Community resilience to changes in forest public policies: The case of ejidos in northern Mexico
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The communal property regime in Mexico, in which land use and management rights were officially granted to campesinos, has faced many challenges throughout the nearly 100 years after its creation. Since then, a variety of public policies have been established to promote forest management. In the 1970s, the government created a forest management system based on
concessions to private or parastatal companies that ignored the opinions of the communities and triggered environmental problems. Later, it initiated other programs, such as the payment for ecosystem services, to reduce deforestation and poverty. However, no empirical evidence of these policies has been studied. In this work, we analyzed the historical role in forest management of three ejidos in the state of Durango, including their organization, capacity building, and their relationship with forest cover changes. Two periods, ranging from the beginning of the concessions to current community forest management (1960‐2018), were compared. Based on Ostrom’s principles of collective action, the effectiveness of the ejidos in conserving their resources was analyzed. Semi‐structured interviews were used to estimate two indexes that associate the internal organization of the communities: Social Organization and Community Institutionality. The cartographic series of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography were also used to evaluate the changes in forest cover in the same period. Results show that the indexes have increased over time, suggesting that ejidos have improved their organization processes. In addition, there is a direct relationship between the forest land increase and both indices. The so‐called community forest management model is a feasible strategy that can contribute to the preservation of these ecosystems. The internal organization of the communities, including their institutional arrangements, is a key factor to search for the sustainable management of these common‐pool resources.
Keywords: Collective Action, Common‐Pool Resources, Community Forest Management, Forestland
ID: 3613102
Use Change, Social Organization