EVALUATING THE RESULTS OF OUR WORK Towards Integrated Community Forest Enterprise A Case Study of Ejido El Largo y Anexos, (Chihuahua, Mexico) Community Forestry Case Studies No. 3/10 November 2015 Benjamin D. Hodgdon and Oscar Estrada Murrieta Contents Preface 3 Executive Summary 5 Introduction 7 The Origins and Development of Ejido The Multilateral El Largo y Anexos 7 Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the Forest Management in El Largo 9 Inter-American Development Enterprise Administration and Governance 10 Bank (IDB) Group, is the largest provider The Harvest Operations 11 of technical assis- tance for private- CFE Value Chain and Markets 12 sector develop- ment in Latin America and the The Importance of Forestry in El Largo 13 Caribbean. Its core beneficiaries Technical Assistance to Improve CFE Performance 14 include micro and small busi- nesses, small Assessing Progress to Date 15 farms, and poor and vulnerable Changes in Key Indicators 15 households. It designs and finances pilot Conclusions and Recommendations 16 projects to test pioneering Annex I: References 19 approaches to building econom- ic opportunity Annex II: Key Informants 19 and decreasing poverty. www.fomin.org The Rainforest Acronyms Alliance works to conserve AAC Annual Allowable Cut biodiversity and CFE Community Forest Enterprise ensure sustain- CONAFOR National Forestry Commission able livelihoods FSC® Forest Stewardship Council® by transforming FIRA Trust Funds for Rural Development (Mexican National Development Fund) land-use practices, FND National Fund for Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries Development business practices GEF Global Environment Facility and consumer MIF Multilateral Investment Fund (member of Inter-American Development Bank Group) behavior. PROCYMAF Community Forestry Development Program (funded by World Bank) www.rainforest PROFEPA Federal Prosecutor for Environmental Protection -alliance.org UNDP United Nations Development Programme PREFACE Over the last two decades, countries across the trop- based production forestry can be an effective ics have devolved increasing authority over natural approach to conserving forest resources while also forests to local actors. The ability of those actors generating significant social and economic benefits to manage forests sustainably and make forestry a for marginalized communities. At the same time, competitive land-use choice has therefore taken on however, these studies tell a more nuanced story. a growing importance. In response to this changing The diversity of contexts and enterprises represented landscape, a range of efforts around the globe are sheds light on the development of community for- supporting community-based forest management estry in its many forms—towards multiple and some- by working to improve the capacity of local people times contested goals—while chronicling both suc- to manage their natural resources and develop local cesses and failures. As such, each case stands on its enterprise. In spite of the abundance of manuals, own to inform similar cases around the world, while methodologies and other tools to guide technical also forming a part of the broader story this series assistance, there is a relative paucity of systematic tells about the variable trajectories of community analyses of the results of such efforts: experiences, forestry development. lessons learned and recommendations for improv- ing assistance to local forestry development. Although a guiding goal of many projects—including the present one—is to achieve financial sustainability This case study is one of 10 produced under “Forest for community forest enterprise, the importance of Conservation through Certification, Markets and external technical assistance in building local capaci- Strengthening of Small and Medium-sized Forest ties is also clearly fundamental. However, the effec- Enterprise,” a five-year project supported by the tiveness of such assistance is not always optimal, Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of which is why each case includes an assessment of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group. the results of the Rainforest Alliance technical assis- Led by the Rainforest Alliance, the project involves tance that was received. In several cases, insufficient approximately 100 community operations and small data and/or a lack of indicator consistency—not and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Guatemala, to mention confounding external factors (storms, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru. The project’s market fluctuations, political upheaval and social central aim is to improve local livelihoods through conflict) and the absence of truly scientific controls— sustainable forestry and enterprise development. make it impossible with full confidence to attribute Although the support needs, contexts and develop- change solely to Rainforest Alliance support, espe- ment levels of partner communities vary tremen- cially given the active presence of other actors at all dously, the project’s unifying strategy is to improve project sites. This caveat notwithstanding, it is clear business capacities, market access and financial sup- that, in each case, project interventions produced port for enterprise development in order to secure concrete results. The studies aim to extract lessons sustainable forest management and livelihood from these results and recommend ways forward. development. Finally, while the bulk of these studies have been The case studies in this series were carefully prepared and published by staff of the Rainforest selected to cover all five countries where the proj- Alliance, they would not have been possible without ect is active, and to reflect the full range of partici- the collaboration and dedicated efforts of many oth- pants—from highly incipient community operations, ers including a host of government agencies, civil to second-tier business alliances among multiple society partners, academic institutions and private well-developed, certified enterprises. Special atten- sector actors. Above all, the communities them- tion was also paid to ensuring representativeness selves must be recognized and congratulated for the with respect to forest ecosystems (temperate and time that they invested in assisting with the compi- tropical), tenure arrangement (permanent and con- lation and review of these studies. All contributors cession) and production focus (timber and non-tim- are specifically acknowledged in each separate case ber). In all of the studies, the impact of Rainforest study. Although the contributions of all of these Alliance technical assistance on enterprise develop- actors are fundamental, the content of these studies ment was analyzed, including a critical assessment is the sole responsibility of the Rainforest Alliance, of priorities for future assistance. Beyond enterprise- except where other institutions have taken a co- specific examples, two studies take a more thematic publishing role. approach, analyzing experiences with markets for lesser-known species and financial mechanisms. The table on the following page presents a break- down of the 10 case studies that were produced as Taken together, the 10 studies support the growing part of this project. body of research demonstrating that community- 3 Community No. Case Study Location Key Themes forestry case studies 1 Awas Tingni North Atlantic • Indigenous community forestry community Autonomous • Incipient forest enterprise development Region, • Social and institutional foundations for community Nicaragua forestry 2 Moskibatana non- Muskitia, • Indigenous community forestry timber forest product Honduras • NTFP management and Forest Stewardship Council® (NTFP) enterprise (FSC®) market development • Development of a new forest enterprise 3 Ejido El Largo Chihuahua, • Integrated forestry development planning Mexico • Community forest enterprise competitiveness 4 CAIFUL agroforestry Río Plátano • Local forest enterprise development cooperative Biosphere • Benefits of forest enterprise at the community scale Reserve, Honduras 5 Analysis of forest man- Maya • Impacts of certified community forestry silvicultural agement in community Biosphere and management systems concessions Reserve, • Investments by community enterprises in conserva- Guatemala tion and monitoring 6 Brazil nut production Madre de Dios, • NTFP enterprise development and enterprise Peru • Financial and administrative capacity building 7 TIP Muebles Oaxaca, Mexico • Commercial cooperation among community forest enterprises • Furniture value chain development 8 Tres Islas native Madre de Dios, • Indigenous community forestry community Peru • Landscape approach • Incipient forest enterprise development 9 Building markets for Maya • Development of new markets for lesser-utilized com- lesser-known species Biosphere mercial timber species Reserve, • Diversification of a second-tier community forestry Guatemala business model 10 Financial mechanisms Regional • Design, operation and impacts of mechanisms to for community forest increase forestry producer access to credit enterprises 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Towards Integrated Community Forest Enterprise Approximately 94 percent of Ejido El Largo y Anexos’ land is forested Photo by Eugenio Fernández Vázquez Mexico has what is probably the most advanced Located in the northwestern part of the state of community forestry sector on earth. More than 60 Chihuahua, the ejido covers 261,460 hectares, percent of the nation’s forestland is owned by rural more than 250,000 ha of which is forested. The