Environmental governance in Mexico: water and air sectors

Environmental governance in Mexico is an unfolding phenomenon whereby the state, especially in the areas of water and air governance, seeks to safeguard its environmental largesse for posterity. There is a sense that a wide variance exists between various Mexican states in the area of enforcement and statutory comprehensiveness (vis-a-vis governance in the air and water sectors), and the data does reveal that many Mexican states are impoverished, already hampered by poor infrastructure and a depleted bureaucracy, and faced with choosing between the natural environment or extractive (or tourism) industries upon which they rely heavily. There are no easy answers, but greater cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary coordination – the type that allows resources to be leveraged and complementarities exploited – might be part of the solution