Concepts and Practices of Community Forest Enterprises: Economic and Institutional Perspectives from Mexico

Abstract

"Few examples exist in the common property literature of community-managed forestry enterprises (CFEs) operating in competitive markets. Yet, in Mexico there are hundreds of such examples operating at varying levels of productive and processing capability. At a time when the devolution of rights to forest resources is expanding worldwide, collective management of timber operations presents a new twist in the community forestry policy option. This paper examines the community forestry phenomenon in Mexico from an institutional economics perspective, analyzes the place of CFEs within theories of the firm, and discusses the distinctive management issues which emerge in CFEs. It also discusses the implication for the distribution of capital stocks and flows generated through the forest resource in the Mexican case. The emergence of CFEs from preexisting matrices of social and economic relations requires the elaboration of rules and organizations to meet new needs."