The Community Forests of Mexico

"This is an important and comprehensive book that is timely, original, and of uniformly high quality. There is relatively little familiarity outside of Mexico with the incredibly rich experience of community forest management there. Certainly no comprehensive review such as this book exists that covers so many aspects of the subject... The book will appeal to scholars from both social and biophysical sciences interested in forest management and in broader conservation and development issues." -- Marianne Schmink, Director of the Center for Latin American Studies Tropical Conservation and Development Program, University of Florida

An overview and assessment of how local communities in Mexico manage their forests for profit and sustainability.

Mexico leads the world in community management of forests for the commercial production of timber. Yet this success story is not widely known, even in Mexico, despite the fact that communities around the globe are increasingly involved in managing their own forest resources. To assess the achievements and shortcomings of Mexico's community forest management programs and to offer approaches that can be applied in other parts of the world, this book collects fourteen articles that explore community forest management from historical, policy, economic, ecological, sociological, and political perspectives.

The contributors to this book are established researchers in the field, as well as many of the important actors in Mexico's nongovernmental organization sector. Some articles are case studies of community forest management programs in the states of Michoacán, Oaxaca, Durango, Quintana Roo, and Guerrero. Others provide broader historical and contemporary overviews of various aspects of community forest management. As a whole, this volume clearly establishes that the community forest sector in Mexico is large, diverse, and has achieved unusual maturity in doing what communities in the rest of the world are only beginning to explore: how to balance community income with forest conservation. In this process, Mexican communities are also managing for sustainable landscapes and livelihoods.