Trees for Development
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Trees for Development: Merging Environmental Restoration and Poverty Alleviation Objectives via Reforestation in Veracruz, Mexico Ingrid Haeckel Department of Geography and the Environment University of Texas at Austin December 10, 2009 CRP 386: Intro to Geographic Information Systems Ingrid Haeckel - Trees for Development: Reforestation in Veracruz - CRP 386 Fall 2009 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Reforestation is gaining attention throughout the world, and particularly the tropics, as a climate change mitigation strategy, as well as an opportunity to restore degraded areas and ecosystem services that have been lost or diminished. The economic incentives provided by emerging carbon markets have led many to speculate that reforestation could provide synergistic environmental and development benefits in developing countries. In Mexico, reforestation has emerged as a major environmental policy goal, highlighted by the launch in 2007 of a new forestry program, Pro-Árbol. Pro-Árbol merges goals of environmental restoration with poverty alleviation and aspires to create economic development by fostering a sustainable forestry sector. Within Mexico, Veracruz has been identified as one of the states with most success in meeting this goal. This project examines whether the objectives to reduce poverty and marginalization in critical environmental areas were targeted through reforestation funding during 2007-2009. Suitable areas based on marginalization, indigenous population, soil degradation, and hydrological service and biodiversity conservation areas are then ranked to prioritize municipalities for future reforestation funding. The 2007-2009 Pro-Árbol reforestation results indicate subsidies are being applied in marginalized areas; however, environmental objectives need more attention. Women were underrepresented among accepted project applicants and it is unclear to what extent indigenous communities have participated. This analysis indicates that high priority areas for reforestation, including Perote, Misantla, Orizaba, and Huayacocotla UMAFORs have been well served by Pro-Arbol, but future outreach and funding for reforestation should target the Totonacapan, Veracruz, Los Tuxtlas, and Uxpanapa UMAFORs. Altogether, more monitoring and reporting is needed to assess the success of reforestation projects to date and to more clearly address how they are contributing to rural development. 1 Ingrid Haeckel - Trees for Development: Reforestation in Veracruz - CRP 386 Fall 2009 INTRODUCTION Reforestation and forest restoration are major environmental goals throughout the tropics following decades of widespread deforestation. Recently, however, international negotiations and policies to mitigate climate change have begun to generate powerful political and financial incentives to reverse the trend of forest loss. Growing trees store and sequester large volumes of carbon and contribute to rainfall patterns through high evapotranspiration, serving an important role in global climate (Bonan 2008). In addition to carbon sequestration, however, reforestation can restore environmentally degraded areas by reducing soil erosion, meanwhile improving water quality and infiltration, as well as potentially increasing water capture. The use of native tree species in reforestation projects will furthermore enhance the value of restored areas for biodiversity (Chazdon 2008). The potential to restore a variety of ecosystem services where they have been lost has led to many recent efforts at making reforestation attractive to the rural communities where restoration is most needed and can have the greatest potential benefit to society (Lamb, Erskine, and Parrotta 2005). Carbon forestry projects of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) have emphasized the synergistic benefits between reforestation and livelihoods; however the reality of benefits to the rural poor has been questioned critically by many scholars (Smith and Scherr 2003). Unless reforestation projects can overcome the significant implementation challenges facing rural poor households and communities that they are intended to benefit, such policies will likely result in the continued expansion of large-scale commercial plantations with little environmental or social benefit. The high start-up costs of reforestation or plantation establishment, as well as distant benefits and high risk of the investment are major hurdles to the adoption of forest restoration by smallholder farmers in the tropics (Coomes et al. 2008). However, with government subsidies and appropriate information and technical support, reforestation could be successful as an element of a diversified rural development strategy (Lamb, Erskine, and Parrotta 2005). Mexico is one country that has embraced the issue of reforestation together with other forest conservation and management strategies, establishing a national forestry commission (CONAFOR) in 2001 and developing a comprehensive new forestry program, Pro-Árbol, in 2007. Since then, Mexico has invested approximately US $1.5 billion in Pro-Árbol, funding forestry projects on 6.8 million hectares of land and lowering the national deforestation rate. Policymakers in Mexico have embraced the potential of forest restoration projects to alleviate poverty and lead to development based on sustainable forest resource management. However, promoting trees for development is a very new approach to Mexican forestry policy, which until the early 1990s was largely based on the promotion of commercial tree plantations, often with exotic species (Carabias, Arriaga, and Cervantes Gutiérrez 2007). Today, approximately 98% of trees planted in Pro-Árbol reforestation projects are native species, and there is great demand to increase the diversity of native species utilized (Valtierra Pacheco et al. 2008). Although the use of native species is likely to increase the benefit of reforested areas to biodiversity and possibly hydrological services based on studies elsewhere 2 Ingrid Haeckel - Trees for Development: Reforestation in Veracruz - CRP 386 Fall 2009 Figure 1.1 3 Ingrid Haeckel - Trees for Development: Reforestation in Veracruz - CRP 386 Fall 2009 (e.g., Kanowski, Catterall, and Wardell-Johnson 2005; Farwig, Sajita, and Böhning- Gaese 2008; Bruijnzeel 2004), the actual economic incentives and benefits to reforesting agricultural land for the rural poor in comparison with alternative land uses have not been clearly articulated or examined in Mexico. Within Mexico, Veracruz has been identified as one of the states with most success in reforestation under Pro-Árbol and with high potential for establishing commercial tree plantations, estimated at approximately a million and a half hectares (CONAFOR 2009; Velázquez Álvarez 2007). Veracruz is located on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, flanked to the west by the Sierra Madre Oriental (Figure 1.1) and neighbored by the states of Tamaulipas, Hidalgo, Puebla, Oaxaca, and Tabasco. While the majority of the state’s territory lies in the coastal plain, elevations climb sharply up to 5,200 m above sea level, the height of the Pico de Orizaba, the highest mountain in Mexico (Figure 1.2). The diverse topography results in high diversity of ecosystems and biodiversity and endemism. Only 8.8% of Veracruz’ natural vegetation remains, with 72.1% of the state’s territory in agricultural and urban land use (Figures 1.3) (Velázquez Álvarez 2007). The state remains fifth in Mexico in terms of deforestation, losing approximately 30,000 hectares annually despite recent restoration efforts (Figure 1.4) (Velázquez Álvarez 2007). Approximately a third of Mexico’s surface freshwater flows through the major watersheds of Veracruz, which underscores the significance of maintaining the hydrological functions provided by forest cover. Although Veracruz is known for its strong agricultural and industrial sectors, many municipalities continue to have high indices of socio-economic marginalization, with 37 of the state’s 212 municipalities ranked as highly marginalized in 2005 (CONAPO 2005). Depressed markets for agricultural products and high unemployment have led to a significant increase in transnational migration from Veracruz in the last decade (R. Torres, pers. comm.). It is not known what role the agricultural economy or migration has played in the recent decisions of land owners to reforest former agricultural lands. Pro-Árbol Pro-Árbol was founded in 2007 to unite and expand upon several previous forestry programs, including the Programa de Desarrollo de Plantaciones Forestales (PRODEPLAN) and the Programa de Desarrollo Forestal (PRODEFOR) under a single framework. The program provides subsidies for the conservation, restoration, and management of forest resources, as well as for planning to increase the competitiveness and productivity in the commercial forestry sector. Pro-Árbol is an umbrella for the support of diverse forest-related activities in Mexico, but reforestation under the category of conservation and restoration is the flagship activity and one of the largest destinations for subsidy funding. Land owners who apply for funding to reforest land must demonstrate legal ownership, meet certain rules regarding the application of subsidies, and own a minimum of five hectares of land or join other land owners in a group to reach the minimum required area. Importantly, subsidies are only given for properties in areas that would naturally be forested or that can develop forests (SEMARNAT, 2009). In addition to providing a subsidy to cover most of the expense