| dc.description.abstract | This research analyzes the relationship between the environmental and social elements in Mexico’s Payment for Environmental Services (PES) program in the Huasteca Potosina region from 2003-2011. Both the regional and local scales are examined to understand patterns of deforestation and identify the factors influencing community forest conservation. The multi-scale approach to deforestation on social properties is based on GIS analyses of land tenure and forest change in 613 agrarian nucleos, or social properties, from 1980 to 2010. At the community scale, a sample of 43 agrarian nucleos in 12 municipios was selected to explore the potential correspondence between implementation of the PES program, the National Forest Comission (CONAFOR) prioritization scheme, deforested areas and extreme poverty. To assess the PES’ impact on raising social awareness about the environment and decreasing deforestation and to analyze the potential linkages between poverty, land tenure systems, and forest management a combined methodology including GIS analysis, participant observation, questionnaires and interviews with participants and stakeholders involved in the program at different levels were used. The research shows that poverty and the lack of certified property rights have not been the major triggers of deforestation as forest conservation policy-makers in the country have claimed. The analysis of forest coverage from 1980 to 2010 points to different factors leading to changes in deforestation rates. Although it is true that forest conversion into agricultural lands has been the leading cause of deforestation, it has been strongly promoted by government programs, especially during the first decade of study for valley forests (as opposed to mountain forests). In comparison, the last two decades showed a significant decrease in the deforestation rates, mainly because few remnants of forest remained in the valleys. The land reform of the 1990s altered deforestation rates differently according to which agrarian nucleos participated and how. From the 613 nucleos examined in the Huasteca Potosina region, the majority, 76 percent, certified their properties at the individual parcel level, 13 percent certified only the perimeter of their boundaries along with a few communal parcels like school plots, and the remainder either stayed uncertified or privatized some or all of their individual plots under dominio pleno (meaning full domain of the property). On the whole, forest coverage decreased by a little less than seven percent during the first decade of the certification process from 1990 to 2000; however, there were important variations depending on types of land tenure chosen. The nucleos with dominio pleno lost 24 percent of their forest, and nucleos that certified individual parcels saw a six percent decrease. Contrary to predictions, the uncertified nucleos and those that certified only the perimeter of their territories lost virtually no forest (two percent). Over the last decade deforestation rates have decreased, and nucleos that certified their perimeters, those that certified all individual parcels, and those remaining uncertified even saw increases in forest coverage by three percent, one percent, and less than one percent, respectively. Those with dominio pleno continued to experience deforestation by two percent. Still, when taking into consideration how land availability, population, and traditions have influenced deforestation before, during, and after the certification process, the results show that the certification program has had little impact in increasing or decreasing forest coverage over the decades. In regard to the Payments of Environmental Services (PES) program, intended to prevent deforestation on social properties, the economic impacts were low, as seen in the lack of land use diversification and forest under communal lands. A marked geographical variation can be seen, however, between the more successful northern mestizo area dominated by temperate forest, and the less successful southern indigenous areas dominated by shade-grown coffee in more tropical forests. Despite the different economic impacts, PES projects proved to be sustainable where community organization and land use traditions were stronger. | |
