Towards Participatory Forestry Policy Planning in Mexico

Abstract

This article reviews the participation of forest property owners in the design of forestry policy in Mexico through a documentary review of the related legal framework and national and state planning documents. It found that national forestry sector planning involved greater participation by representatives of universities and research institutes, government and forestry producers associations. In 90.9 % of the state strategic forestry plans reviewed, the participation of owners and holders of forestry areas was reported, but neither the sampling method used nor the sampling frame were specified. Although Conafor has promoted strategies encouraging social capital from forestry communities in order to increase governance of natural resources (land use programs, Procymaf and REDD+), there is no evidence of these efforts being used as the basis for policy design in the forestry sector. These findings are used to argue that national forestry policy should be designed using a “bottom-up” approach in future years, for which a proposal for its implementation is presented.