Climatic variability is affecting rural and indigenous agricultural rainfed systems worldwide. This study aims (a) to determine how the national environmental regime for climate change operates in Quintana Roo, including the Maya Zone; (b) to assess the effects of climatic variability upon Maya livelihoods dependent on agricultural and forestry systems; and (c) to determine whether any of these effects of climatic variability on livelihoods are reflected in public policies at national and state levels. The study used a transdisciplinary approach combining natural and social science theory but also scientific and indigenous knowledge. Our results show that, in Mexico, the national regime for climate change is strongly linked to efforts at the global scale, but weakly linked to those at the local scale. Moreover, it was found that Maya rainfed agricultural and forestry systems are impacted to different degrees by droughts, extreme rains, and hurricanes, with slash-and-burn agriculture (milpa) being highly impacted by all three events. This situation not only affects the food security of the Maya people but also their ancestral cultural practices and indigenous knowledge. Moreover, 20–30% of the interviewees in this study seek alternative employment outside their communities as a coping strategy whenever meteorological events critically affect their livelihoods. The results of the review of both national (PECC) and the state-level (PEACCQROO) programs for climate change show that they currently fail to include specific lines of action on adaptation and mitigation strategies to cope with the effects of climate change on agricultural rainfed systems or its consequences for the rural Maya people.

In the highlands of Guatemala, the knowledge and use of the Cholq’ij, 260 day ritual calendar, has persisted among contemporary Maya groups. Although it has not remained unchanged since pre-Columbian times, its characteristics do not show significant modifications and its constituent elements have subsisted through time. Its transformations have obeyed social, political and historical processes; this demonstrate the capacity of adaptation of the Maya people of Guatemala. At present the Cholq’ij is the axis of references and endogenous cultural proposals. This paper describes some of its main characteristics and constituent elements. In adition, we explain the way that this calendar is understood, transmitted, systematized and used among the Mayan people from the highlands of Guatemala. Likewise, we discuss on its scope and contemporary applications.

Mayan community forest reserves (MCFR) play an important role in agricultural landscapes in Mexico, as theyprovide forest products and a broad variety of benefits that contribute to improving local people's livelihoods.Nevertheless, academia has generally considered conservation and use of forest resources to be incompatible. Wedescribe the spatial configuration of MCFR, evaluate floristic and structural characteristics of woody vegetation present in selected reserves, and identify social norms that govern use and conservation of MCFR. These reserves largely consist of mature vegetation (80% of total cover); their plant structure is similar to that of the sur-rounding tropical sub-deciduous forest; and they house a large number of endemic species. The MCFR studied contain a total of 146 tree species and cover 11% of the study area, which includes at least 140 villages in thenorth-central part of the Yucatan Peninsula. These reserves are collectively managed and conserved by Mayanpeasants in the interest of the common good. The communities in our study area combine conservation and useof forest resources, and we recommend that in public policy, government agencies and NGOs incorporate MCFRas a model of biological conservation and sustainable natural resource use, taking into account traditionalknowledge and local norms that allow these reserves to function in a sustainable manner.