Endurance and Adaptation of Community Forest Management in Quintana Roo, Mexico

Abstract

Despite regional deforestation threats, the state of Quintana Roo has maintained over 80% of its territory in forests. Community forest management (CFM) has played a pivotal role in forest cover and biodiversity conservation in the region. In this article, we present the institutional, socioeconomic and environmental conditions under which community-based forest management has been consolidated in the tropical state of Quintana Roo, which occupies the eastern half of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. With a focus on management for timber and other market-based development strategies, we then examine the institutional and socioeconomic factors, as well as biophysical shocks, that have constrained community forestry development in the past 25 years, challenging its persistence. Following, we discuss how forest communities and institutions have responded and adapted to changing forest policies and markets as well as major environmental shocks from hurricanes and fires. CFM in Quintana Roo has shown resiliency since its institutionalization 30 years ago. Future challenges and opportunities include biodiversity conservation, carbon management through Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation 4296(REDD+) initiatives, market strengthening, business management training as well as the implementation of alternative silvicultural systems, particularly to manage sustainable populations of commercial timber species.

Incentives and Constraints of Community and Smallholder Forestry

“…Another important challenge corresponds to the lack of compliance with the rule of law among many actors who derive profits from forest products, especially timber. Community forestry is linked to forest sector legality in a myriad of ways, as discussed in several of the papers of the special issue (e.g., [9][10][11][12][13][14]). For example, financial viability of community forestry timber production is threatened by illegally produced timber in Brazil [14], but also in many other countries.…”

“…Two of the papers [12,13] review several decades of experiences from community forest management in Quintana Roo and Mozambique, and explore how regulatory, economic, and social factors have shaped community forestry initiatives, and the capacities of communities to adapt to changing regulatory, policy, and market environments. The other four papers focus on a number of key issues in debates about community forestry, for example, the economic feasibility of community-based timber extraction, prospects for local innovations in mitigating climate change, factors that incentivize tree planting among smallholders, and the role of interactions among forest agents and stakeholders in forest change.…”

Remnant Trees in Enrichment Planted Gaps in Quintana Roo, Mexico: Reasons for Retention and Effects on Seedlings

“…While community forestry in Noh Bec has benefited from over 40 years of development and tropical silvicultural research, the majority of ejidos with community forest management are not adopting and implementing improved silvicultural practices that can improve production and sustainability of their community forestry enterprises. Moreover, the lack of tropical silvicultural research in general is also a major constraint in the extension and adoption of improved silvicultural practices in most ejidos of the Mexican tropics [22]. The case of bosquetes in Noh Bec, deserves attention as a potentially viable silvicultural practice that could be used in tropical forestry world-wide.…”

Updating Bark Proportions for the Estimation of Tropical Timber Volumes by Indigenous Community-Based Forest Enterprises in Quintana Roo, Mexico

“…This depth of experience has made Mexico a leading example of community-based forest management [12]. Among Mexican wet tropical forests, those in the state of Quintana Roo in the Yucatan Peninsula stand out because of their great extent (4.4 Mha; [13,14]) and their high degree of conservation, which has been attributed to their three decades under community-based management [15][16][17]. As a result, communal management of the forests of Quintana Roo has become a paradigm of management that fosters both conservation and economic benefits [12,[18][19][20].…”

“…Most of the forest management guidelines used in Quintana Roo are derived from the Pilot Forestry Plan [21,22]. Dating from the early 1980s, this plan was created after the replacement of timber concessions in Quintana Roo with a policy giving communities direct control of forest management and harvesting rights [16]. As part of this plan, permanent forest areas for timber harvesting were established within ejidos Mexican government-sponsored rural collectives), with technical training and financial support being provided to create community-based forest enterprises [23].…”