CIPEC - Center for the Study of Insitutions, Population, and Environmental Change
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Guatemala


Guatemala's Tropical Dry Forests

CIPEC has established a half dozen study areas in eastern Guatemala's tropical dry forests. Working with the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) and the Universidad del Valle, CIPEC researchers have investigated how communities build institutions to manage their resources, and how formal property systems affect forest condition. Results suggest that some communities have managed their communal forests well, while others have not. CIPEC researchers have found that: 1) individuals will not construct institutions to regulate their forests unless they perceive a scarcity, and 2) the type of property regime (i.e., whether private or communal), does not matter, but enforcement of institutional rules is a critical factor in whether or not forests thrive.
C. Gibson
The beautiful views from the Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve belie the difficult life of the people who live in its buffer zone

CIPEC will continue the study of forests and communities in this area with special regard to the formal and informal property rights held by communities and individuals, and the increasing role played by cultivation of coffee in decisions about land use.

C. Gibson
Coffee and corn fields in Tizamarté
CIPEC has also carried out a survey of mayors to determine their roles in the management of forest resources. Because some authority over forests were decentralized to the municipal level in the 1990s in Guatemala, mayors emerge as important actors in the area of forest management. The survey aimed to have mayors situate their activity in the forest sector with other priorities, as well as trying to get mayors to gauge citizens' and NGO preferences. The survey results will be tied to remotely sensed images to see the impact of the decentralized laws. (The remote sensing component has been undertaken jointly with Universidad Del Valle in Guatemala.)

 

Related CIPEC Publication
Gibson, C. Forthcoming. Dependence, Scarcity, and the Governance of Forest Resources at the Local Level in Guatemala. In J. Burger et al., eds. The Commons Revisited. Island Press.


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Last Updated: May 11, 2005
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