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CENTRAL AMERICA ACICAFOC, An On-going Proposal The Central American Community Agro-forestry Indigenous and Peasant Co-ordination Association, known as CICAFOC, operates in Central America --involving Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama-- and is a community-based social, non profit-making organisation, gathering organised associations, co-operatives, federations and community groups of small and medium sized agro-forestry producers, indigenous people and peasants. These groups are working to achieve access, use and management of natural resources, seeking community food security and economic sustainability in harmony with the environment. CICAFOC was formally established in June 1994, as a result of a series of efforts, meetings and exchange among the different community experiences in the region that are working towards natural resource management. As a process, it has its own initiatives, experience, a vision placed on self-sufficiency, clear principles of transparency and trust, promoting tools making natural resource use and management possible. Among its strategic objectives is the strengthening of technical capacity and local knowledge of natural resource management, the identification of the capacity of socio-productive experience with a view to making a better use of forests as a local development alternative to enhance their living conditions. The opening up of political fora at a local, national and regional level has strengthened this process in construction and the experience of the indigenous and peasant communities has achieved an enhancement of the context for negotiations with local, national and regional governments. A good methodology has been to share experience among organisations. This horizontal exchange has made it possible to transmit lessons and techniques learnt to improve the process. It has also helped to understand that CICAFOC is an organisation promoting local processes that does not represent the groups and does not attempt to substitute them. Its input is to facilitate fora for negotiation with Universities, co-operation bodies, governments and NGOs, and to seek orchestration and dialogue among the parties. CICAFOC has launched a new style of impact in the Central American region because it seeks technical and financial support that the groups can access. It is an organisation with socio-productive proposals aimed at strengthening local groups and already has 1:036,670 families involved in the project. With regard to forest use and management, it should be noted that out of a total of 18 million hectares of forest cover in the Central American region, peasant and indigenous communities participating in the process manage 2:602,425 hectares --375,749 in agro-forestry systems. Thus, the percentage of forest cover in the region in the hands of CICAFOC member groups is 14,5 %, reflecting an encouraging situation at a time when increasingly, communities all over the world are struggling to recover access to and management of natural resources, once their source of life and now taken away from them by the successive central powers. Based on numerous experiences of peasant, indigenous and Afro-descendants working towards the development of socio-productive proposals strengthening Central American biodiversity, CICAFOC emphasises the need for recognition of the existence of a Community Eco-Development Corridor (Corredor de Ecodesarrollo Comunitario - CEM), as an on-going proposal which is also a community regional development strategy. CEM is framed in a modern concept of forest conservation based on appropriate use and management of natural resources by the communities depending on them. Experience has shown that this approach is much more effective than demarking protected areas and excluding the local populations. On the contrary, for CEM, the involvement of local populations in resource management and use is precisely what ensures their long-term sustainability, while improving the peoples' living conditions. By Alberto Chinchilla, Regional Resource Person, Central American Community Agroforestry Indigenous and Peasant Coordination Association (Asociación Coordinadora Indígena y Campesina de Agroforestería Comunitaria Centroamericana - ACICAFOC), e-mail: oficinaregional@acicafoc.org , web page: http://www.acicafoc.org Source: WRM's bulletin Nº 63, October 2002. Communities take care of forests The communal forest of Totonicapan is located at an altitude of about 3,000 metres a.s.l at the mountain chain Sierra Madre del Sur in western Guatemala. The lowest side of the mountains used to be covered by native oak tree forests. Nowadays they have been substituted by pine trees. However, in the highest parts there still exist thick forests of white pine (Pinus ayacahuite) and fir (Abies guatemalensis) accompanied by a great variety of tropical forest species resistant to the cold. It is the indigenous community of Quiches that has conserved the forest since ancestral times. Facing the increasing destruction of woodlands started in the 70's, the Quiches reorganized themselves and in 1990 created an organization called "UleuChe'Ja'", that in their language means "Land, Water and Forest". This democratically managed organization of the indigenous people of Totonicapan has developed a traditional system of use and conservation of the forest, based upon communal property of natural resources. The scarcity of water is a major environmental constraint for their livelihood there. So the role of the forest in the conservation of hydrological recources is of vital importance. The sustainable use of natural resources practised by the Quiches, that obtain from the forest firewood, plants for alimentary and medicinal uses and bushmeat, has permitted them to live in the harsh environment of the high mountain. Their region is one of the most populated -with about 300 inhabitants per km2- while at the same time on of the most rich in biodiversity in the whole country. Meanwhile, the surrounding areas are suffering an accelarated process of loss of native forests and desertification. The Quiches' organization and their relationship with the forest has made the difference. Source: WRM's bulletin Nº 9, February 1998
A new type of forest conservation initiative is being implemented in Guatemala since 1995. According to its promoters, it attempts to couple community-based sustainable development with the protection of the Petén forests in the multiple use zone of the Maya Biosphere Reserve, the largest protected area in Central America. The government has recently granted five community organizations --formed mostly by subsistence farmers-- permission to log trees in their neighbouring forests over the next 25 years. The process is being monitored to see how effective these locally managed forest concessions will be, both in curbing deforestation and in providing cash to local residents. The Costa Rica based Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), the Guatemala's Park Agency, (CONAP), two national NGOs ("Naturaleza para la Vida" - Nature for Life and "Propetén") and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are supporting these concessions in the area. From the official viewpoint, the increase of the population in the Petén area is the main factor for forest degradation and destruction. The government argues that the population of Petén --which nowadays is composed of some 90,000 inhabitants-- is expanding at a high rate, and that since 1986 settlers have deforested nearly 10 percent of the reserve area. The rationale of the initiative is that communities with concessions which have a contract with the state will prevent other people from settling in the area or convert the forest to other uses, and at the same time obtain economic benefits from forest exploitation. Communities that do not adhere to their contracts would lose their concessions. Nevertheless, such view ignores the influence of other activities provoking the degradation of the reserve, as for example oil concessions granted by the government itself and illegal logging which has affected especially cedar (Cedrela odorata) and mahogany (Swietenia macrophilla). Additionally, the above referred concessions are focused on timber production, ignoring that forests are not only a source of wood for local communities, which find many uses from the non-timber forest products provided by the forest. As a result, granting of concessions has focused exclusively on timber production. For example, the community of Uaxactún found it difficult to get a concession, since its plans did not include logging but the exploitation of non-timber products. Some communities which derived their livelihoods from the use of different forest products, mainly "xate" (Chamaedorea spp.) and "chicle" (Manilkara achras) are increasingly devoting themselves to log extraction, which has created internal conflicts between those who want to maintain their traditional lifestyle and those who prefer logging. The concept of "sustainable forest use" is also under question because social and environmental impacts of logging have not been taken into account, and it is doubtful that in all cases a monetary gain will be obtained. There are also allegations that the activities of the accompanying NGOs have not benefitted the communities and are said to have focused on perpetuating themselves. At least one of them has been questioned for trying to interfere in the internal organization of peasant communities, while its activities should be limited to help them during the process of community forest management. All the above has led to different opinions regarding this approach, which will need to be thoroughly analysed before moving forward. Local communities --and not external actors-- should be the real beneficiaries and non-wood products should be given priority over timber production in order to ensure the sustainable use of the forest and the well-being of the local population. Source: WRM's bulletin Nº 40, November 2000 Reforestation as Part of Community-Based Farm Planning in Rio San Juan The Department of Rio San Juan is located near the southern frontier of Nicaragua, bordering Costa Rica, and the municipality of El Castillo is on the river between the Lake of Nicaragua and the Caribbean. During the eighties, the United States attacked us with a low intensity war that eroded the economy and uprooted Nicaraguan families. At the end of the war, during the nineties, twelve thousand people from Costa Rica and other parts of the country, immigrated to the Municipality. This mass migration made it even more necessary to adequately plan management of the scant community resources: its population and its forests. A project was implemented to improve the population's conditions and quality of life, providing them with elements and instruments to enhance their living space, establishing the bases for sustainable development and consolidating their settlement in the zone. This was necessary because the two major projects already existing in the region, the oil palm and the medicinal plant Cephaelis ipecacuanha, were no longer economically viable due to the speculative drop in international prices for these products. Logging in the zone is a lucrative activity for the large companies, but not for the peasants, who own the forest. Over the past decade, deforestation has approached 70% of the forest area, causing significant changes in the microclimate, water courses and ecosystems. The suitability of the land for forestation has led to the alternatives of planting trees for water protection and the introduction of fruit tree species. We decided to work with 250 farms, in a participatory process, considering that the environment is composed of human beings and the rest of the environment. To consider that the environment does not include human beings is a non-scientific absurdity. Participatory farm planning took place between the farm inhabitants and the resource people (forestry and agricultural/livestock technicians) under the supervision of a woman, in order to strengthen the almost absent gender component. Using seven steps, they defined the farm of today, the potential farm and the dream farm. This planning made it possible to define the area presently occupied by the forest for its management, the area devoted to agriculture, the area for grazing land and the river-banks having a potential for reforestation. During the first year, 30 nurseries were established, using seeds gathered locally. This generated income and economic interest in the forest, both in gathering and as a local store of selected biodiversity and its redistribution in the region. From the start, great interest was shown by the population in planting fruit trees (1). This seemed reasonable and ensured the care of the trees as these have a known use and are of real direct benefit to the producer. As mentioned earlier on, logging in Rio San Juan has essentially benefited the logging companies, as it is hard for the population to obtain logging permits, even in their own farms. The result has been reforestation of 132 has with native wood species and 626 has with fruit trees. The conjunction of protected spaces by the peasants also made it possible to set up small collective reserves which, although remaining the property of individual peasants, on bordering the outer limits of the farms, de facto became micro reserves (50 to 200 hectares that are not used for livestock, agriculture or forestry activities, due to difficulty in accessing them). A geographical information system was designed and set up, in order to systematise data from the farms. It has not been possible to consolidate this information because the project only lasted two years and there was no funding to ensure its continuity. More than 700 hectares were planted and large amounts of fruit will be produced. Plans have to be made for the 30 thousand tons of fruit that will be available in the municipality in three years time. The participatory process led to priorities being established by the population and made it possible to reforest and protect 363 sources of water in addition to the drinking water sources in the settlements of Buena Vista, El Castillo and Laureano Mairena. The school areas in Buena Vista, Marcelo, Marlon Zelaya and Sábalos were also reforested. One of the problems that arose is that, in spite of having land available for reforestation, the population had its doubts about planting trees and carrying out forest management, as they are sure it will be the logging companies that will benefit from this task. The clearest proof is that 80% of the plants requested by the population were fruit trees, which they can use without interference from external interests. International processes such as debt swapping for forests or exchange of carbon sinks have been mentioned by officials from the capital city to the local population, but they have their doubts on the validity of these proposals. If, on the one hand, there were no regulations hindering use of timber by the population that owns the land and, on the other real incentives were given to the producers to plant trees for timber, perhaps a change would be possible. So far, what has happened is that, for example, the Austrian government supports the region in the operation of a saw mill with a view to increase plantation of trees for timber, but when they log they only pay a symbolic US$ 25 per tree to the owner of the farm. Summing up, reforestation has a potential for participatory processes of social environmental enhancement, both due to its short term effects and due to the results we can expect in the long term for conservation and sustainable forest use, although real incentives need to be generated for the peasants, sharing benefits as required by the Biological Diversity Convention. (1) List of fruit tree species used: Avocado, Mango, Orange, Mandarin, Lemon, Lime, Coffee Shrub, Pear, Cacao, Peach Palm, Papaya, Cachimant, Coconut, Banana By Daniel Querol, e-mail: gme@tmx.com.ni Source: WRM's bulletin Nº 63, October 2002. The experience of Apaquiset in community-based resource management Bordering with the Republic of Colombia, the Province of Darien is located at the extreme East of the Republic of Panama and is one of the areas in the Central American Isthmus with the greatest biodiversity. However, at present it is undergoing resource destruction at a fast pace. The region is inhabited by peoples of four ethnic groups: Afro-Colombians, Embera-Wounan indigenous people, Darienite peasants and settlers from other regions of the country --landless peasants seeking to improve their living conditions. The Chepigana Forest Reserve, established in 1960, is located in the Southeastern part of the Province of Darien, within the districts of Chepigana and Cemaco (Embera-Wounan Region). It covers an area of approximately 316,840 hectares, with a forest extension of some 75,000 hectares and is considered a major source of forest resources, medicinal plants, water resources, fauna and flora. It also plays an important role in protecting species of fauna and flora in danger of extinction. In 1994, the law authorising the government to carry out a new demarcation was promulgated. This demarcation was to exclude the land devoted to agriculture and livestock exploitation. In 1996 the Association of Agro-Forestry Producers of Quintin and Seteganti --Apaquiset-- was created by small producers from these communities. One of its main objectives at the time was to achieve a new demarcation of the Forest Reserve, excluding the lands devoted to agriculture and stock-raising where their members live, and to develop activities aimed at reconciling the need to produce with that of managing and preserving, seeking new production alternatives for their lands. Apaquiset promoted
sustainable production practices among its members, endeavouring that
traditional agriculture and stock-raising be done in such a way as to
cause the least damage possible to the natural resources of the Reserve.
The Association developed a series of information and advisory activities
in the communities involved, with the aim of giving a clear idea of
the action to be undertaken to all the people concerned, promoting the
creation of a Joint Commission that would include the institutional
representatives involved, political authorities and representatives
of organised groups and two members of Apaquiset. All this was done
to achieve an active participation in the new demarcation of the Forest
Reserve in which they live. As a result of the local process, presently steps are being taken towards the establishment of an organisation that will gather Apaquiset and members of all the groups and communities living in the hinterland of the Chepigana Forest Reserve. This will make it possible to set up a broad organisational structure --representing all the communities-- to have access to community resources affected by the establishment of the Reserve and to strengthen their negotiating abilities in seeking real mechanisms for co-management of the natural resources it contains. On starting this process, various challenges arose: the scant training in technical and political issues regarding co-management and the responsible government bodies' lack of clarity regarding a future vision of the protected area intended for co-management; the identification of forest management experiences and development of productive activities in the hands of peasant groups to exchange with the Apaquiset members; the investment of time, energy and money to generate the basic conditions to enable people to see the benefits of a forest management system in forest areas outside their farms devoted to agriculture; the investment in an awareness, information and training process to empower the group, enabling it to implement and propose other possibilities of work and management; the identification and implementation of concrete mechanisms, in common agreement with other local groups involved and with the relevant government authorities; the conservation of water sources and work in reforestation, grassland management and better agricultural practices, making adequate use of the resources without depleting them. The members of Apaquiset
consider that there is a lot to be learnt from their experience and
especially from "doing" as they have done. The "source"
where decisions are taken, should always be sought, and it must be approached
to convince it to take decisions that the group considers to be advisable
and that favour it. Patience and tenacity is required to share information
with all those involved, creating conditions of confidence that make
it possible to have access --through basic agreements with the various
inhabitants and resource users-- to the responsible national authorities
and to attempt influencing them in their decision making. By: Silvia Chaves, Cedarena, e-mail: peysil@racsa.co.cr . The full report (in Spanish) can be read at: http://www.wrm.org.uy/paises/Panama/articulo2.html Source: WRM's bulletin Nº 64, November 2002. |
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