structure, and these decisions represent strategic responses to both endogenous and exogenous factors (Colin, 1998).

Materials and methods

As part of this research, it was on the identification of public, private and social agents involved in governance for tourism in the corridor also be identified to clarify what the goals of their agents are and how they were used in their influence policy. Second, the process of exchange of resources and information among participants positioned within network were determined. The mechanisms that guide these exchanges-rules, informal routines, organizational links, and so on.

The method used to address the relationships between participants in governance for tourism in the corridor is the nominalist, which establishes the boundaries of the network depending on the theoretical framework and thus allowed to impose limits on their structure (^{Klijn, 1998}), allowing to establish a conceptual framework to meet the analytical goals. The nominalist approach on the boundaries of the network depend on the theoretical framework and therefore the researcher can impose limits on the network (^{Porras, 2001}).

There are different levels of analysis of research by focusing on public policy networks; however, this research will be based on the positional analysis, which aims to establish the relational properties of the different agents on the set of the (^{Klijn, 1998}) network. That is why the starting point of this analysis was to identify the public, social and private agents involved in rural communities of the corridor. Among the first federal and state agencies; between social, nongovernmental organizations (NGO’s) and “ejidatarios” own land; of private providers of tourist services.

As part of this analysis, it was important to establish the role of each of the members of the network, in order to know their level of involvement and interference of other agents. The principles laid by ^{Porras (2001)}, to guide research public policy networks through positional analysis are: salience, structural equivalence and centrality. The latter is the one that brings more elements to support the achievement of the objective of this research because it refers to the point in the network where the largest amount of resources, functions and powers concentrated.

For the purposes of this research an analysis for clarification of the relationships between agents in terms of resources and power or ability to influence the nature of the web of relationships, rules and procedures set out; i. e. "the kind of controlled resources held by each agent, and the ability to mobilize them according to their own interests to determine or change the rules of the game" was identified (^{Hufty, 2008}) . This methodology is a positional analysis of the relative power of the agents, depending on the following variables: diversity of agents, resources (social, economic, cultural, symbolic); the willingness and ability to mobilize resources; mobilization in the governance process and analysed the strategic interaction with the other agents.

^{Hufty (2008)} proposes a classification of the agents into three categories according to the following variables: "strategic agents", "relevant" and "secondary", with which we "analysis effort will focus on agents and logically strategic agents. The conceptual development of ^{Prats (2001)} allows to define as "any individual, organization or group with sufficient power resources to prevent or disrupt the operation of the rules or procedures of decision-making and resolution of collective conflicts. "Instead, the relevant agents are those part of the institutional fabric, with resources to be considered as strategic, but not mobilize their resources or are dominated in the process. The secondary agents do not have enough power to determine the change in the rules”.

The importance of identifying the agents, is to determine the level and strength of involvement in tourism in rural areas of the corridor; likewise help to conceive the degree of dependence between them as part of a network where they exchange resources through agreements reached in negotiations prior to sustaining adequate flow of resources in the framework of a model of governance.

The research process was divided into three phases, the first focused on choosing the case study, in addition to the literature review (governance, rural areas, tourism, environmental public policy in Mexico, public policy networks, MBBR, Corredor Monarch Butterfly Chincua-Campanario-Chivati-Huacal and specifically the five sanctuaries that compose it, etc.). This stage of the research included document research on the process of governance and tourism as a tool for environmental management in the corridor, so we considered the consultation of information sources, including highlighted: official documents, journals of government programs management, etc.; from formalized institutions.

In the second stage agents, with a significant share of tourism in rural areas, the Corridor Monarch Chincua-Campanario-Chivati-Huacal identified. This, through a mapping that allowed not only identify the resources of each organization but also their level of participation. This official literature and electronic sources were reviewed as the Monarch Fund Reports, Management Plans, Government Reports, Municipal Plans, State and Federal Development, among others. This information was compared, complemented and deepened by depth interviews with key agents (municipal authorities, tourism service providers and “ejidatarios”), whose testimony helped expand and contrast the results of the mapping. Research techniques are based on the application of 17 scripts of semi-structured interviews and 25 in-depth interviews.

Results and discussion

As part of this research identified public, private and social agents actively involved in the development of tourism and protection of natural resources in a context of governance in the Monarch Corridor Chincua-Campanario-Chivati-Huacal.

A focal element was considered in general and particularly for this research is the complex network of public organizations involved in conservation actions of the Monarch Butterfly Corridor and particularly in each of the sanctuaries that compose it: Chincua, Agangueo, La Mesa, and El Rosario Chivati. The agents who make up the federal public sector are integrated into secretariats through tourism promote attitudes of awareness and responsibility towards the environment, particularly to the butterfly, so that the conditions are generated for this area to serve as model on the management of biological and cultural diversity. Those departments that are considered strategic agents in the conservation and use of natural resources are those of Social Development (SEDESOL), Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) and Agrarian Reform (SRA). Being an ANP stands in handling the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), along with its decentralized body, the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP), as the National Forestry Commission (CONAFOR). The latter supports forestry development programs and commercial plantations aimed at the conservation and restoration of forest ecosystems through funding and consult with communities and smallholders.

Besides population, other key agents involved in the governance process and tourism in these rural areas are the NGOs, international and the World Wide Fund (WWF) and local, as Model Forest Alliance of ejidos and communities of the Monarch Butterfly Reserve, ALTERNARE and Azteca Movement Foundation through its Monarch Butterfly program; the Foundation, together with the Tourism Board of Mexico, declared in 2007 as a wonder of the MBBR Mexico, a country with the monarchs name.

In addition, this series of social members develop a wide range of activities in the corridor, aimed at promoting the conservation of natural resources and establish alternative income to promote governance through tourism sources, although often used public resources to finance their activities. The most influential of these organizations is the WWF (or World Wildlife Fund) by Mexico Program, Zitácuaro, Michoacán, which is primarily engaged in the management of the Fund for the Conservation of the Monarch Butterfly, supported by grants from the Packard Foundation, and public resources SEMARNAT and the government of Michoacán.

Other supporting agents, while not involved in the governance process for tourism in the corridor itself involved in the area, are private; Travel agencies are the main promoters of tourism in sanctuaries, where visitors move to year during the period of hibernation, regardless of their capacity or environmental preservation measures, putting its economic interests which benefit excluded populations within or near sanctuaries.

To facilitate the implementation of environmental policy, the territory of the MBBR was segmented into three core areas:1) Cerro Altamirano; 2) Chincua-Campanario-Chivati -Huacal; and 3) Cerro Pelón (DOF, 2000); these include only sanctuaries to ensure long-term protection of the landscape, ecosystems and of the monarch butterfly. The only activities permitted in these areas are research and monitoring; extractive uses and local recreation Among these areas noted for its ecological importance, in Michoacán state Chincua-Campanario-Chivati-Huacal, home to sanctuaries: Chincua, Agangueo, La Mesa, and El Rosario Chivati.

Although, despite the efforts to implement actions that favour the conservation and optimum utilization of natural resources, most of the sanctuaries that make up the core and the Chincua-Campanario -Chivati-Huacal, face a common problem related to the limited employment opportunities in the area, lack of integration with regional and inadequate social investment in health, education and infrastructure markets. At the same time, the absence of appropriate technologies in production and conservation processes, defines precarious conditions and lack of expectations for people, especially for farmers and indigenous sectors (Granet and Fonfrede, 2011).

In addition, the municipalities in the corridor are towns with less 100 inhabitants; said dispersion is particularly problematic in terms of provision of basic services and access to markets. In addition, the prevailing social land distributed among more than two agricultural centres; of these, 19 are “ejidos” seven communities are also two national grounds: the federal property called Chundua with an area of 617 hectares, the state farm of 93 acres Monte Alto.

In addition, there are properties that are exploited by outsiders of the communities, while the owners suffer the degradation of natural resources. This problem occurs mainly in those areas that are far from the population centre. Moreover, in those remote communities, the exploitation of the resources that have traditionally been done collectively as pastures and forests currently represent a problem caused by the weakening of community mechanisms to control access to resources (Granet and Fonfrede, 2011).

Most of the agrarian communities in the corridor were formed in the decades of the 30’s and 40’s, the twentieth century, which generated that in recent years the region alive ejido aging processes because the vesting of this type only It can be inherited or transferred by the ejido; the “ejidatarios” make relevant agents and some secondary cases, relieving them of the decision. Because rights are not divisible, most are young people and a significant number of adults lack constraints facing them and to acquire them. Except Francisco Serrato and Contepec, families without these benefits represent approximately 70% of the community. However, many of these families access small portions of land through local solidarity mechanisms, such as family or through micro lending relationships, including income plots. Highlights the fact that the land acquired by these routes, generally have less than one hectare (Granet and Fonfrede, 2011).

This implies that most of the families do not have access to land and natural resources that allow them to survive in the ejido; so, the ejido aging also causes young household heads, the latter generally more schooling and experience outside the community, they are outside the ejido making decisions and information on the economic benefits generated by tourism or forestry activities, including. Nor do they have any say in the ejido assembly, the main body of discussion and decision-making to the community.

In addition to this, from 1982, which was enacted as core zone of the Corridor Chincua-Campanario-Chivati-Huacal, populations faced the closure of the main sources of employment regional, including the Mining Company of Angangueo, the Cariflor fruit nurseries and industrial facilities Union Ejido Melchor Ocampo, who together offered 1 170 jobs. Also, the main problems of the region refer to the dilemma between the need, on the one hand to preserve natural resources, particularly forest and on the other, the urgency to increase revenues in the short term (Granet and Fonfrede, 2011).

Regarding tourism, it is recognized not only as an important economic resource for the corridor, as well as an instrument of governance in rural areas; however, the five sanctuaries that make up the corridor, this activity is carried differently, since only Chincua Sierra, El Rosario and La Mesa have formal infrastructure; while in Chivati and sanctuaries Agangueo practiced informally and disorderly manner. That is, lack of infrastructure, training and formal organization that allows public, private and social agents to establish conditions for the conservation and utilization of the natural-tourism resource. Overall, this area has not generated jobs and economic resources for the communities that host a large rural population that has no tourism development mentality in that corridor (Rendón and Ramírez, 2007).

Added to this is the fact that the monarch butterfly overwintering is limited to four months short, which restricts the tourist practice. Same conflicts exist between agents public, private and social involved in making and implementing such actions within the corridor; example is that “ejidatarios” of the Chincua sanctuaries, El Rosario and La Mesa created an Alliance of ejidos and communities, in order to regulate the actions of conservation and protection of resources as well as those relating to the collection and provide services as guides walk to the beach, making and selling crafts and food; creation of tourism infrastructure, among others (Rendón and Ramírez, 2007).

Therefore, the structure of governance left out sanctuaries Agangueo and Chivati whose residents did not perceive any advantage in investing in tourism development; together with their communities had no means to propose their own alternatives related to the use of its assets. However, the design and implementation of actions for conservation and use by the Alliance of Chincua, El Rosario and La Mesa, Sanctuaries have been hampered largely by the plurality of agents with goals and interests, dependence and interdependence, exchange of information and resources, as well as inadequate or even nonexistent communication channels between them. This has led to several disputes, both for control of natural resources and tourism.

The exclusion of Chivati and ​Agangueo sanctuaries and the Mountain Partnership has generated various shortcomings such as lack of services, signaling, and appropriate channels of communication with the groups that make up the Corridor Chincua-Campanario-Chivati-Huacal. These sanctuaries have not been incorporated into official government programs related to tourism, and to the conservation and use of natural resources, generating deterioration. This has affected the closure of sources of employment, poor community participation and increasing tourism in a disorderly manner.

This series of problems are closely linked to governance for tourism in rural areas and specifically in each of the sanctuary by the corridor, because of the different levels of government derive their resources in isolation in the absence an integrated project; consequently, the results have been of little impact. Similarly, the struggle for power in the context of that Chincua Sanctuaries Alliance, El Rosario and La Mesa, coupled with the exclusion of the sanctuaries, have generated a crisis in direction in some of them, but also generally in the corridor and in the core zone of the MBBR, interview with staff of the Regional Delegation of SEDESOL in the State of Michoacán, 2004.

Moreover, the involvement of various social organizations to conserve and protect natural resources; and to design and implement alternative productive activities, rather than direct them, have confused the populations that make up the sanctuaries, as most inward looking out of the organization and not try to solve the problems of the corridor. In this context, the lack of coordination of intersectoral actions and to settle disputes, is the result of that situation, coupled with the lack of financial resources, technical incompetence, disorganization and lack of environmental management mechanisms.

Conclusions

In this exploration, challenges were observed in the theoretical and empirical. Regarding the former, the theoretical arguments on governance for tourism in the Monarch Butterfly Corridor Chincua-Camapanario-Chivati-Huacal, starting from the analysis the complex network of relationships among agents in the public, social and private sectors. But at the same time, such relationships that support governance for tourism, usually constitute a methodological challenge for several reasons: the restricted material on regarding that perspective and the context that governs such research empirical cases; risk of misinterpretation, and consequently distorted to the fact that is addressed, given the difficulty of analysing relationships between the agents, leaving aside the margin of subjectivity involved.

Regarding the empirical side, recognizing that have been inadequate conservation measures and tourism development in the corridor and in particular each of the sanctuaries that compose it, since the limited inter-communication between federal, state and municipal has hampered the flow of information, preventing the participation of those organizations that have the necessary resources to target the problems of the sanctuary and to solve them together with the community.

The conservation and protection of the Monarch Butterfly Corridor was established as a public good, and despite efforts to implement projects such as tourism, it is still necessary to encourage a link between civil society and the private sector. Also, interagency coordination mechanisms with a clear regulatory framework linking the different levels of government concerning the activities of the corridor, to plan them, allocate financial resources, track them and evaluate results are required.

On the other hand, a communication strategy, education, public awareness and critical information-oriented and all the agents involved in the corridor, to facilitate ongoing discussions and dynamic analysis is necessary. This will lead to a more participatory society and allow better use of resources and the management, operation and ongoing assessment of the functioning of the sanctuary in general.