Growing the Wealth of the Poor - World Resources Institute

G R E E NL I V E L I H O O D SLEARNING FROM GUATEMALA’SCOMMUNITY FOREST ENTERPRISESCare must be taken at start-up. In the understandable rush toestablish concessions in the early 1990s, little thought was given to theimplications of long-term forest stewardship. Territories were carvedout with little consideration of what was appropriate and necessary toprovide economic opportunities and incentives. The first few concessionswere too small, unable to support profitable enterprises undersustainable management. Today, those concessions are rife withcorruption, and the forests are degraded by illegal logging and clearingfor agriculture.There is a difference between stewardship and enterprise. Initialskill training for the concession managers focused on forest management.Only after government agencies and NGOs both saw that theexpected economic impact was not materializing—and that sustainablepractices were suffering as a result—did it become clear thatcommunities also needed skills to manage the business side of theconcession: sales, marketing, and certification. This oversight set backthe development of profitable community concessions by several years.Government has an ongoing role that must be exercised. One ofthe goals of the government’s establishment of the Maya Reserve wasthe preservation of one of the last great swaths of virgin forest inCentral America. The track record of the certified concessions showsconsiderable improvement in the health of the areas under theircontrol. But the National Parks in the reserve itself, ostensibly off-limitsto all extractive uses, are losing acreage at an alarming pace becauseof poaching and illegal farming. The lack of any enforcement undercutsthe government’s goals and may ultimately jeopardize the achievementsof the concessions.Long-term commitment is needed. This applies in every case. Thefirst concession contract was signed in 1994. Nine years later, NGOsand aid agencies were putting the finishing touches on FORESCOM, theorganization formed by nine of the concession communities to providemarketing services and training for concession members and to coordinatesustainable certification of their timber. Twelve years after thefirst concession, a phaseout plan for USAID is in place, now that nineconcessions are well established and profitable.There is strength in numbers. The forest concessions in Guatemalawere thrust from the start into an international market; that is thenature of the high-value timber they were able to harvest. These concessionscould never, individually, hope to have all the contacts and skillsnecessary to successfully navigate that trade. Their willingness to fundthe creation of FORESCOM has paid significant dividends. In addition tothe services mentioned already, FORESCOM markets the combinedharvests of the members to command better prices and encourages theproduction of additional products. Delegating certain critical managementdecisions to FORESCOM is one key factor that has made eight ofthe Petén concessions self-sufficient and profitable today.Carrera warned, however, that this encouraging prospectdepended on the absence of “adverse external developments,”particularly the threat of uncontrolled immigration andagricultural encroachment spilling over into community forests(Carrera 2007). Due to rising birth rates and economic migrationfrom the south, illegal settlements and forest clearance byfarmers continue to plague the Maya Biosphere Reserve’ssupposedly protected national parks. By 2006, for example,about 40 percent of Laguna del Tigre National Park along thereserve’s western border had been destroyed by illegal loggingand wildfires (compared with only 4 percent in the neighboringUaxactun concession) (Rainforest Alliance 2007c:2).One problem is that communities in the buffer zonealongside the national parks have not been given the alternativelivelihood opportunities enjoyed by the concession communitiesand therefore lack any incentive to respect park rules.Another is the weakness of CONAP, which remains chronicallyshort of staff and resources and which lacks political supportfrom other government agencies (Chemonics 2006:45). “Thegovernment supports the development of the forestry enterprises,”says Carrera, “but to protect the concessions it needs toassign enough resources to enforce the protected area lawsthroughout the Maya Biosphere Reserve” (Carrera 2008).Scaling Up Community Forest EnterprisesOrganizational Scale-UpThe creation of second-tier agencies has been critical in puttingGuatemala’s community enterprises on a viable businessfooting. In the early years, ACOFOP lobbied for more andlarger concessions to be allocated and it provided fragmentedcommunities with a collective voice (Chemonics 2003:10). Since2003, the forest products company FORESCOM has enablednine enterprises to add value to their basic product, timber, andto expand markets (Chemonics 2006:27).By providing technical assistance in meeting Smart-Wood’s sustainable timber certification conditions,FORESCOM has allowed enterprises to cut compliance costsby up to 80 percent and to end reliance on donor subsidies(Chemonics 2006:13–14; Nittler and Tschinkel 2005:16). Withassistance from the internationally networked RainforestAlliance, the company has also successfully identified nationaland overseas markets, particularly for lesser-known woodspecies that FORESCOM sells on its members’ behalf. Byrepresenting the combined output of nine concessions (withthe other three due to join by 2009), FORESCOM is winningbig contracts beyond the reach of individual enterprises, suchas an annual contract to supply 1 million board feet of timbera year to a Guatemalan building company.139