Growing the Wealth of the Poor - World Resources Institute

G R E E NL I V E L I H O O D SENTERPRISING WOMEN: A WORK IN PROGRESSAmong rural Guatemalans, forestry is traditional male territory, acultural mindset that impeded early efforts to involve women in thecommunity enterprises. In some cases, male leaders argued thatforestry management tasks involved physical labor unsuitable forwomen; in others, wives and daughters were refused membership ofEFCs granted to their husbands and fathers (Monterroso 2002:1).Early NGO training programs also failed to emphasize women’s rights. In2002 only about 15 percent of EFC members were female, with theirtasks mostly limited to harvesting non-timber forest products, includingberries, xate, and wicker for baskets (Monterroso 2002:1). But addressingthis gender gap became a major focus of training programsimplemented by Chemonics International, and by 2006 eight EFCs hadset up commissions to promote gender equity and appointed at leastone woman to their Board of Directors (Chemonics 2006:18).Chemonics and local NGOs also held workshops to enhance villagewomen’s self-esteem and provided day care services to boost theirparticipation in EFC meetings. Practical job training and marketingassistance for non-timber products, such as handicrafts andtourism guiding, were also focused increasingly on women(Chemonics 2006:18–19).technical support staff supported the establishment ofFORESCOM as an umbrella forest products company anddrafted its bylaws. FORESCOM began operations in January2004 and took over certification of its member concessions in2005. This centralized process for certification cut communitycosts significantly, enabling EFCs to pay for certification andtechnical assistance without donor subsidies for the first time(Chemonics 2006:2, 8).In March 2006, the second phase of USAID-funded intermediaryassistance ended and Chemonics withdrew. In anatural progression toward making the EFCs viable businesses,Chemonics was succeeded by a scaled-down USAID programtargeted specifically toward diversifying wood and non-timberproducts from the concessions and expanding their markets.The long-term viability of the concessions depends on thesuccess of this three-year, US$2-million phase, which ismanaged by the Rainforest Alliance and will end in August2009 (Rainforest Alliance 2007b:1).The Paternalism TrapBy August 2009, the US government’s aid agency will have spentmore than US$11 million on the Petén community forestryenterprises project alone (Nittler and Tschinkel 2005:12;Rainforest Alliance 2007b:1). While the many intermediariesworking with the EFCs have helped them become both effectivestewards and successful businesses, the scale of support alsofostered a culture of donor dependency that has proved difficultto break (Tschinkel 2007). “Self-sufficiency goals were only put inplace after Chemonics arrived,” recalled John Nittler, a vicepresidentof Chemonics International who helped oversee theprogram. “In the early years…a dependency was created thatremains very hard to overcome” (Nittler 2007).Since 2006, the Rainforest Alliance and governmentagencies working with the enterprises have sought to fosterindependence with a “learning through doing” approach(Rainforest Alliance 2007b:2). This provides on-the-job (ratherthan theoretical) training in the production, processing, packaging,and sale of new processed timber and NTFPs. CONAP’srequirement that all concessions hire a forestry specialist astechnical supervisor has also helped to professionalize EFCs, ashas a recent requirement by the SmartWood certifiers thatconcession governing boards must retain some members formore than one term of office (Saito 2008; Carrera 2007).By late 2007, these strategies appeared to be paying off,with 8 of the 12 community enterprises functioning as selfsufficientbusinesses and facing prosperous futures after USAIDsubsidies end (Carrera 2007).Conservation Dividend: PreservingForests, Protecting LivelihoodsWhile community forestry enterprises have been slow in gainingorganizational independence, they proved to be skillful in forestrystewardship. Aware of the link between sustainable forest managementand the income potential of their new venture, virtuallyevery EFC established a low-impact approach to harvesting bothtimber and non-timber forest products, based on a few commonground rules (Chemonics and IRG 2000:A-IV-9–10).Ecologically fragile areas and those high in biodiversity wereleft alone. Elsewhere, harvest management cycles of 25 years wereestablished, with one of 25 blocks of forest to be harvested eachyear, allowing 24 years for regrowth. Each EFC also preparedannual operational plans, based on a census of individual trees inthe block to be harvested, which were approved by CONAPofficials (Nittler and Tschinkel 2005:14–15, 11). On average, only0.8–2.4 trees per ha have been harvested, due in part to a lack ofcommercial species of sufficient size (Tschinkel 2008).The 25-year plans included detailed maps, some enhancedwith satellite images and aerial photography, showing concessionboundaries, vegetation and forest types, and fragile and archeologicalsites in need of particular protection. Most highlighted 15–20“commercial” tree species, although until recent years almost allthe wood felled was mahogany or tropical cedar (Nittler andTschinkel 2005:14). This detailed planning also enabled loggingroads to be cut efficiently, minimizing ecological impact.Early fears voiced by some environmental NGOs that anyfelling activity could harm biodiversity soon proved groundless(Chemonics 2006:37). As one biological monitoring teamreported in 2002: “At current extraction levels (0.8–2.4 trees/ha),133