THE STRUGGLE

THE STRUGGLE

FOR THE FOREST

Conservation and Development

in the Sierra Juarez



Sustainable forest management challenges

communities to renew themselves.









I n the southern Mexican state of

Oaxaca, Ricardo Lopez Luna is

talking about ecotourism. As a

truck-mounted winch lifts mas-

sive pine logs to be hauled from

the steeply sloped forest, he also dis-

issues

David Barton Bray

inevitably steeped

personalities-have become the currency

of local as well as global politics.

Comaltepec may have found some

in

that the forests of Mexico have been

used by man for centuries. These ad-

vocates cite recent research indicating

that even the Lacandon rain forest of

southern Chiapas is a "secondary

growth" forest, once fully recovered

courses on logging, butterfly farming, answers, in part because the community from Mayan depredations centuries

and bioreserves. is large enough to lend itself to a variety before and now being destroyed again.

Neither ecologist nor forester nor of uses, but also because of its ten years Governments, traditionally less

"green" travel agent, Lopez Luna is a of accumulated experience in managing interested in ecology, prefer to use the

small coffee farmer who serves as its stands of oak and pine. forests' natural resources to generate

treasurer of the oversight committee of The forests of Comaltepec, like those foreign exchange and supply domestic

the Chinantec Indian community of in all of Mexico, are part of a industries, giving local autonomy little

Santiago Comaltepec. His ancient kaleidoscope of environmental drama in or no priority. Although reconciling

community, clustered around an eight which Ricardo Lopez Luna and his such divergent interests may be an

teenth century Dominican church, fellow comuneros debate conservation impossible task, the struggle for

occupies over 18,000 hectares of and development with visiting Japanese solutions continues in Comaltepec, in

Papaloapan River watershed high in the lepidopterists, representatives of Mexico City, and in Washington, D.C.

pine and oak forests of the Sierra Juarez Mexican and U.S. environmental and In exploring community forestry in

mountains. The winch and the pines, not development organizations, and ad- southern Mexico, this article first fo-

to mention the butterflies, belong to the ministrators of a parastatal pulp mill. cuses on the broader canvas of events in

community's own forestry enterprise, the Just as in the Pacific Northwest of the the Sierra Juarez, where one finds a

Unidad de Aprovechamiento Forestal United States where battle lines are historical pattern of outside exploitation

Cerro Comal. drawn over spotted owls and loggers' of local resources. Here, too, is found a

Lopez Luna's conversation reflects the paychecks, competing groups in Co- pattern of resistance to such

arguments and practices that have maltepec struggle over Pleistocene exploitation, resistance that gradually

divided Comaltepec for decades, in- refuges versus better incomes in a poor sees its gains exceed its losses and

tensifying in recent years. During this mountain community that has sent over eventually leads to community control

time, Comaltepec has seen its forests 400 of its best and brightest to work in over local resources. The events in

depleted by a pulp mill and has southern California. Santiago Comaltepec are then presented

waged a vigorous struggle to regain Some Mexican and U.S. environ- as a microcosm of conservation and

control of its woodland resources. Now mentalists would like to see vast un- development in the Sierra, where highly

the community finds itself involved in touched nature reserves preserved for politicized struggles appear finally to be

protracted internal debates ~ over how to geological time. Other environmen- leading to what New Scientist magazine

use its remaining forests: Sawmills and talists, as well as promoters of calls "the optimistic premise that there

bioreserves, conservation and development community-managed forestry, argue need be no conflict between prudent

exploitation and the conservation of United States, and some residents of the of its proximity to the pulp mill and

forests." Sierra are now as familiar with the argues that FAPATUX did no real forest

streets of Santa Monica, California, as management or reforestation during the

THE SIERRA JUAREZ: they are with the trails to their own com concession period. She contends that the

POVERTY AND fields. total forest area in the Sierra was reduced

by one-third during FAPATUX's

ABUNDANCE concession, with significant degradation

MINING THE FOREST

Part of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the of the rest of the forest. She also feels

Sierra Juarez mountain range of northern Until the 1950s, forest exploitation in the that the communities' "zeal to satisfy

Oaxaca is 186 miles long and 47 miles Sierra Juarez was light, as a gold mine in their vital necessities" is manifested in an

wide, with average altitudes of 8,202 feet the mountain hamlet of Natividad was intense interest in forest conservation.

and peaks above 9,842 feet. Cool for decades the only timber consumer of During the 1970s, FAPATUX also

temperatures and high rainfall have any note. However, as part of the 1950s invested heavily in pine plantations in the

allowed great biological vigor. A World national development policies, 261,000 Mixe Baja region of Oaxaca, which may

Wildlife Fund report on the Sierra's hectares of Sierra Juarez forests came have reduced its interest in assuring

ecological richness catalogued cloud under a 25-year concession to the sustainability in the Sierra Juarez. An

forest, pine, mixed pine-oak forest, moist foreign-owned (but nationalized in 1965) additional part of the problem lay in the

and dry montane tropical ecosystems, the Fabricas de Papel Tuxtepec (FAPATUX) fact that FAPATUX employed the

"richest oak forests in the world in terms to produce paper and news pulp. standard harvesting technique of the

of species diversity," and remnant Although born out of the demand for period, the "Mexican

populations of rare flowering plants and national economic development, Method." This method, also termed

butterflies. FAPATUX brought a profound "high-grading," is likely to take out the

One part of the Sierra, within the paternalism to its relations with the best timber and damage the rest, leading

boundaries of Santiago Comaltepec, communities that nominally owned the to genetic impoverishment. Because pine

constitutes a "Pleistocene refuge": forest resources. It claimed to provide for forests tend to be evenly aged, this

fauna and flora "safehouses" formed a "rational and integral use of the forests, system produced stands of smaller trees

during the last Ice Age, whose highly while promoting social development and of poor genetic quality and permitted

diverse gene pools have vital implica- creating permanent and productive scrub oaks-marketable only as lower-

tions for future evolution. sources of work, [thus preventing] the value charcoal-to invade the open spaces

The Sierra's biological richness is in possessors of this resource, in a zeal to in a natural forest succession, squeezing

striking contrast to the poverty of its satisfy their vital necessities and because out pine regeneration.

people. Oaxaca is the poorest state in of . . . uncontainable demographic

Mexico: Its incomes are less than half pressure, from destroying the forest,

the national average, with 40 percent of using the soil inappropriately, demol-

its population lacking access to ishing FORGING LOCAL

RESISTANCE

Its concession failed to give FAPATUX

absolute access to community forests,

"We will no longer permit our natural resources to requiring the company to negotiate

be wasted since they are the patrimony of our yearly contracts with the communities.

In these negotiations, however,

children." FAPATUX clearly had the upper hand,

frequently with the collaboration of the

health facilities and primary education habitats, [and] creating erosion and secretary of agrarian reform, using its

and 80 percent to potable water. aridity." legal standing as concessionaire to

Forestry and mining have historically Yoland.1 Lara Padilla, a member of suppress the communities' attempts to

generated some employment; agriculture Estudios Rurales y Asesoria (ERA), a assert their rights. Communities were

has provided less since the soils and Oaxaca-based, community-forestry denied the right to sell their timber to

climate of the Sierra yield a poor harvest. nongovernmental organization (NGO), other buyers, for example, and one

The shortage of jobs in Oaxaca has led to notes that, in reality, the Sierra Juarez community that wanted to set up a

heavy migration to other parts of Mexico region was far more heavily "mined" woodworking shop was told it would

and to the than others because have to buy back its own pine from

FAPATUX.



14 Grassroots Development 15/3 1991

Photo on page 12: Workers roll logs outside the Santiago Comaltepec communal sawmill forward for planing. Above: Mexico has more pine species

than any other nation. The forests of Oaxaca's Sierra ]uflrez contain a lush blend of flora and fauna, including rare butterflies and mammals,

plant associations dating back to the Pleistocene Age, pine, moist and dry montane tropical ecosystems, and the world's richest variety of oaks.





back its own pine from FAPATUX. Cal pulal pan - Xiacui- Trinidad should be in the hands of our com-

The first significant rebellion against (IXCAJIT), which included four com- munities, and we will struggle for

such practices broke out in 1968, when munities. The bargaining concessions [greater education that will permit ra-

the community of San Pablo forestalled further efforts at local eco- tional exploitation]."

Macuiltianguis organized 14 other nomic initiative during most of the ODRENASIJ launched a whirlwind

communities into the Union de Pueblos 1970s. But as October 1981 and the end of activities: publishing Tequio, visiting

Abastecedores de Materia Prima a of FAPATUX's 25-year concession other forest community organizations in

FAPATUX. Their actions led to a five- approached, a new surge of grassroots Mexico, organizing the first national

year boycott of FAPATUX that initiatives developed. conference of forest community

eventually forced the factory to close for On March 9, 1980, 13 of the com- organizations in May 1981, and

40 days in 1972 (although during most munities assembled in the mountain lobbying with state and federal gov-

of the boycott FAPATUX was able to hamlet of Guelatao to create the ernment officials to promote its cau$e.

supply itself from communities Organizacion en Defensa de los Working with sympathetic students and

elsewhere in Oaxaca). Recursos Naturales y Desarrollo Social young professionals, ODRENASIJ

When they first organized them- de la Sierra de Juarez (ODRENASIJ). began to define its issues, realizing that

selves, the communities' primary ob- Its primary goal was to prevent a merely to prevent the concession's

jective was to receive more economic renewal of the concession and thereby renewal was insufficient; the

benefits; sustainability of the resource guarantee communities the right to communities also needed technical

was not yet an issue. Their demands manage their own forests. The training in wood processing, forest

included higher wages for community organization quickly established a management, and small business

loggers, a larger stumpage fee, newspaper, Tequio, whose first edition management.

scholarships for workers' children, presented a vision that encompassed

protective equipment, and more roads. both development and conservation: GAINING COMMUNITY

Eventually, FAPATUX made some "We will no longer permit our natural CONTROL

bargaining concessions and even formed resources to be wasted, since they are

an intercommunity enterprise, the the patrimony of our children. The In late 1981, the government tried to

Unidad Forestal Ixtlan forest resources reinstitute the concession not just for





Grassroots Development 15/3 1991 15

The Forests mates Mexico's annual losses to ag-

riculture and lumbering at nearly

renewal combined with the interests

of enlightened politicians and forest

of Mexico: 600,000 hectares. The most publi-

cized losses have been in the

technicians to forge a new direction

for forestry in the state. Training and

Moving From Lacandon rain forest of Chiapas, but

steady losses and degradation of for-

organizing in sustainable forestry

began in the southern town of

est lands are occurring all over the Chetumal in 1983, and expanded

Concessions to country. However, in Mexico the

unrelievedly grim recital of defor-

into a Yucatec Mayan zone near

Felipe Carillo Puerto in 1985. The

Communities estation statistics is balanced by

some of the most advanced experi-

plan evolved into a concerted effort

on the part of young forestry spe-

ences in community control and cialists, backed by the state govern-

Mexico has the third largest forested exploitation of forest resources any- ment, to turn the full economic and

area in Latin America, about 70 per- where in Latin America. ecological management of the forest

cent of it in upland temperate zone These community forestry experi- over to its owners.

fOrests in'the massive complex of ences, relatively new and still poorly From general community assem-

mountain ranges that dominate the documented, have taken root in a blies emerged the ecodevelopment

naqonal geography. The rest are variety of ecological settings, both strategy that braked the exploitation

tropical-lowland hardwood forests, highland temperate and lowland of the most precious tropical woods,

mostly in southern Oaxaca, Chiapas, tropical. Making Mexico particularly such as mahogany and cedar. De-

and the Yucatan Peninsula. promising for community-based for- spite this strategy, however, the

In the nineteenth and first half of est management systems is the company holding the concession-

the twentieth centuries, Mexican for- 70 percent of total forest lands se- which had been authorized to cut

ests were "mined" through huge curely held by indigenous communi- particular quantities of precious

concessions to private companies, ties or ejidos. Although these com- tropical hardwoods as well as lesser

with no attention paid to conserva- munities have had to struggle for known species-proceeded to har-

tion. The lumber from these forests control over the resources on their vest over 99 percent of the autho-

was turned into ties for the railroad land, ownership of the land itself rized precious timbers and a mere

tracks that linked Mexican agricul has never been in question. (In con- 4 percent of the less profitable com-

tural and natural resources to the trast, the Food and Agriculture Or- mon woods. Taking immediate steps

world economy, fine European fur- ganization of the United Nations es- to reverse this pattern, the commu-

niture (from the mahogany of south- timates that 80 percent of forest area nities also set aside a permanent for-

ern tropical forests), and dwellings worldwide is on public land.) est extractive reserve to be adminis-

to house an expanding population. An increasing number of forest tered in 25-year harvest cycles. In

In the 1950s, a more systematic communities in states such as Oa- the meantime, technical teams be

attempt was made to harness Mexi- xaca, Guerrero, Durango, Chihua- gan intensively training ejido mem-

co's forests to national economic hua, and Quintana Roo are slowly bers in all aspects of forest manage-

growth, again using the concession learning to become effective stew ment and lumbering, and instituted

system. Forests all over the country, ards of their own forests. However, computerized forest inventories.

many of them formally owned by attempts to introduce community In a few short years, communities

local communities, were given in ex- forestry into Chiapas, a major reser- have vastly increased their forest in-

clusive exploitation concessions to voir of lowland rain forest, were comes and have mastered basic

private and parastatal sawmills and halted by the 1987 decision of the technical aspects of forest manage-

paper factories. These concessions state government to refuse almost all ment. Two organizations of ejidos,

assumed that the indigenous com new logging permits. the Sociedad de Ejidos Forestales de

munities and ejidos (a communal The accompanying article de- Quintana Roo in Chetumal and the

land tenure arrangement established scribes in detail the community for- Organizaci6n de Productores Fores-

by Mexican agrarian reform laws) estry experience in Oaxaca, only one tales de la Zona Maya in Felipe

had no ability to manage their own of many efforts that have emerged Carillo Puerto, are now regarded as

forests or the revenues they pro- in Mexico over the last decade. Mexico's foremost examples of the

duced. The stumpage fee called for Other compelling experiences have economic and ecological viability of

in these concessions represented but occurred in the lowland forests of managing lowland tropical forests

a fraction of the timber's market Quintana Roo and in the highland with sustained-yield forestry tech-

value. pine and oak forests of Chihuahua. niques. The Plan Piloto, renamed

Concessions such as these, cattle In Quintana Roo, the Plan Piloto Plan Estatal, is currently organizing

ranching, and the colonizing of low- was a community forestry effort two other groups of ejidos and small

land forests brought about the rav- stimulated in 1983 by the end of a producers with a vision of eventu-

ages of deforestation that have oc- 29-year, half-million-hectare conces- ally putting nearly a half-million

curred over the last several decades. sion to a private enterprise. Commu- hectares, stretching between

The World Resources Institute esti nity mobilizations against concession bioreserves in Quintana Roo and

Campeche, under sustainable forest credit difficulties, low productivity,

management systems. The richness of the resource has and internal disorganization. Also,

Significant problems remain, of led to intense interest on the part of many ejidos harbor ethnic divisions

course. The more advanced national and multinational economic between Tarahumara Indian and

Sodedad de Ejidos Forestales in concerns, as well as multilateral mestizo members, with the Indians

Chetumal urgently needs to develop agencies. For example, a joint project frequently marginalized from partici-

new markets for the lesser known by a major multinational bank and a pation in the forest industry. The

species of tropical hardwoods in or- timber company envisions vast pine ARIC undoubtedly has many years

der to reduce the pressure on pre- and eucalyptus plantations in Chi- of struggle ahead, but the experience

cious timbers. In the Mayan zone, huahua. A $90 million World Bank in the Sierra Juarez suggests that its ~

the major product is still the tradi- project will pump in production task is not impossible.

tional one-railroad ties-with the aedit and extend road networks, Added to the range of locally con-

national railroad company as the and provide lesser funds for envi- trolled initiatives in sustainable for-

sole buyer. Its leverage as sole buyer ronmental protection. est management that have emerged

allows the company to set its own In the midst of an this, the in the last decade are the efforts by

price, one that has remained un- Asociaci6n Rural de Inter& the local and regional forest commu-

changed in three years Clearly, Colectivo General Felipe Angeles nity organizations to build a national

there is an imperative need to diver- (ARIC-Felipe Angeles), with mem- presence. Both the Productores Fo-

sify products and markets and to in- ber communities in both Chihuahua restales y Agropecuarios de Mexico

dustrialize. Nevertheless, as the and Durango, has taken on the (PROFOAGREMEX) and the IAP-

Worldwatch Institute has noted, less daunting pursuit of profit and effi- supported Comisi6n Forestal of the

than 0.1 percent of tropical logging ciency in a former state enterprise, Uni6n de Organizaciones Regioriales

is done on a sustained-yield basis, the Promotora Foxestal de la Campesinas Aut6nomas (UNORCA)

so the Quintana Roo experiences are Tarahumara (PROFORTARAH). The are currently trying to combine the.

significant examples of what could ARIC includes 185 ejidos and various regional and local efforts :

be done elsewhere. 30,000 peasant families, controls into a national coordinating body for

In Chihuahua is a much more highland pine and oak forests of marketing, technical assistance, and

troubled case, one holding great po- over a million hectares (with sustainable forest management. The

tential but presenting equally great 437,000 hectares having commercial consolidation of national-level orga-

challenges. Chihuahua and Durango value), and over 25 sawmills and nizations would also be a bench- .

between them have the most com- other wood-processing facilities. mark in a decades-long struggle to

mercially important forests in Mex- But the magnitude of the re- put community-based sustainable

ico, with the two states contributing sources the ARIC commands is forest management on the natural

50 percent of the country's forestry matched by the magnitude of its resources agenda in Mexico.

production. problems. In 1990, the operation -David Bray

was beset by mechanical failures,





GI'IIIIOOtI Development 15/3 1991 17

25 years but in perpetuity. Outraged,

the communities mobilized to defeat

that attempt, obtaining legal and

other kinds of help from their support-

ers. In 1982, the communities at last

won their struggle, in the process

establishing a major precedent in

community control of natural re-

sources in Oaxaca and in Mexico. Now

the question of management arose.

Despite having lived their lives in

the ,forest, the community members

were primarily small farmers who

knew little about forestry other than

cutting trees with a chain saw and

loading them onto trucks. Further-

more, the communities would have to

face these questions on their own as

ODRENASIJ, having met its primary

purpose of defeating the concession,

collapsed in 1983.

Slowly, the individual communi-

ties began to learn how to manage the

forests, logging operations, and small

forestry enterprises. They also discov-

ered that selling their timber at the

prevailing market price permitted

previously undreamt-of capitalization

opportunities. The community of San

Pablo Macuiltianguis again led the

way in November 1981: It signed a

contract with FAPATUX but this time

as an equal partner, owner, and seller

of a market-priced good.

By the mid-1980s, timber profits

permitted communities to buy trucks

and winches and to invest in sawmills

Workers maneuver a log toward a truck for hauling to the Comaltepec community

and furniture shops, creating their

sawmill. At its peak, the enterprise has employed 15 residents in the mill and

own forestry enterprises. Profits were

another 50 cutting timber in the mountains.

also channeled toward social benefits

for the entire community: schools,

health clinics, roads, and community

water works. One organization of the communities began to de- westernmost Chinantec Indian mu-

communities, the Union de Comu- velop a "forest culture" and, eventu- nicipio in the Sierra Juarez. Its 2,000

nidades y Ejidos Forestales de Oaxaca ally, also began to federate to meet inhabitants occupy 18,366 hectares of

(UCEFO), even directed part of its common needs. Santiago Comalte- mountains and valleys that include

profits into a modest pension plan for pec, the community of Ricardo Lopez highland pine and oak, cloud forest,

widows. Most strikingly, the majority Luna, is one example of this pattern. and montane tropical ecosystems.

of these investments were made out The municipal seat rests at the bottom

of current income, with the few loans SANTIAGO COMALTEPEC: of the deep, narrow Comal River val-

incurred quickly repaid. A MICROCOSM ley, 71 winding miles from the city of

With many fits and starts, internal Oaxaca and 6 miles from the Oaxaca-

political struggles, and external pres Although lying in a primarily Zapotec Tuxtepec blacktop highway.

sures, region, Santiago Comaltepec is the The forests of Comaltepec have ex-





18 Grassroots Development 15/3 1991

perienced every stage of the forest During this same period, some of the orientation-with each NGO being

struggle in the Sierra Juarez. In 1961, professionals and students who had supported in turn by an international

FAPATUX began cutting timber there supported community struggles for donor with the same respective inter-

and continued, under annual con- local forest management created ests. However, the bioreserve ran

tracts, until 1967. From 1967 to 1974, NGOs to formalize their work. afoul of the centripetal forces of

Comaltepec joined the Union de Oaxacan municipal politics.

Pueblos Abastecedores, spearheaded EMERGING CONFLICTS: The state's 570 municipios, one-

by its neighbor San Pablo Macuiltian- BIORESERVES VERSUS third of all municipalities in Mexico,

guis, and logging was almost entirely SAWMILLS are products of Oaxaca's fragmented

halted. Then in 1975, after FAPATUX topography and ethnicity. Within

made some concessions, the com- Struggling to manage its own forests, many of the municipios are smaller

pany began cutting Comaltepec's for- Comaltepec has found itself split in- population centers known as agen-

ests again. From 1980 to 1982, how- ternally, as is much of the outside cias, which may be relatively distant

ever, the community suspended world, among conservationists, com- from the municipal seat. Many of

cutting by FAPATUX, became an ac- munity foresters, and national timber these agencias have long nursed

tive member of ODRENASIJ, and fi- interests-and even those who are dreams of municipal independence;

nally celebrated with the rest of Oaxa- indifferent to the fate of the forest. In and Comaltepec has such an agencia,

ca's forest communities the definitive the mid-1980s, the battle was ex- La Esperanza, located near the region

end of the mill's concession rights. panded with an attempt to establish a of the proposed bioreserve.

FAPATUX's withdrawal as admin- bioreserve in Comaltepec. At the The local environmental NGO

istrator coincided with a rising global same time, the community was strug- made some errors when it ap-

focus on tropical forests, and Mexican gling to get a sawmill up and running. proached the agencia, inducing it to

and U.S. environmental organiza- Each effort, the bioreserve and the see in the bioreserve a possible road

tions quickly became interested in sawmill, had support from local to greater autonomy through new

Comaltepec's mammals, rare butter- NGOs-one with an environmental boundary surveys. When the munici-

flies, and ancient plant associations. orientation, one with a development pal seat realized that the bioreserve

could serve as a Trojan horse to fo-

ment municipal secession, the envi-

ronmental NGO and, indirectly, the

international conservation group that

supported it were expelled from the

community, with the bioreserve be-

coming a casualty of the conflict. The

merits of a bioreserve in and of itself

were secondary to the fact that the

initiative had upset the delicate equi-

librium of municipal geopolitics:

As with conservation, community

forestry in the form of Comaltepec's

community-owned sawmill has also

fallen victim to municipal politics.

When FAPATUX's concession was

not renewed, Comaltepec quickly es-

tablished a timber-producing unit, le-

gally registering the Unidad de

Aprovechamiento Forestal Cerro

Comal in November 1983. The unit

received its first annual cutting permit

the same year and began selling lum-

ber to the FAPATUX pulp mill.

A Comaltepec logger harvests trees from a fire-damaged area. During the past Cutting at modest levels for several

decade, small farmers who knew little more about trees than cutting them down years, Comaltepec never reached

with chain saws have had to learn how to manage forest systems. 7,000 cubic meters (less than half







Grassroots Development 15/3 1991 19

Workers plane logs at the Comaltepec community sawmill. Such mills are often equipped with outmoded, inefficient

machinery that reduces market flexibility. Comaltepec plans to buy portable mills that can be hauled on the back of trucks to

timber sites in order to precut wood for processing and make selective harvesting more economical.





their approved annual cut) and in slopes. Profits also went into a secon- the president shut down the sawmill

most years cut far less than that. Fur- dary school, clinic, municipal hall in April 1990 on the grounds that Co-

ther, because of an intense fire that improvements, and, more recently, maltepec needed to take a more-

burned over part of their land in 1983, plans for another step into value- careful look at what it was doing to

nearly all of the timber logged has added processing-building a car- the forest.

been fire damaged. Thus, like most pentry shop to produce furniture. Supporters of community forestry

communities in the Sierra Juarez, When operating at its peak, Comalte- argued that in his profit analysis the

Comaltepec was profoundly conser- pec's sawmill has employed up to 15 president had factored in only one ac-

vative in its first steps toward forest people in the mill itself and as many counting period, during which time

management. as 50 in the mountains. With ERA's major investments had been made.

As timber production became more support and full community partici- They also noted that the sawmill con-

systematic, Comaltepec gained pation, Comaltepec also developed a tinued to process only timber dam-

enough confidence to begin planning land use plan that was democratically aged by the forest fire.

for a sawmill and to inventory its for- approved by the community general This dispute highlighted the degree

est resources. For both purposes, the assembly in June 1988. to which the community had aligned

community relied upon the support Although most community mem- itself into pro- and anti-sawmill

of the previously mentioned Estudios bers were pleased with the infrastruc- camps, and also into a faction that

Rurales y Asesona, one of the area's ture and employment brought by the was primarily concerned with its

newly founded NGOs, which was re- sawmill, some remained concerned members' coffee plantings in the

ceiving funding from the Ford Foun- about its role in forest management. montane tropical area, with no strong

dation. This became a serious issue in early feelings about the mill. In any event,

By 1987, the sawmill began opera- 1990, when a new municipal presi- the sawmill, like the bioreserve before

tions, and sales of both sawn timber dent was elected from the region of it, fell victim to municipal politics.

and logs permitted a vastly increased La Esperanza, a man who had been However, after the mill had been

capital flow. In that year, Comaltepec identified with the agencia's earlier idle for a year, the same president had

was able to finish the sawmill and attempt to establish a bioreserve. Ar- a change of heart. The sawmill was

buy a used tractor, several trucks, and guing that the sawmill was being in- reopened in March 1991 (albeit very

a winch for hauling logs up the steep efficiently run and was losing money, late in the cutting season) because of





20 Grassroots Development 15/3 1991

employment pressures and report- feel that consensus does not imply

edly because the president was satis- uniformity but the contrary, the har-

fied that it would now be appropri- monization of different interests, with

ately administered. Comaltepec is a focus on the common good."

back in the timber business for the Szekely and Madrid see knowledge

time being, but how well the enter- as the only way to harmonize diverse

prise can compete in a marketplace interests in the forest and have tried

that requires dependability in produc- to train a large number of community

tion remains an open question. members in the various aspects of

managing a community forest enter-

SEEKING A COMMON prise. But tensions between democ-

GROUND racy and efficiency will continue, and

in the meantime, the communities

Wrestling with the question of how to and the NGOs add new and complex

combine democratic processes with challenges to the brew. .



efficient business management, ERA, ERA, now teamed up with another

other Oaxacan NGOs, and the com- Oaxacan NGO called Servicios Co-

munity see no clear answer. Two munitarios (SERCO), began a new

Mexican community forestry experts, phase of support for communities in

Miguel Szekely and Sergio Madrid the Sierra Juarez and the Sierra Sur of

(the latter a member of ERA), have Oaxaca in early 1990. Assisted by a

tried to square the anthropologists' grant from the Inter-American Foun-

traditional image of community inte- dation, SERCO and ERA responded

Top: Workers stack planed building gration with the contentiousness they to community requests for intensive

beams in the Comaltepec mill yard. have found regarding forest use. Ac- training in all aspects of forest and

Bottom: The community enterprise at cording to them, "It is important to business management by running a

nearby Capultllpan has started a recognize some elements of commu- school workshop on forest manage-

furniture-making business to add more nity life as fundamental: the oft-cited ment and carpentry near the city of

value to their milled wood; consensual decision making, ritual of- Oaxaca, facilitating a decisive step

Comaltepec plans to follow suit. The fices, voluntary community labor, into furniture manufacturing to add

profits are reinvested in the business feast days, and other moments in more value to community produc-

and in schools and other services. community life ........... [However,] we tion. Although the NGOs were able







Grassroots Development 15/3 1991 21

A community worker plants a pine seedling on a slope in Santiago Comaltepec. The area naturally tends toward low-price

oak, so systematic pine reforestation is needed to maintain profits and ecodiversity.





to begin this program in other com- selecting stands of trees to be cut, for- some volumes are hardly ever used,

munities, their efforts in Comaltepec est damage will be greatly reduced but at some point every volume will

were basically stymied by the afore- and the community will benefit eco- be useful to someone. All those

mentioned political shifts. nomically from sustained-yield har- books, all those genes, have to be pre-

In the meantime, the World Wild- vesting. They also point out that served," he observes. Ricardo Lopez

life Fund (WWF), an international pines age and die as part of their life Luna believes there is room for every-

conservation organization working cycle, and if they are not harvested, an thing in Comaltepec-timber exploi-

with Mexican professionals, has been important economic resource is lost. tation, bioreserves, coffee farming-

invited by municipal authorities to There are signs that conservation- and goes on to speculate about the

work with Comaltepec on the con- ists and community foresters are be- Japanese lepidopterist who told him

servation and appropriate use of its ginning to understand one another's how the community might be able to

biological resources, including a re- views. Alejandro de Avila, a Mexican breed rare butterflies on its land.

prise of the bioreserve idea. With past anthropologist working with WWF, Ironically, just as community fac-

experiences in mind, WWF, SERCO, questions the idea of an untouchable tions are working to resolve their dif-

and ERA are moving much more cau- reserve. "I'm not in agreement with ferences, an external force once again

tiously and with an enriched under- the idea of a conventional reserve; it threatens Comaltepec's control over

standing of the complexities of demo- isn't viable in Comaltepec," he says. its forest resources. The Comision

cratic community control of forests. "For centuries the forests of southern Federal de Electricidad, the public

Differences in perspective still remain Mexico have been used by human be- utility charged with generating elec-

in Comaltepec and among NGOs and ings for firewood and other purposes:' tricity for Mexico's expanding cities,

international donors. Conservation- De Avila thinks the most feasible has for years been considering a pos-

ists, for example, worry that the de- route to conservation would be an ex- sible dam in Comaltepec and has now

gree of logging Comaltepec's forests tractive reserve, where traditional use set up a camp to do field studies. Such

can take is limited. Steep slopes and of resources could be controlled. a dam would flood the projected

vulnerability to soil erosion make the Francisco Chapela of ERA agrees that bioreserve, among other areas, and

construction of logging roads a ques- Comaltepec's biological richness Ricardo Lopez Luna hopes the re-

tionable activity. Foresters, on the needs to be carefully tended. "Its ge- serve's ecological value can be used to

other hand, believe that by carefully netic resources are like a huge library; forestall the Comision's designs.





22 Grassroots Development 15/3 1991

STRENGTHENING and economic significance in October immediate need to reforest with pine

COMMUNITY 1990, when Chucho Hernandez, re- because lower value oak now occu-

MANAGEMENT cently graduated forester and native pies over 60 percent of community

of the UZACHI member community holdings. Oak is a naturally dominant

Even as Comaltepec wrestles with of Xiacui, entered another member succession species, so to maintain

conservation and development of its community, martillo in hand, to do pine after cutting takes more-

resources, community members are the marqueo as an UZACHI em- concerted reforestation efforts. In Co-

participating in another development ployee. Jaime Cano, president of the maltepec, some reforestation has al-

effort, one with both economic and oversight committee of the commu- ready begun; community children,

civic implications. With support from nity of San Mateo Capulalpan de for example, have helped reforest

SERCO and ERA, Comaltepec helped Mendez, notes its economic impor- eight hectares.

found a new intercommunity associa- tance: "Last year here in Capulalpan More systematic and regular efforts

tion, the Union Zapoteca-Chinanteca we paid over $12,000 for forest tech- need to be undertaken in all of the

de la Sierra Juarez (UZACHI) in 1989. nical services. This year, we are pay- communities, however. Attention

Composed of one Chinantec and four ing a much smaller amount to also needs to be given to agroforestry

Zapotec communities, UZACHI in- UZACHI as a part of Chucho's salary, practices, particularly with coffee-

cludes several of the communities and the rest we can keep for the en- growing in Comaltepec's montane

that formed ODRENASIJ. Through terprise.' , tropical region.

UZACHI, Comaltepec can deal with UZACHI is also instituting selec-

two of the most vexing issues facing tive cutting as a tool of sustainable THE NEED FOR NATIONAL

community forest organizations: the forest management, abandoning LEVEL ORGANIZATION

servicios tecnicos forestales (STF), or FAPATUX's high-grading practices.

forest technical services, and the With selective cutting, only a portion FIFONAFE is a trust fund that repre-

Fideicomiso Fondo N acional de Fo- of mature trees are taken out in ad- sents another paternalistic relic now

mento Ejidal (FIFONAFE), or com- dition to diseased, malformed, or under grassroots pressure for greater

munity development trust funds. poorly spaced trees, resulting in a openness and efficiency. It was estab-

The STF authorizes how many and healthier, better-spaced stand. Many lished to receive the proceeds of the

which trees a community has permis- of the best specimens are left as seed stumpage fee on timber and other

sion to cut in a given year, sending a stock for natural reforestation. kinds of agricultural production. In

professional forester out to do the Commercial forest areas are di- theory, the communities would then

marqueo, marking with a martillo, or vided into ten sections, with selective present development projects to the

stamping tool, each tree that may be harvestings in a given section every fund to get their investment capital

cut that year. The STF is supposed to ten years, sufficient time to ensure a back. In practice, however, it has been

provide a range of other forest man- sustainable harvest without seriously very difficult for communities to find

agement services in addition to the modifying the natural structure of the out how much money they have de

marqueo. Currently, associations of

professional foresters have an exclu-

sive concession from the federal gov-

ernment to provide these services, for

which they are paid out of sales. UZACHI is also instituting selective cutting as a

Communities have long com- tool of sustainable forest management. . .

plained that they pay steep fees for

scarce services, and organizations resulting in healthier, better-spaced stands.

such as UZACHI have argued that,

since they can hire their own profes-

sional staffs, they should have the au-

thority to provide their own marqueo forest and the ecological benefits it posited and to get access to it. With-

and other technical services. UCEFO provides (although some conserva- out technical assistance, communities

in Oaxaca won this right a few years tionists dispute this last point). have a hard time formulating viable

ago, and now UZACHI has received Although pine and oak regenerate proposals, and even these can have

provisional permission to do its own vigorously, communities in the Sierra trouble getting through the bureauc-

marqueo. Juarez need to take much more de- racy. Individual communities have

It was a moment of both symbolic cided steps to manage their forests. In been unable to do much about these

Capulalpan, for example, there is an problems, and UZACHI hopes it will





Grassroots Development 15/3 1991 23

have enough clout to push utilized oaks, reduce existing oak immediate challenge of forming its

FIFONAFE toward greater efficiency. stands, and create space for pine re- own technical team from disputing

Ultimately, however, the communi- forestation. A project to establish an tecnicos. External pressures emanate

ties hope to retain this investment astilladora, or wood-chipping ma- from local government, which is ac-

capital for their own development chine, would allow sales to customed to controlling most peasant J



projects. FAPATUX's pulp mills at a more ad- organizations. The Sociedad's reso-

But UZACHI itself is only a small, vanced stage of processing and a lutely apolitical stance and multiparty 1

new organization of five communities higher price. This project is particu- membership oblige it to fight for

with limited influence over Oaxaca's larly important because market legitimation from local political au-

forestry sector. To increase its pres- trends in forest products show paper thorities.

ence, technical capacity, and capital production to be more dynamic than

and credit potential, UZACHI helped sawn wood. MORE THAN

forrll a confederation in Oaxaca in There are also a number of smaller ECONOMICS

January 1991. The Sociedad de Silvi- investments that should be made. For

cultores de Oaxaca, S.C., includes a example, many community sawmills As the Sociedad struggles to consoli-

second organization from the Sierra are inefficiently run and need inten- date itself, its value to Oaxaca and the

Juarez, the Union de Comunidades sive technical assistance. The Socie- Mexican nation becomes more clearly

Ixtlan-Etla, as well as forest commu- dad and its advisors are also acutely defined. The immediate value is not

nities from the southern Sierra. The aware of the possibility of a Mexican necessarily economic. For example,

Sociedad eventually hopes to become free trade agreement with the United Mexico's 1990 trade deficit of

the second significant forestry organi- States and Canada and its probable $314 million in forest products will

zation to emerge in Oaxaca (after impact on local timber production. In not be satisfied by the community en-

terprises in the Sierra Juarez.

FAPATUX, for example, must now

import raw materials from northern

In the Sierra Juarez today, the real value of Mexico because of declining supplies

current production is retained entirely by local from Oaxaca. In reality, however,

timber industries rarely contribute

communities, a genuine breakthrough in significantly to national development

grassroots development. because of government inefficiency in

capturing forest rents. As occurred in

Oaxaca, a few timber companies real-

fact, timber from the United States ize windfall profits, with neither gov-

UCEFO) in the last decade, and joins

and Canada and from other Latin ernment nor local communities accru-

the growing roster of other commu-

American countries is entering Mex- ing much benefit. But in the Sierra

nity forestry organizations at the na-

ico now, and many sawmills have al- Juarez today, the real value of the

tional level in Mexico.

ready gone under. The Sociedad and modest current production is retained

Through the Sociedad, more-

its members are competing in an entirely by the local communities, a

ambitious community development

international market with more- genuine breakthrough in grassroots

and conservation projects can be un-

efficient producers from other coun- development.

dertaken. Lucas Pérez Ruíz, president

tries, and they are scrambling to in- These community enterprises also

of UZACHI and a schoolteacher in

represent another kind of develop-

the community of La Trinidad, says crease their know-how.

ment, with a less easily calculable \

that "the Sociedad will strengthen us In addition to the economic chal-

value. Because they are exploiting

and enable us to get more resources. lenge, the Sociedad also faces internal

their own timber, the communities I

We need to find a way to use sawdust and external pressures. Internally, it is

off to a rocky start because of conflicts are concerned with the sustainability

industrially, get wood chippers [for

between SERCO and ERA, the two of its economic value and ecological

news pulp], and deal with the prob-

NGOs that had collaboratively sup- services for future generations of

lem of oak dominance."

ported its formation. Differences over Mexicans. The emergence of

The Sociedad is preparing a variety

strategies and the disposition of UZACHI and the Sociedad also

of investment projects to present to

scarce resources have led to a falling- promises to contribute to a more

financing sources. One such project,

out between the two groups, which democratic rural society in Mexico.

for charcoal production, would allow

has presented the Sociedad with the Determinedly nonpartisan and focused

the communities to exploit the under





24 Grassroots Development 15/3 1991

cused on their interests as timber- reaucrats, and leaders at all levels of Human Organization and "Mexico:

producing peasants, the organiza- the global community will be wres- Campesinos and Coffee" in Hemi-

tions represent the new face of tling with exactly how to bring this sphere, co-authored with Luis

I autonomous civil society in Mexico. about. Comaltepec's leaders and citi- Hernandez.

Further, as the World Bank's Michael zens must find a way to successfully The author acknowledges the collabo-

.~

Chemea has noted, these kinds of manage their community's entry into ration of Fernando Melo, Rocío Solís,

grassroots institutions should be the global economy in the last decade Sergio Madrid, Francisco Chapela,

rightfully considered "a form of capi- of the twentieth century; in doing so, Yolanda Lara Padilla, Alejandro de

tal accumulation" in their own right. they must decide whether it will be as Avila and the comuneros of Santiago

The experience of Comaltepec and coffee farmers, timber producers, for- Comaltepec and San Mateo Calpulalpan

other communities in the Sierra Jua- est stewards-or maids and construc- de Méndez for their support in the

rez, as well as in Chihuahua, Quin- tion workers in Santa Monica. Per- elaboration of this article. Extremely

tana Roo, and other areas of Mexico, haps it will be as a combination of useful technical comments were also

suggests that the New Scientist's "op- them all. Citizens and leaders of the provided by Bruce Cabarle, Mario Ra-

timistic premise" of the compatibility world outside Comaltepec must be mos, Alejandro de Avila, Alberto Var-

of conservation and development is prepared to respect the community's gas, Brad Ack, and Carol Zabin.

not unfounded. A new awareness is decisions and to help it gain the best

growing among many development available knowledge on which to REFERENCES

and environmental organizations that base its decisions.

sustainability cannot occur without Chernea, Michael. 1987. Farmer Orga-

both forces: There should be no con- nizations and Institution Building for

DAVID BARTON BRAY is a Founda- Sustainable Development. Regional De-

servation projects that are not also tion representative for Mexico. His re- velopment Dialogue Vol. 8, No.2: 1-19.

development projects and no devel- cent publications include" 'Defiance' Lara Padilla, Yolanda. 1991. La Situacion

opment projects that are not also con- and the Search for Sustainable Small Forestal en el Estado de Oaxaca. Un-

servation projects. Farmer Organizations: A Paraguayan published ms.

In the years to come, citizens, bu- Case Study and a Research Agenda" in - 1991. EI Aprovechamiento Forestal

Sostenible, un Reto para la Superviven-

cia de la Industria Forestal en Oaxaca.

Unpublished ms.

Postel, Sandra and John C. Ryan. 1991.

Reforming Forestry. In State of the World

1991, edited by Lester R. Brown. New

York: A Worldwatch Institute Report,

w.w. Norton and Company.

Sattaur,Omar. 1991. Last Chance for the

Rain Forest Plan? New Scientist, March

2, 1991.

Szekely, E. Miguel and Sergio Madrid.

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Recursos Naturales: Un caso de la Si-

erra de Juarez, Oaxaca. In Recursos Na-

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Experiencias para un Desarrollo Alterna-

, tivo, edited by Enrique Leff. Meidco

City: Universidad Nacional Autonoma

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Natural Resource Conservation Activi-

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national Support. Internal report.

Zabin, Carol Ann. 1989. "Grassroots

Members of the UZACHI association of forest communities use their new Development in Indigenous Communi-

computer for making a complete inventory of local forests by species and age in ties: A Case Study from the Sierra Jua-

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Grassroots Development 15/3 1991 25