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Abstract:
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"As part of the search for ways to combine conservation and development in the forested tropics, a number of projects to promote sustained yield forest management with a high degree of participation from local rural communities emerged during the 1980s (Richards 1991). One of the most internationally recognized initiatives has been that of the Plan Piloto Forestal (PPF) in Quintana Roo, México, in which communities (known as ejidos) were supported during a transition from parastatal logging concessions to the implementation of their own management and harvesting plans. The PPF was based on the idea that the forest owners must be interested in the conservation of the forest for economic reasons, ie. that they receive an income from its sustained management. The principal aim of the PPF was therefore to demonstrate that an economically viable form of community forestry was possible (Galletti 1998).
"18 years after the PPF began, over 50 ejidos participate in community forestry. Together these ejidos manage an area of 1,267,516ha, of which approximately 510,000 ha is officially registered as being under forest management. The majority of the available literature refers only or mainly to the ten original ejidos under the PPF initiative who formed a producer group known as the Society of Forest Production Ejidos of Quintana Roo (SPFEQR), and/or concentrates on those ejidos which have permits to harvest relatively large volumes of the most commercially valuable specie; mahogany. In both cases the scheme is generally seen to be relatively successful in providing an income to the community and stimulating interest in long term forest management (Richards 1991), Vargas 1998, (Galletti 1998).
"However recent research has emphasized the heterogeneity of ejidos participating in community forestry and have drawn attention to the relatively low proportion of family and ejido income generated through forestry in many of these. (Armijo Canto and Robertos Jiménez 1998), (Calderon Maldonado 1999). These commentators have raised the need to go beyond the original 10 ejidos of the PPF and analyze the situation in a range of ejidos to be able to make more realistic statements about the future of forest conservation and management in the region.
"This paper analyses the diversity of conditions in which community forestry takes place and discusses a case study which presents conditions more representative of the majority of ejidos in the state. Qualitative data is used to describe the ejido's systems of land use, forest management and rule making. This includes attitudes toward the parceling of the ejido, as promoted by the recent federal government land titling program.
"Finally there is a discussion of the relevance of these findings for sustainable forest management in the state, particularly in the smaller ejidos, without considerable volumes of mahogany. Recommendations are made regarding the support needed by ejidos such to allow an integrated development of various economic activities which is not at the expense of forest conservation."
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