Struggle for sustainable human and environmental well-being on the Mexican coast of Oaxaca

In May 2000 a group from Ashoka, a US-based charitable foundation that gives grants to 'social entrepreneurs', or innovators for the common good, visited a number of projects for sustainable development on the coast of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. The author accompanied the group and here relates his observations and raises challenging questions about unforeseen contradictions and pitfalls in these visionary ventures.