Sustainable Forest Management Puebla, Mexico

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Sustainable Forest Management Puebla, Mexico
Sandra Rodriguez-Piñeros sandra.rodriguez_at_okstate.
edu
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La Preciosita Sangre de Cristo

• Founded 1840
• Location 39 miles due east of Mexico City and 33
  miles northwest of Puebla
• Altitude 7000 feet
• Population 200 families
• 850 individuals, but only 600 are resident
• Rest in the US
• Forest Owners (legal title holders) 100
  families (99 men, 1 woman)

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Satellite View of the Community
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View of Forest and Community
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Forest View from Hilltop
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Closer View
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Natural Pine Regeneration
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Story of the Sacred Tree

• 15th Century
• Wealthy Spanish landowner and Tlaxcalteca servant
  on horseback caught in sudden downpour and swept
  downstream in flash flood
• Servant prayed, Please, precious blood of
  Christ, save us
• Rivers current took them to an oak tree, which
  they grabbed and were saved saw image of Christ
  in the bark (oak tree still there)
• Hence, name of church, and later its surrounding
  settlement Precious Little Blood of Christ

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The Sacred Tree
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Church Entrance
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Church Altar with Bark with the Image of the
Crucifixion from the Sacred Tree
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Church View of the Altar
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Subsequent Miracle

• In 2007, a chronically ill girl (15 years old)
  while walking in the forest, heard a womans
  voice. When she turned in the direction of the
  voice, she saw the image of the Virgin Mary in
  the shadows. She miraculously recovered within a
  week of the vision. Since then, an altar was
  constructed on the site
• This confirms the importance of the forest and
  its trees to the community spiritual, aesthetic,
  some economic, community pride

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Community Ownership of Forest

• Priest inherited the forest from his father, a
  land baron
• He sold the forest (1038 acres) to the community
  for a very modest price in 1972
• Community looks on this transaction as a blessed
  gift from God
• Therefore, community is obliged to preserve the
  forest for posterity

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Local Forest Caretaker
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Committee Meeting to Discuss How to Build More
Efficient Stoves
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Committee Meeting to View Medicinal Herb Garden
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Forest Museum
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Forest Museum Wall
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Burned Truck Outside of Museum
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Current Plan A Harvesting Schedule

• Current plan written and adopted in 2006 by the
  SEMARNAT (Secretaria de Medio Ambiente y Recursos
  Naturales), Estado de Puebla
• This plan is essentially a tree-harvesting and
  replanting schedule, administered through a
  permitting system
• Plan does not consider harvesting non-timber
  products

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Harvested Pine Log
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Involvement of OSU

• Most community citizens opposed the forest
  management plan
• They approached Universidad Popular Autonoma del
  Estado de Puebla (UPAEP) for their help
• UPAEP, having no forestry program, asked
  OSU-DASNR to help under an existing MOU

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Sustainable Forest Management

• Stewardship and use of forests and forest lands
  in a way, and at a rate, that maintains their
  biodiversity, productivity, regeneration
  capacity, vitality, and potential to fulfill, now
  and in the future, relevant ecological, economic,
  and social functions at local, national, and
  global levels, and that does not cause damage to
  other ecosystems. - FAO (1996)

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How do you related to the forest?
Q-Method
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Q - Findings
Forest Conservation Many benefits (econ
spiritual), no timber harvesting and grazing,
community management
Community Development Maximize econ. (tourism
and timber), Provide jobs, commitment to protect
forest as an asset, professional management
Family Recreation Place for family recreation,
community Management, I am willing to help
Sustenance Many benefits mostly spiritual,
professional management
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Agreements - Dissagreements
Community Development
Conservation
Protection
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Plan for Tourism
Now?
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Criteria and Indicators of SFM

• To monitor progress toward SFM
• Green-certification
• International
• Temperate (CIFOR-NA)
• Tropical forest
• National
• Regional
• Local

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Knowledge and Deliberation
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Analysis Technical Education
Educated residents on ecological and economic
impacts of each alternative

• Q Plan (manage for community use and public
  tourism, with regulated timber removal and
  professional and community co-management)

Q Plan
Status quo
Current Plan
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Deliberation Process

• Group discussion about the 3 alternatives to
  explore potential for reaching an agreement
• Encouraged free discussion (objections welcomed)
• Deliberation ended when no further objections
  were raised and participants agreed to the
  summary of their discussion

The consensus alternative was the Q alternative,
with no small-business uses
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Q-Plan
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Lessons

• What do we value?
• Are these findings from Mexico replicable in
  other country?
• Why is important to include peoples values in
  resources management?
• Dr Chad Godsey (Haiti)
• Do we need to be listened? Why?
• Sustainability?

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Acknowledgments

• Dr. David K. Lewis
• Dr. Will Focht
• OSU - DASNR
• UPAEP and UPAEP Liaison office OSU
• Community of La Preciosita
• Dr. Diane Montgomery
• Dr. Art Stoecker
• Dr. Beth Caniglia
• Dr. Ed Miller
• Mr. Agustin Landa
• Rodolfo Lopez
• Talya Henderson
• Mr. James Esbenshade
• Forestry Department Colegio de Posgraduados,
  Texcoto
• Mrs. Carol Collins
• Mr. Jason Abercrombie
• Li Chi Lin Ph.D. Candidate
• Trecia Kippola Ph.D. Candidate
• Carolina Lara Visconti Ph.D. Candidate

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The Convenient Truth
I also wish that you plant a seed and watch its
growth, So you will know how many lives a tree
is made of. - Victor Hugo -