Payments for Carbon Sequestration in the Voluntary Market in Mexico: Diversity and Complexity of Implementation in Chiapas and Oaxaca

Abstract

The forestry projects registered in the Mexican voluntary carbon market are instruments based on the commodification of ecosystem services and the sale of carbon credits with prices set on the market. This paper analyzes the governance features of these projects through two case studies in the country, seeking to understand the conceptual bases and institutional framework through which they operate. The analysis is based on a bibliographic review of market-based instruments and fieldwork in communities where the forestry projects operate. The results show that forestry projects in the Mexican voluntary carbon market constitute an environmental governance scheme emancipated from the state, including the agreement between various stakeholders, with sharp differences in the functioning structures established in the contracts. The study found that the type of land ownership is a potential source of conflict in the implementation of this type of projects, which also depend on the capacity for cooperation in the communities where they are undertaken. Such projects incorporate local initiatives to solve a problem on a global scale through the democratization of environmental management. However, their neoliberal basis means these projects are driven by the market and that paradoxically, a solution mechanism is sought in the same monetary language that caused the environmental crisis.