Bray, D.B., L. Merino-Perez, and D. Barry 2005 (eds.): The Community Forests of Mexico, Managing for Sustainable Landscapes

Abstract

Mexico has advanced farther than any other country when it comes to commercially-oriented community forestry. Communities have owned a large share of the country’s forests for over half a century and since 1986 they have been able to manage those forests directly. Mexico’s government has devoted large sums to help community enterprises prepare forest management plans, get independently certified, and finance investments. As a result, hundreds of communities are now able to harvest timber and other products from their forests legally, and a significant number operate their own processing facilities. Many community enterprises seem financially viable and to manage their forests well. Nonetheless, recent international debates about community natural resource management have paid surprisingly little attention to the Mexican example. It is hard to say exactly why that is, but one reason has probably been the lack of any serious studies that provide a good overview of Mexico’s community forestry enterprises. This new volume edited by David Bray, Leticia Merino, and Deborah Barry does an admirable job of filling that gap. The volume brings together research from various disciplines by 21 of the most knowledgeable academics and practitioners from Mexico and the United States. The authors provide the clearest picture to-date of how community forestry has evolved in Mexico, its present characteristics and the impact it has had on rural livelihoods and landscapes; and they compare Mexico’s experience with other countries. The material is mostly well-written and goes directly to the point without too much repetition. Chapters by Leticia Merino, and Gerardo Segura and Christopher Boyer ably track the history of Mexican forestry policy, showing how well-intentioned but misguided technocrats and powerful private interests kept communities from truly controlling their forests between 1940 and 1985. However, beginning in the 1970s procommunity reformists within government, social movements demanding community control of forests, and the broad trend towards less government intervention came together to change that. In the mid-1980s, President Miguel de la Madrid stopped giving concessions to private companies to harvest timber on community-owned lands. The two following Presidents were not particularly supportive of community forestry, but that changed during the administration of President Vicente Fox (2000–2006). Despite Fox’s conservative origins, community forestry progressed greatly during the first few years of his presidency. Several chapters highlight community forestry’s successes. Antinori presents survey data from 42 communities in Oaxaca which shows their forestry enterprises have been relatively profitable. Remote sensing data from parts of Guerrero and Quintana Roo presented by Duran, Mas, and Velazquez demonstrate that community forests have been just as effective at maintaining forest cover in those regions as protected areas. Other chapters document some of Mexico’s better known success stories, such as El Balcon in Guerrero, the forestry ejidos of Southern Quintana Roo, and the Union de Comunidades Zapoteco–Chinanteca (UZACHI) in Oaxaca. Still, the book certainly doesn’t downplay community forestry’s weaknesses or the difficulties going forward. Corrupt leaders, conflicts among villagers, poorly planned initiatives, resistance by outside vested interests, overexploitation of timber resources, and on-going clandestine harvesting all get significant attention, with several case Hum Ecol (2007) 35:511–512 DOI 10.1007/s10745-006-9073-6