Indigenous community land tenure systems in many locations worldwide are shifting toward individually parcelized and privatized systems. Among the drivers of this shifting land tenure, are distant political-economic forces and commodity markets, from local to global. Accompanying the observed land tenure changes are shifts in livelihoods, away from subsistence-based, and toward market-oriented activities. These changes can ultimately impact land use and land cover patterns. I investigated a global-to-local casual pathway, from agriculture, livestock and forestry production for distant markets, extending through shifting land tenure and livelihoods, to impacts on land use and land cover within ejidos (a type of community landholding) across Yucatán, México where Maya people are the primary land stewards. My research questions are: 1) what underlying and broad-scale social processes influence changes to ejido land tenure and livelihoods, and 2) in what way do the changes to ejido land tenure and livelihoods influence land use and land cover? To investigate these questions, first I use descriptive statistics to initially assess the shift in ejido land tenure, from community to individually parcelized systems, and the shift in a principal subsistence livelihood and land use activity, from maize cultivation to cattle rearing. Next, I use ordinary least squares regression, mapped variables, and variographic analyses to assess spatial patterns and correlations. I further explored relationships among variables using spatially-explicit simultaneous autoregressive models. Finally, I use remotely sensed satellite images to map and analyze changes to land use and land cover patterns across the state, and particularly among ejidos (pre- and post- parcelization). I show that commodity production for distant markets is strongly related to parcelized ejido lands. Moreover, I show that changes to land use and land cover patterns among ejidos are associated with changes to ejido land tenure. Specifically, parcelized ejido lands are often deforested. Conversely, I show that community-managed ejidos comprise a larger percentage of conservation lands or lands undergoing forest regeneration, and therefore are much more likely to be densely forested. In all, I conclude that land privatization can threaten the conservation potential of community-managed forests and landscapes across the state of Yucatán.