Ecodegradation and Indigenous Livelihoods: a Case Study in Northwest México Degradación ecológica y modos de vida indígenas: un caso de estudio en el noroeste mexicano

Cucapá indigenous people have been facing one of the best examples of human domination over water resources: the colonization of the Colorado River Delta. In this research, we use the Social-Ecological Systems framework to provide insights about the influence that environmental degradation has on indigenous livelihoods, taking as a case study the processes that have affected the indigenous Cucapá settlement El Mayor since 1940. Using semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and bibliographic compilation we identified degradation factors, we then linked that information with the chronological changes in livelihoods according to the El Mayor community. We found that 1) the 1980’s flood, 2) the flow of sewage drainage since 2007 and, 3) the 2010 earthquake were the main drivers that have re-arranged the Social-Ecological System feedbacks inside El Mayor, disconnecting the population with the Hardy River and affecting their wellbeing. Furthermore, we found that negative perceptions of the river ́s water quality prevent the successful development of recovery projects with engagement of El Mayor people. We propose that better ecological conditions could increase opportunities to achieve wellbeing in the community and strength the connections to land, however, comprehensive public policies are also necessary.


Introduction
Cucapá indigenous people have historically inhabited the Colorado River Valley. Recent archeological evidence reports settlements from ~1670 ad 1 (Porcayo et al., 2016). For this community, the river was both the provider of tools, food and shelter, as well as the pillar for intangible cultural elements such as the Cucapá worldview, myths and symbolisms (Reisner, 1986;Chan et al., 2012;Axelsson et al., 2013). However, the fast colonization of the Colorado River Delta beginning in the 20th century lead to the degradation of the ecosystem (Samaniego, 1998;Ward, 2003;Porcayo et al. 2016). It was in 1931 when a second major drought affected the river's delta, causing the river-based economy of the Cucapá people to break, forcing them to gradually embrace capitalism (Samaniego, 1998;Gómez Estrada, 2000). Table 1 provides a chronological guide of the main events that have influenced Cucapá livelihoods in the past 500 years.
1 There are important discrepancies among the antiquity of the Cucapá settlements in the Colorado River Delta. While Porcayo et al. (2016) present archaeological evidence dating ~1670 AD, other authors have estimated older dates going from 1 500 B.C. (De Cesare, 1985), 1 000 B.C. (Kelly, 1977) to 900 B.C. (Bonilla Vázquez, 2011). This is different to the linguistic studies proposing an antiquity in the development of the Cucapá language of 4 220 years (Ochoa Zazueta, 1982).

Table 1. Key events in the past 500 years in the history of the management of the Colorado River Basin and the Cucapá indigenous people
Key historical events in the Colorado River Delta social-ecological system Historical and holistic period 1500-

1800
Exploration and attempt of colonization of the Colorado River Delta by religious orders (Bonilla Vázquez, 2011).

1848
Signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo and Gadsden Purchase (Ward, 2003).

1874
Guillermo Andrade acquired the Colorado River delta territory (Samaniego, 1998). Cucapá people were legally dispossessed but still free to use the territory in the traditional way (Gómez Estrada, 2000).

1880
Mexican attempts to colonize the area failed, and most of the population in the delta were still indigenous people (Sykes, 1937).
Transition period [1905][1906][1907] First major drought in the Colorado River Delta due to the deviation to irrigate Imperial and Mexicali valleys. Cucapá people were unable to sustain their traditional economy and use of natural resources and forced to join the market economy (Gómez Estrada, 2000).

1917
Settlement of the Cocopah Tribal Reservation in Somerton, Arizona, us. Free access to and use of the river's resources was banned in us (Kelly, 1977;Tisdale, 1997).

1920
Cucapá people on either side of the border preserved their semi-nomadic lifestyle and some of them were still engaged in traditional agriculture (Gómez Estrada, 2000).

1930-1934
Second major drought in the Colorado River Delta due to lack of runoff in the upper basin of the Colorado River and the construction of Hoover Dam (1931Dam ( -1935 (Gómez Estrada, 2000). Agricultural drainage into the Hardy River begins (Ward, 2003). Techniques for food provisioning, ceremonies, rituals, and legends no longer regularly practiced or taught to new generations (Gómez Estrada, 2000).

1936-1937
The us prohibited the free border crossing of Mexican and North American Cucapá and all indigenous people (Gómez Estrada, 2000). Cucapá people were forced to abandon their semi-nomadic lifestyle and live in community as a result of the reforms on agricultural and land policy driven by the Mexican Federal Government (Ward, 2003). Establishment of Cucapá Indígena and Cucapá Mestizo villages and the settlements at the banks of the Hardy River that in 1980 formed the El Mayor village (Álvarez de Williams, 1974a;Gómez Estrada, 2000).

Consolidation period 1940
The Hardy River became a tourist destination for North Americans. El Mayor people became tourist service providers (Albro, 2013).

1942
Establishment of the Pozas de Arvizu village on land granted to us Cucapá citizens by the The Colorado River Land Company (Rodríguez, 1976).

1944
Signing of the binational water treaty 'Utilization of Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande" (known as the 1944 Treaty) that established a water allocation to Mexico from the Colorado River of 1 850 234 000 m3 and specifies the conditions of its distribution (tila, 1944).

1954
Up to this year, Morelos Dam (last dam along the Colorado River settle in Mexican territory build between 1948-1950) received over 2.466 mill/m3 even though in the 1944 Treaty, the water allocation for Mexico was lower: 1.850 mill/m3 (Ward, 2003).  Third drought in the delta due to the building of Glen Canyon Dam and filling of Lake Powell (Stockton y Jacoby, 1976;Glenn et al., 2007).

1987
First permit for commercial fishing in fresh water, granted for El Mayor inhabitants (Bárbara, interview, 2014).

1993
Declaration of the "Biosphere Reserve of the Upper Gulf of California and Colorado River Delta" (npa) (conanp, 2007).

1998-1999
The Colorado River no longer reaches the Gulf of California (Mapa de la tierra de los Cucapá, 2009). The fight for fishing rights in the NPA begins (Leonor, interview, 2014).
Skeptical perception of water quality and restoration strategies

2010
Earthquake in Mexicali. The topography of the Hardy River was affected as well as the irrigation modules that fed the Hardy River. Several tourist camps were abandoned and the path to El Zanjón was damaged (Trejo Fernandez, 2012;Albro, 2013).

2012
The Las Arenitas artificial wetland began to operate, improving the drainage into the Hardy River (García-Hernández, 2013). Nevertheless, for El Mayor people the water is polluted and poses a threat to health (Bartolo, interview, 2014). With the impossibility of using the river as a resource provider, the necessity to find a paid job and the pressure from the us and Mexican governments to control indigenous people, Cucapá people were eventually forced to abandon their nomadic lifestyle and settle down (Álvarez de Williams, 1974a;Kelly, 1977;Gómez Estrada, 2000). Nowadays, the Cucapá population is around 1 500, spread in three main settlements and other areas within the southern states of the us and nor- In this investigation, we use the Social-Ecological Systems (ses) framework as the basis for analyzing and understanding the relationships and interactions between Cucapá people and their surrounding environment. According to Berkes and Folke (1998) than the other settlements (Table 1). Thus, from the second half of the last century (1940) until the period when this research was conducted (2013)(2014), there were clear and specific degradation factors upon the Hardy River whose consequences on Cucapá inhabitants of El Mayor are the object of this research (Figure 1). Using the case study of El Mayor inhabitants we seek to provide a better understanding of how the transformations on ecosystems influence indigenous livelihoods, how new mechanisms and resources are adequated to alleviate one population's tangible and intangible necessities and the associated transformation of values over the territory.

Methods
El Mayor Cucapá village, located at km 57 of the Mexicali-San Felipe highway, belongs to the with key informants. Short visits were also made throughout the year to witness key events such as the traditional celebration, fairs, ceremonies, and the fishing season. Pozas de Arvizu and The Cocopah Indian Tribe were also visited.
Interviews were applied to people belonging to different age groups in accordance to the intentional sampling criterion (Anduiza Perea et al., 1999). 2 Information obtained through the interviews, field diary and informal conversations was analyzed based on the grounded theory technique (Trinidad et al., 2006). Information on the environmental degradation of the Hardy River was obtained through bibliographic compilation with the assistance of civil society and government organizations until the saturation point of information was reached. It is important to note that along the text we will use the term 'Cucapá people' to refer to all the Cucapá population when they still had a semi-nomadic lifestyle, while the term 'El Mayor people' will be used to specify the

Degradation of the hardy river
Tourist camps on the Hardy River: the consolidation of a new approach to the river, 1940-1980 From 1900 to 1940 Cucapá people experienced a transition in their livelihoods strongly influenced by the environmental conditions that the Colorado River Delta had along those years. Historically, they had a holistic use of the river (a detailed description of Cucapá people before 1900 is beyond the scope of this research, however, Cucapá historical livelihoods could be found at Álvarez de Williams, 1974b;Álvarez de Williams, 1975;Kelly, 1977;Gómez Estrada, 2000;Porcayo et al. 2016).
Nevertheless, after facing two major droughts, from 1905 to 1907 and from 1931 to 1935, together with other degradation events (Table 1), Cucapá people were unable to continue with their river-based provision of resources (Tisdale, 1997;Samaniego, 1998;Gómez Estrada, 2000;Porcayo et al. 2016). As a parallel process, the river provision of intangible livelihoods also changed. Ceremonies, rituals, and legends were no longer regularly practiced or passed on (Gómez Estrada, 2000).
The construction of Glen Canyon Dam and filling of Lake Powell provoked a third major drought that lasted from 1958 to 1983 (Stockton and Jacoby, 1976;Glenn et al., 2007). Despite the desolated environmental conditions in the Delta, the Hardy River received two extra water contributions: 1) drainage from the agricultural valley of Mexicali that runs through the Hardy River since 1930 (Ward, 2003) and 2) over 2 466 mill/m 3 received at Morelos Dam until 1955 that were directly discharged to the Hardy river (Ward, 2003). With these water contributions, environmental conditions in the Hardy River were sufficient to provide food and other resources that El Mayor people had direct access to in the event of economic scarcity. For example, they gathered pechita (mesquite pods) and the center of the common rush, they hunted rabbits and drank water directly from the river (Yazmin, interview, 2014, 78 years old). El Mayor people interviewed recall this period with nostalgia and before all the degradation factors started, when fishing was solely to meet their own needs and the river was the physical space were most of the learning and socializing was made when they were children. the extraction of natural resources. This is how the establishment of tourist camps along the Hardy River in the early 1940s became a secure and constant income for El Mayor people, although some of the population also found employment picking cotton. Among the activities that El Mayor people developed in the touristic camps were: keepers of the houses while the owners were away, worked as servants, guides, guards, watchmen, cleaners, cookers and helpers. Shops were settled around to offer food and services such as tire repair, boat and Jet Ski rent (Albro, 2013).
"It was so pretty, there were lots of trees, bigger than this [points to a lamppost], we climbed up the branches and from the top we dived into the middle of the river. And then we played to see who could  (Table 1). Passing through the 'Transition period' in which the complex links inside the ses-crd where drastically transformed in a parallel process to the fast colonization of the delta region (Table 1), and finally reaching a 'Consolidation period'. The first two periods refer to wider processes affecting the whole Cucapá culture and population, this categorisation, although may be considered as over simplified, helps understand the context under which El Mayor people livelihoods are analysed.
It is from the 'Consolidation period' that we start refering to El Mayor people, in clear recognition that from 1940 the social-ecological factors for this village were unique, and required an independent analysis from the other Cucapá settlements (Table 1, Figure 1). By this period, El Mayor people were already dependent upon the market economy with the direct extraction of resources (by then reduced mostly to fishing and gathering) converted into a complementary or recreational activity, and the ritual life including war or adulthood ceremonies inexistent (Table   1). Nevertheless, it should be highlighted that the Hardy River was still strongly regarded as a vital historical space to learn about Cucapá cosmology, about the river resources and stories of its richness and greatness, as well as a social space for community interaction and housing (Table 1).

Environmental events: changes in El Mayor livelihoods, 1980-2014.
From 1979 to 1989 excess flows at the Colorado Basin caused flooding in Mexico. The reasons for the excess water were, first, that Lake Powell in Glen Canyon Dam finally reached its storage capacity. Second, the meterological events of El Niño that provoked over rains and snows along northwest us (Glenn et al., 2007). As a measure to prevent the collapse of different dams over the us, huge quantities of water were allowed to flow in the Colorado River natural channel (Piechota et al., 1997). For the environment, this meant the recovery of approximately 600 million m 2 of wetlands and riparian vegetation (Glenn et al., 2007). El Mayor people, however, recall 1980 flooding as the event that forced them to change their last 40 years of interactions with the Hardy River, even though the population recognize the benefits the extra water brought to the environment the first years after the flooding.
This section is divided into four specific events that El Mayor people indicated as factors that gradually changed the environmental conditions in the river, and with it their livelihoods.
The flooding of the Colorado River affected us greatly. First it was a benefit but eventually it left us in a situation that really affected us. For me and for the people that used to fish here, the period when there was water in the Salada Lagoon was beneficial. It was like a 10 years' flood in the whole area. It was necessary to move the highway because the water went as far as the old highway, so they raised the highway. But in the end, it was a disaster. The river channel changed, and then it got blocked, it was deep and then it got blocked ending up being short -Bárbara (interview, 2014, p. 156, 50 years old).

Flooding of the delta: meeting El Mayor people's needs, 1980-1990
The consequences of the flooding of the Colorado River delta varied depending on the time that elapsed since the beginning of the flooding. El Mayor people described the initial consequences of the flooding as negative for the following reasons: a) El Mayor people were forced to abandon their homes along the Hardy River and obliged to set in a different space, which is now El Mayor village. This new lifestyle increased tensions between them as they were used to settle in family groups, separate from other families. b) Moreover, living in El Mayor entailed the use of public services such as drinking water, electricity, gas, schools and doctors that were mentioned by the population as factors that distanced them from their traditions, c) One of their main sources of income, the tourist camps, were severely affected, d) Due to the enormous amount of sediment and debris that was washed up during the flooding, water quality declined significantly, causing skin and gastrointestinal diseases (Bárbara, interview, 2014, 50 years old). Despite the negative consequences of the flooding, once the river channel was stabilized, the river resources became the main source of income and not only used in the event of economic scarcity, what makes a strong difference from the last period described . During this period livelihoods were expanded and diversified: a) tourist camps rapidly recovered from the floodings, in fact they expanded due to tourism attracted by the radiant recovery of the river, b) it became possible to extract resources for direct consumption: mainly fishing but they gather also medicinal plants, mesquite pods or hunting of rabbits, c) with the abundance of aquatic resources commercial fresh water fishing, a new livelihood, was established.
Commercial fishing appeared at this decade and the first fishing cooperatives were established. The main fishery sites were the Salada Lagoon and the Hardy River. People fished mainly largemouth bass and lizas, although they also fished yellow and white catfish, white and black crappie, common carp, and shrimp (Bárbara, interview, 2014, 50 years old (Figure 2).
We were happy to catch fish by the ton, but then the Colorado River was blocked; it had a lot of problems. We ended up being very tired after spending all day electrofishing, we threw the net thousands of times only to catch 10 or 15 kg of fish. We caught some catfish, which were all sick, thin. There was no fishing for us anymore. My mom and my little brother went on fishing, they started fishing in the drains and for the few fish that were left in the rivers. And well, that was very poor fishing, that was not enough for the gas and for all that going and coming Together with the scarcity of fishing resources, the low flow of the Hardy River affected the elaboration of arrowweed, common rush and willow houses. According to Ofelia (interview, 2014, 70 years old), those houses, that were already uncommon, ceased to be used after the 1980 flooding due to the difficulty to find the materials to build them, as well as the bigger effort needed to build them. Willow bark was also used to build roofs to celebrate traditional ceremonies and to elaborate willow bark skirts that were no longer commonly used but were sold as handcrafts, these skirts are infrequently still elaborated.
During this period, it became impossible for El Mayor people to use the Hardy River to meet all their economic and social-cultural needs. However, once again, the Hardy River did not lose all its ecosystem functions thanks to the agricultural drainage from Irrigation District 014 in the Mexicali Valley. This enabled the Hardy River to keep providing recreational services and to be used as a stock of consumption resources only to affront economic scarcity, similar to the conditions described during the 1940-1980 period. As well, touristic camps were still functioning and some of the population still had their jobs. Driven by the necessity to find other sources of income, El Mayor people started gaining profit handcrafting and kuri kuri singing and dancing (Bárbara, interview, 2014, 50 years old). These cultural activities were believed to have been discontinued by the beginning of the 20 th century (Garduño, 2011), however, they have been reemerging in adaptation to the new socio-political context and with great importance for the contemporary Cucapá identity.

Waste water discharge: skeptical perception of water quality, 2007-2014
According to the El Mayor population, in 2007 a second major degradation event occurred: the launching of the 'Las Arenitas' Wastewater Treatment Plant (Figure 2) run by the Mexicali State Commission for Public Services (Comisión Estatal de Servicios Públicos de Mexicali-cespm). An agreement between the Sonoran Institute and cespm stated that 30% of the discharge from the treatment plant had to be sent to the Hardy River for restoration purposes (geth, 2012). The first months after Las Arenitas was inaugurated the water was not correctly treated, which entailed the discharge of water with much higher levels of fecal coliforms and other pollutants than the ones permitted under Mexican official norms (García-Hernández et al., 2009). Residents claimed that water from the Hardy River was very poor quality, with an unpleasant odor and green color.
The massive death of fish and increased gastrointestinal illnesses among the population because of the pollution of the river (Albro, 2013)  Under these circumstances, the few commercial fishers that remained in the Hardy River had to cope with the difficulty of commercializing the fish in Mexicali, due to buyers' concerns over the river's pollution. At the same time, self-provisioning of fish became minimal, touristic camps collapsed and people avoided going to the river, all due to the high risk of getting sick. Although El Mayor inhabitants generally admit that the water quality of the river has improved, they never mentioned to know the existence of the wetland nor how it helps to improve the water quality of the Hardy River. For most of El Mayor people, the fact that the water comes from a treatment plant implies the risk of getting skin or gastrointestinal diseases, as well, El Mayor people still perceive the river as polluted or unable to provide enough resources to meet their needs. In interview with officials from the Sonoran Institute and Pronatura, they claim that the projects intended in the Hardy River have failed due to the Cucapá's lack of organization and enthusiasm in trying to recover their sacred territory and the ecosystem. We suggest that the main reason those projects have failed in achieving successful engagement is that the community of El The Hardy River gets dry in some parts but not in others. The river is fed by drainage from crops but after the earthquake the channels broke and no longer carry water. And the river dries out and then comes back again but not very much, not like it used to. Right now the level is low, very low, but I think that once the channels are fixed and water will start flowing again, the river is going to rise again -Aurelio (interview, 2014, p. 157, 57 years old).
The earthquake did away with the livelihoods here at El Mayor because North Americans (tourists) who were still here left -Bárbara (interview, 2014, p. 157, 50 years old).
With the decrease in water levels, together with the destruction and fear the earthquake left several tourist camps were abandoned. Fresh water and salt water fishing were affected, the former due to the high mortality related with the low water levels and the latter because the pathway to El Zanjón fishing area was damaged. For the youngest, the earthquake was the main factor that caused the drop in the water level and prevented them from using it as a place for recreation, though; children are the only ones that currently still explore the river. Adults rarely go walking along the river and never go swimming; they rarely fish for self-consumption.
Very little flows from the river now, it is not possible for boats to go by, far less a water motorcycle - Cebrían (interview, 2014, p. 154, 55 years old).
There I have my jet ski and I have a paddle boat as well. Now I have them outside because someone is going to come to buy them, because we used them when my nieces came here to the river [for leisure activities] from Mexicali but not anymore - Danilo (interview, 2014, p. 154, 55 years old).
Despite the skepticism of the Hardy River to recover from the degradation, there have been huge international efforts to restore the delta (Raise the river, 2014). The most recent and important restoration project in the Delta is called the 'Pulse Flow. 7 The moment the pulse flow began, members of El Mayor expressed through pictures and ceremonies in social media their hopes for the Hardy River to recover. Others thought that due to the low amount of water, the only thing they would obtain would be more garbage carried along by the flow.
Who knows whether the water that is going to flow [from the pulse flow] is going to help. It depends where they are going to let it run; if they are going to mix everything up, it is going to be a mess. The only thing now is that if they let it run, it is going to flow directly into the sea -Ofelia (interview, 2014, p. 165, 70 years old).
It is going to flow directly into the sea but it would be beneficial for us because there would be lots of fish. If only we can make the government build a levee in the highway, so that the water runs back to the Salada Lagoon so that it accumulates there, it would be beneficial for us. And where there is water, there is life, because there would be fish and that is the source for us. And if the government does not want us to fish corvina, we could fish here, in the Hardy River and we could fish in the corvina season but not that much, without using too many boats. It is useful for the government in

Decouple of Social-Ecological Systems and Cucapá building of livelihoods
Livelihoods are the set of mechanisms and strategies that people use for the satisfaction of their necessities, including those tangible and intangible (Bromlei, 1985;González-Pérez, 2004). The scheme to analyze livelihoods would depend on the specific case under study, however, there are some basic elements: 1. The context of the population under study (historical, political, demographic), 2. Stocks from where the population will grab elements to build livelihods (natural, physical, social, cultural, and economic), and 3. The potential activities derived from each stock (Scoones, 1998). Livelihoods emerge as the resulting interaction between the elements of a stock of resources, the access and control over those elements and the preferences and priorities of the population, under the conditions that the context allows (Scoones, 1998 needs, but also have provided the basis for ethical values, sacred spaces, aesthetic experiences, and personal or group identities (Herskovits, 1952;Boege, 2008;Oudenhoven van, 2011). In this case, the holistic river-based livelihoods broke at the beginning of the XX century, when Cucapá people faced the first two droughts in the Colorado River Delta (Gómez Estrada, 2000). However, as we have presented along the document, El Mayor people has been constantly adapting and reconstructing their livelihoods as a response to changing conditions. We consider that El Mayor people, after what we called as the 'Transition period' entered into the 'Consolidaiton period' in which the community strongly relied on the Hardy River as a stock of elements to build livelihoods from the years 1940 to 1990. However, as a consequence of the degradation of that ecosystem, and the constantly changing socio-economic context, El Mayor people have had to search for other stocks to rely on and build new livelihoods for the last 27 years.
We acknowledge that the development across the delta not only has implied changes in the ecological systems, but also has brought completely new social, economic, and political values.
Values are a determinant factor for societies in 'choosing' livelihoods (Armitage, 2007). During the first years of the colonization of the delta, Cucapá people experienced the first contacts with food, clothes, and tools which they found useful and were gradually accepted, adapted, and introduced to their river based economy (like sugar, cattle or iron tools). However, when this river based economy broke, Cucapá people were forced not to incorporate elements to an already existent livelihoods and values framework, but to completely reconstruct it based on unknown concepts and values such as the sense of private property, the use of money to trade for supplies, to follow tasks as an employee and learn other languages not to be rejected. Cucapá people, then, where exposed to a diversified and increased spectrum of stocks from where to build livelihoods but with very restricted access to them due to external economic and political constrains established with the colonization of the delta.
Juarez (2002)  Hoole and Berkes (2010) note that when social and ecological sub-systems lose their feedbacks, both sub-systems may independently change over time, becoming a decoupled system. We suggest that the impossibility of using the river as a direct source provider and the lacking capacity of the river to provide a space for positive social interaction are signs of a decoupling process in the ses-mh. In other words, the environmental conditions of the Hardy River are not currently supplying the population with the tangible or intangible resources they expect to obtain from it, neither has it quantity and quality of water enough to maintain an ecological balance able to sustain healthy biological communities (Postel and Richter, 2003;Jiménez et al., 2005).
Coming back to the livelihoods concept of Scoones (1998), with the impossibility of using the  (2016) in recognising the cultural importance that this activity has for El Mayor people beyond the economic factor, fishing also represents the opportunity to reconnect to their historical river-based lifestyle, is driving the reconstruction of traditions and configuring the contemporary Cucapá identity.
Despite of the strong disconnection between the Hardy River and El Mayor people for most of the tangible livelihoods, the Hardy River still represents a strong cultural symbol for El Mayor people, it represents a shared historical reference in the community's imaginary, linking the present-day population to a recent past that is recalled as glorious and yearned, when the Hardy River provided with enough resources to sustain the population and allowed the to have a comfortable life style. For the community and for Cucapá people from other settlements, El Mayor is located in a sacred space, surrounded by the Hardy River and the Águila Hill ( Figure 2, Figure 3), elements that underpin the core of the Cucapá identity as they constitute part of their ancestral territory and of their 'Colorado River Delta'-world view. 8 Hoole and Berkes (2010) propose that there are actions that could be done for recoupling social and ecological sub-systems as far as the population could identify prospective benefits from management programs. In this sense, there has been a continuous rejection of programs offered by the government and civil organizations that try to alleviate poverty and restore the Hardy River.
We suggest that this rejection relies on the difference between Cucapá people perception over the quality of the Hardy River resources and the reports environmental organizations have on the same resources. For Cucapá people the Hardy River is polluted, has weak and few fish resources with little flow in which no boats can be used either to fish or to entertain. On the opposite, envi-ronmental organizations report that the restoration programs all over the Colorado River Delta have been increasing water quality and, hence, fish, birds and vegetation populations are recovering in the riparian ecosystems, including the Hardy River.
The dissent between El Mayor population and environmental organizations prevents Cucapá people from the possibility to recoupling with the ecosystem. One reason is the difference in the quality perception of the resources, but also, many of the projects offered to Cucapá people lack cultural meaning to them, either because the aims of the projects are detached to their history or because they break the strategies they have decided to pursue in order to supply their necessities. Roncoli et al. (2009) mentions that any kind of natural resource management develops only when some element from the environment where the resource belongs is appropriated by the population.
If El Mayor people does not appropriate the Hardy River again, then the possibility of using it as a stock to build livelihoods will remain unlikely. According to the social-ecological systems framework, if the ecosystem does not provide to the society, then the society does not feedback on the ecosystem (Balée, 2006). Even though in this research we focused on the effects that environment transformations have on the society and not vice-versa, we reckon that the decouple of the ses-mh puts the environment in a vulnerable or neglected position that can conduct to further degradation. In this regard Roncoli, et al. (2009) mentions that the way people from rural societies appropriate, perceive, value and keep their local knowledge of natural resources has a direct implication in the conservation or degradation of the ecosystem.
Current livelihoods in El Mayor, including fishing in El Zanjón, selling of handcrafts, fresh water fishing that remains and even illegal enterprises that some of the population is pursuing should be understood as an adaptive and constant process molded by strong forces inside the socio-economic-ecological context that El Mayor population is facing (Navarro Smith, 2008). There are fundamental aspects framing El Mayor social reality and constraining the opportunities of developing and diversifying livelihoods that can enhance the community well-being. Among these are severe health problems (Ruiz Ruiz, 2009;Arellano García, 2010;Bonilla Vásquez, 2011) and social disadvantage (Muehlmann, 2013). In-depth analysis of these factors were beyond the scope of this research, nevertheless, is worth mentioning that land tenure insecurity among El Mayor members represents a strong factor preventing the development of livelihoods and keeps the population in a vulnerable status. El Mayor people has not been granted with any land adjacent to the Hardy River or the Colorado River, meaning that the population has no legal rights on the land where El Mayor village is situated (Leonor, interview, 2014, 43 years old). Communal Land tenure is linked to this a, in 1973, 45 Cucapá from Baja California were granted 143 000 ha of communal property, comprising the Salada Lagoon and the Cucapá Mountain Range (Figure 2). Part of the conflict is that the polygon does not include areas along the banks of the Hardy River. In addition, when flooded, the Salada Lagoon (part of the communal property), becomes national waters and thus federal property under public use regulations (Hinojosa-Huerta et al., 2006). Another aspect of the conflict is that only eight people living in El Mayor has communal land rights. There is an on-going trial to give all people at El Mayor communal property rights (Leonor, interview, 2014, 43 years old).

Conclusions
Degradation of the Colorado River Delta riparian ecosystems was and continues to be a main factor shaping Cucapá livelihoods. We identified that the main demand from El Mayor people with regards to the Hardy River is that drainage from the Las Arenitas treatment plant cease, despite that scientific evidence shows this drainage to be a positive factor that has increased the water quality of the Hardy River. In order to balance both positions, members of El Mayor should be informed about Las Arenitas wetland as a natural complement to the treatment process and how it helps to improve water quality. At the same time, scholars, planners, and decision makers must begin to consider Cucapá interpretations of their changing environment and cultural meaning as a key factor that would derive in the appropriation and success of management projects.
During the interviews, El Mayor people reported that if the conditions in the Hardy River improved, according to their perceptions, they would have opportunities to ameliorate their life conditions. Environmentally speaking, there seems to be a promising scenario with the on-going restoration agreements and plans. Projects that would help increase the level and quality of the water in the Hardy River include: 1. the pulse flow agreed on in Minute 319, 2. the restoration projects of Pronatura and the Sonoran Institute and 3. the expansion of the Las Arenitas artificial wetland. However, despite official agreements, the level and quality of the water in the Hardy River depends entirely on the political will of each administration and the cooperation with civil society organizations. In the ses-mh, El Mayor people are in a vulnerable position as the recipients of either positive or negative outcomes derived from policies elaborated at higher scales including the ses-crd and internationally, with so far no legally recognized right to participate in the planning or decision making process. Hence, is fundamental that the Mexican Estade ensures optimum conditions of recognition, respect, and autonomy to reveal real opportunities for Cucapá to diversify livelihoods, pursue aspirations and achieve well-being. Only under those conditions the Cucapá community will be able to evolve into active managers of their territory and empowered actors determining their life strategies. Then, the decision whether to re-appropriate the Hardy River as the basis for their livelihoods would lie in the El Mayor people will.