Mexico: Zapotec community frees itself by protecting the forest
The forest is the treasure of the small community of Ixtlan de Juarez, on the grounds of the old Zapotec ethnicity, near Oaxaca in southeastern Mexico, where she helps to fight against both poverty and global warming.
This treasure, they have defended more than twenty years, against a state enterprise in which they disputed property.
Today they live, and while the UN conference on global warming is meeting in Cancun at the southeastern tip of the country, the federal government considers their management the forest as a model not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also poverty.
In a large sawmill on the edge of the forest of Oaxaca, men and women on treadmills install logs to be debited.
"Caring for the forest is a priority for our community because it is she who provides employment to most of us," said Julio Gomez Garcia, in charge of machinery.
The community of Ixtlan de Juarez is headed by a committee of 390 members which makes its decisions to manage six votes to companies related to woodworking, from transport to the cabinet, and operate small eco- hotels. The package provides 300 direct jobs and 2,000 others in an area of 5,000 inhabitants, and reduces dependence on public assistance, provided in the form of grants.
Thirty percent of the approximately $ 600,000 of annual profit is spent on forest protection, including protection against fire.
community reinvest a further 30% in the conduct of its business, and the remaining staff in the form of pensions and loans at preferential rates.
course, the timber industry involves the felling of trees, but the community control, as it organizes the planting of thousands of new shoots each year to maintain forest cover over an area of 20,000 hectares.
This community forest management would be more effective than any other initiative against deforestation, including the delineation of protected areas, international forestry experts say.
"Older trees do not produce more oxygen, no longer serve to sequester carbon, why it takes young people," said Chairman of the Committee of Ixtlan de Juarez, Pedro Perez Torres.
Carbon, it is found in furniture ...
Despite highly publicized programs of tree plantations, many do not survive, and a decline in deforestation over the past five years, Mexico still losing large parts of forests, a deficit which represents about 10% its emissions of greenhouse gas emissions.
Over 70% of Mexico's forests belong to local communities, but less than half are actually managed as here.
To be effective, such programs involve "property rights established, good management, transparency, and political skills training," said Ivan Zuniga, a Mexican Council for sustainable forestry.
These conditions are met in Ixtlan de Juarez, according to experts.
"This has already taken a long time, a lot of sacrifices and a lot of people, work of many people, "concludes Pedro Torres.
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