Chinampería, a jeopardized precolonial agricultural practice, persists in the Xochimilco wetland, Mexico City. Agroecological chinampa production is a recognized UNESCO World Heritage Site, and contributes to the sustainability of both the urban wetland and the city. The ‘chinampa-refuge’ model (CRM) is a transdisciplinary effort to strengthen traditional agroecological practices and ecological restoration. Through an inter/transdisciplinary research framework, we addressed the model’s role in the sustainability of this socio-ecosystem concerning four significant drivers of the wetland’s transformation. The CRM has improved water quality locally, increased the suitable habitat for native aquatic biodiversity, and supported traditional agroecological practices, thus improving the quality and safety of food products. However, there are clear challenges regarding production and commercialization, some of which may be addressed through the strengthening of the social organization and collective action. However, other challenges are beyond the reach of chinampa producers’ efforts and the CRM, but are decisive in changing the degradation trends. In order to address these challenges, urgent and participatory government actions are needed based on the recognition of the causes of wetland degradation and the role of traditional chinampa production in its sustainability.

SUMMARY: Conservation policies have often been designed and implemented assuming that targeted communities are socially and politically homogeneous. Payment for environmental services (PES) programmes have often overlooked intra-community differences, which affect the understanding of implementation requirements and access to benefits, thus underestimating their effects on the programme's legitimacy and impacts. We explore how the views of local communities about the socio-environmental performance and dynamics of Mexico's PES differ within forest communities, considering two groups: local community authorities and the remaining beneficiaries in two different PES programmes. Informed by a nationwide survey, we constructed 35 indicators and found significant differences between these groups for 10 indicators. Local community authorities concentrated knowledge and information, relations with outside actors and control over benefit distribution. We found that community authorities and beneficiaries diverged in their views about the extent to which PES knowledge is shared across community members, how related implementation decisions are pursued and the fairness of benefit distribution, which we argue suggests this is a form of ‘elite capture’ favoured by PES design and implementation. Efforts should be invested in ensuring that PES programme benefits are equitably distributed in order to avoid widening pre-existing social and political asymmetries.

Social participation in the design and implementation of conservation policies has become increasingly relevant. Despite the recognition of the importance of local communities' perspectives in the design and implementation of conservation policies, participation mechanisms are usually deficient. Simplification of socioecological complexity in policy design has been documented as one of the most salient challenges limiting policies' success. We examined conservation policies, objectives and implementation in an urban wetland of high biocultural importance in Mexico City, and contrasted them with local community perspectives about the causes and solutions of socioecological problems in the wetland. We documented policies developed for the wetland conservation since 1989, and interviewed local inhabitants whose livelihoods depend directly on the wetland, governmental officials, and non-governmental organisations representatives. Our results showed that policies' design simplify complex socioecological reality in the Xochimilco wetland. This complex reality, as perceived by local communities, is not represented nor addressed by governmental programmes, which systematically avoid dealing with the most urgent processes linked to wetland degradation and have exacerbated local social asymmetries. This study emphasises the need to develop and evaluate policies through transdisciplinary strategies and participatory processes, which include all social actors involved, particularly those that depend directly on ecosystems.