Where We Work

Mexico

Sustainable Forestry

Communities own 80% of Mexico's forests. Mexico witnessed an increase in certified1 acreage from 288,996 acres in 1998 to 1,269,163 in 2002. Mexico, along with Guatemala, is being targeted as part of a Rainforest Alliance landscape approach to conservation. The landscape approach looks at an ecosystem using a wide lens, and determines which regions are most strategic for certification in terms of biodiversity, threats, and economics. Accesses to available markets are also factors that are taken into consideration when viewing the landscape. Certification in Mexico has been expanding quickly with new financial and technical support from the government of Mexico. Several U.S. wood buyers, including The Home Depot, are purchasing Rainforest Alliance Certified products from Mexican Ejidos.

Courtesy of The General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin

Forestry Success Story: Comunidad Indígena de Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro, Mexico
Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro is probably the best community-run forestry operation in Mexico. The community forest is located in the Municipality of Nuevo Parangaricutiro, northeast of Michoacán state, México. A total of 1,229 community members manage 14,300 hectares of pine forest as their main source of income. This community operation has become a model in Mexico and is demonstrating that communities are able to develop a forestry enterprise that is economically viable while bringing significant benefits to the community. This operation is conducting good forest management, efficient resources utilization, and maintaining and expanding its forest cover, with social and economic equity among community members. Total annual harvest is about 1,000 (ha) per year or about 100,000 cubic meters, mostly pine. The community owns two sawmills, dry kilns, molding and furniture manufacturing facilities, as well as a pitch pine resin processing mill. Products include lumber, furniture, moldings, wood chips, and pine resin. Furniture and moldings are exported, lumber is sold to local secondary manufacturers, and the wood chips and pine resin are sold in local markets.

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1 Certification, as defined by the Rainforest Alliance, is a conservation tool whereby an independent, third party awards a seal of approval guaranteeing consumers that the products they are buying are the result of practices carried out according to a specific set of criteria balancing ecological, economic and social considerations. Rainforest Alliance certification is a strictly voluntary, non-governmental process.

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