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This exploration delves into the significance of sustainable development in Mexican forests, offering insights into the country's unique situation as a case study for other developing nations. Despite historical challenges such as dispossession, land reform, and modern economic policies, Mexican forests play a crucial role in supporting ecological balance and providing alternative livelihoods to urban migration. Examining the rise of community forestry and responses to neoliberal reforms, this study sheds light on the complex interplay between economic interests, social impacts, and environmental conservation in Mexico's forestry sector.
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Why should we care? • Benefits • alternative economic/livelihoods strategy to migration to cities, Maquiladoras, or US • Supports the ecological benefits of forest • Mexico’s situation is unique and worthy of a deeper exploration as a case study example for other Latin American and developing countries. • Incipient and endangered by state and international economic policies • forest development has not yet assuaged poverty or environmental conservation
Wood Products Exports and Imports--2001 • Imports: $2,034,272,000 • Exports: $185,851,008
Historical background1500-1900 • Spanish conquest: dispossession of land • 19th C: liberalism: more dispossession • Porfiriato: intensified dispossession • Mexican Revolution: primary cause was land distribution
Cardenas: Three trends1934-1940 • Land redistribution to peasants • 18 million hectares (45 million acres)—800,000 recipients • (b) Ejido share of cultivated land: 15% in 1930 47% by 1940 • (c) Forest lands: 1.5 % in 1930 18% in 1940 • Land reform did not touch holdings of foreign and national logging companies • “rentismo” • Miguel de Quevedo: professionalized conservation • END RESULT: Nobody followed it, but evasion was worse than managed development
1949-1976ISI Forestry and ‘Productionism” • 1949-1958: Concessions to big integrated forestry firms • Inequalities breed rural unrest • Two simultaneous policies • Land distribution expanded. • “Productionism” • in the end: Neither environmental nor social objectives achieved
The Rise of Community Forestry • As early as 1960: supporters envision production with conservation “sustainable development” • Gov’t development projects experiment • Quintana Roo • Late 1970’s: Concessions set to expire: communities organize regionally to exert pressure on de la Madrid “we will no longer permit our natural resources to be wasted, since they are the patrimony of our children” • 1986 forestry law:
Percent of Timber from Community Managed Forests Commercial Timber Milled Timber 1976 2-3 Na 1980 17 Na 1992 40 15 Source: Klooster. 2003
Social and Environmental impacts of forest management • Michoacan community: logging, sawmill, furniture factory • Oaxaca: 95 communities • Quintana Roo • Benefits not limited to exceptionally well managed communities
Community Forestry under Neoliberal Reforms: • Context: Much success, but a long way to go with the need for public support • 1992 Forestry Act: modifications to Article 27: devolution of control to the communities but neglect of support • Plantation policy: Inequality and stagnation
Response to Neoliberalism • Unprecedented debate during early 1990’s • movement of social reformers into gov. forestry • growing vulnerability of PRI • Zapatistas? • 1997 Forestry Plan • PRODEFOR
Forest Ownership in Mexico Ejidos and Comm. Agrarias (8000-9000) 70-80% Small Properties, 15-20 hectares 15-20% Protected Areas/Parks 5-10% Mexican Forests, 2003
Fox Administration • Comisión Nacional Forestal • 2x funding for commercial plantations • Neoliberalism favors TNCs, not forest owning villages • Issues: protection of Monarch butterfly breeding grounds
