Impacts of Finnish cooperation in the Mexican policy making process: From the community forest management to the liberalization of forest services

Abstract

The aim of this paper is highlight how Mexican-Finnish forestry cooperation (1982–1994) supported major shifts in Mexican national forest policy, by identifying the policy changes and relating these to the strategy taken by the cooperation program. We based our analyses in two proposals: four pathways of influence as well as context-specific impact study. The methodology was carried out through a context-specific impact study; it consisted of describing changes in Mexican society and the history of the forest policy with the aim of understand the contribution of the Finnish-Mexican cooperation. The information was collected following 3 steps: 1) collecting historical data in Mexico and from the archive of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland; 2) interviews with Finnish and Mexican forestry experts involved in the cooperation interventions and 3) validating by contrasting sources. In conclusion, we found that Finnish cooperation had direct effects on Mexican forestry policy in terms of helping the incorporation of CFM in national forestry planning. At the same time, the cooperation program went deeper and shaped wider objectives, mainly through training and the mutual learning of Mexican and Finnish participants.