Sustainable Forest Management in Mexico

Abstract

Forest management in Mexico is immersed in diverse and complex ecological, socio-cultural, political, economic, and technological contexts. These contexts have led to the use of the forests for many purposes under diverse administration and management schemes. These schemes continue to evolve, both in the forest areas and in universities and forest research institutions throughout the country. Timber management has been part of this evolution and has given rise to several forest management approaches. Most of these approaches are adaptations of methods developed in other parts of the world for very different ecological, socio-cultural, and economic contexts. The majority of the timber management methods are based on sustainability principles and incorporate classical yield regulation and forest management concepts. However, the application of these methods in the complex and rapidly changing contexts in which the Mexican forests and forestry sector are immersed has resulted in unexpected and fortuitous results. There is a need for a new significant evolution of the forest and timber management methods in the country. New approaches must include greater emphasis on communitybased forestry, consideration of markets for forest products and services, as well as the overall increase of resilience, learning capacity, and adaptation while reducing hazards, risks, and vulnerability of the forests and the communities that depend on them. These characteristics will allow better adaptation to the rapid changes, complexities, and ambiguities of the global environment and the Mexican ecological, social, political, and economic conditions.

Determinants of Above-Ground Biomass and Its Spatial Variability in a Temperate Forest Managed for Timber Production

“…In this study, we used three types of models to characterize the spatial variability of AGB in managed forests in central Mexico. Mexico is covered by 65 million hectares of forests [5,40] with a variety of forest ecosystems (i.e., 51% temperate forests, 49% tropical forests) [41] due to its geographical location and topographic heterogeneity. Forests in Mexico are important for their current and potentially increasing accumulation of C in their biomass [42][43][44].…”

Tropical and Highland Temperate Forest Plantations in Mexico: Pathways for Climate Change Mitigation and Ecosystem Services Delivery

“…Also, it has been estimated that~38 Pg C might be sequestered in 345 × 10 6 ha over a period of 50 years through forestation, reforestation, and agroforestry practices [19]. In Mexico, silviculture and temperate forest management has followed the inertia driven by other countries (mainly the United States and Canada) to develop its own dynamics in terms of use and the conservation of forest resources [20][21][22]. Hence, similar approaches used in those countries have been applied in Mexico, despite the markedly different circumstances and conditions.…”

“…Hence, similar approaches used in those countries have been applied in Mexico, despite the markedly different circumstances and conditions. From the 1940s, uneven aged silviculture based on the selection silvicultural system was widely used, followed by more intensive systems during the 1980s based on clear-cuts, seed-tree regeneration methods, and thinning, to establish even aged forests [20].…”

Can an Exponential Function Be Applied to the Asymptotic Density–Size Relationship? Two New Stand-Density Indices in Mixed-Species Forests

“…Most research has been based on the fitting of size-density or density-size relationships and the construction of DMDs to prescribe thinning [15,17,18,31]. Torres-Rojo et al [32] identified specific details regarding the history of forest management in Mexico and the forest-regulation methods used. In Mexican forests, the SDI based on the first relationship has been used for pure and mixed-species stands based on a reference quadratic mean diameter (QMDR) of 25 cm.…”