Turning Scientific Approaches into Practical Conservation Actions: The Case of Comunidad Indigena de Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro, Mexico

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DOI: 10.1007/s002670010177

Turning Scientific Approaches into Practical Conservation Actions: The Case of Comunidad Indigena de Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro, Mexico ALEJANDRO VELÁZQUEZ* GERARDO BOCCO ALEJANDRO TORRES Instituto de Geografia, UNAM Circuito Exterior, Ciudad Universitaria 04510, Coyoacán, México D.F., Mexico Instituto de Ecología, UNAM Campus Morelia AP 27, Sucursal 3, Xangari 58089 Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico ABSTRACT / Optimum natural resource management and biodiversity conservation are desirable goals. These, however, often exclude each other, since maximum economic benefits have promoted drastic reductions in biodiversity throughout the world. This dilemma confronts local stakeholders, who usually go for maximizing economic inputs, whereas other social (e.g., academic) sectors are favor conservation practices. In this paper we describe the way two scientific ap-

The accelerated environmental disturbance throughout the world is outpacing any scientific conservation approach and is reflected in unique massive extinction processes (Myers 1993). The most common alternative, protected areas, most of them considered ‘paper parks,’ may not guarantee survival of the largest biodiversity stock (Hansen and others 1991, Hockings 1998). Under this view, rapid, innovative and efficient approaches need to be tested in order to reduce the distance between current environmental deterioration and tangible conservation actions (Yunlong and Smit 1993). Nowadays it is widely accepted that biodiversity conservation has to be included in natural resource management plans (Hilborn and Ludwig 1993). In developed countries, this may not be crucial since their economy relies upon technologic findings (Spellerberg KEY WORDS: Sustainability; Conservation; Landscape; Participatory research; Indigenous communities; Mexico *Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; email: [email protected]

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proaches—landscape and participatory research—were used to develop sound and durable land use scenarios. These two approaches included expert knowledge of both social and environmental conditions in indigenous communities. Our major emphasis was given to detect spatially explicit land use scenarios and capacity building in order to construct a decision support system operated by stakeholders of the Comunidad Indigena de Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro in Mexico. The system for decision-making was fed with data from inventories of both abiotic and biotic biodiversity components. All research, implementation, and monitoring activities were conducted in close collaboration with members of the indigenous community. As a major result we obtained a number of forest alternative uses that favor emerging markets and make this indigenous community less dependent on a single market. Furthermore, skilled members of the community are now running the automated system for decision-making. In conclusion, our results were better expressed as products with direct benefits in local livelihoods rather than pure academic outputs.

1996). In developing countries, in contrast, where most biodiversity occurs, quick and efficient compromises between maximum profit and minimum environmental disturbance are crucial (Velázquez and Romero 1999). Recently, integrative rather than reductionistic approaches have been recommended to convert scientific findings into practical conservation actions (May 1994, Porritt 1994). Furthermore, economic as well as social aspects have proved to be equally relevant to achieve palpable results on biodiversity conservation (Faeth 1993, Daily and others 1996, Constanza and others 1997). Thus, shortcuts linking scientific contributions and decision-making to conservation have become a major research challenge (Levin 1993, Zhu and others 1998). This is especially important in countries where most biodiversity occurs, such as Mexico. Here, over 10% of global biodiversity is distributed in areas managed by peasants and indigenous communities (Ramamoorthy and others 1998, Challenger 1998). To illustrate this, 80% of both temperate and tropical current remnant forest are under social land tenure properties (Thoms and Betters 1998). Stakeholders, in fact, ©

2001 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

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Social Background

Figure 1. Location of the study area. The Comunidad Indígena de Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro is in Michoacán State in central Mexico.

may become allies or enemies of any biodiversity conservation action, so their direct participation is fundamental to ensure the survival of most biodiversity components (Carabias and others 1994, Panda 1999). The present paper describes how landscape and participatory research approaches have been implemented to favor diversified uses of natural resource in Mexican indigenous communities. Major emphasis is given to document the importance of spatially explicit scenarios of multiple land uses and conservation of biodiversity.

Study Area The study was conducted in close collaboration with the Comunidad Indigena de Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro (CINSJP). This Purepecha community is located in about 15 km west of Uruapan City in the state of Michoacan in Central Mexico (Figure 1). A temperate climate prevails, soils are of recent volcanic origin, and altitudes range from 1800 to 3000 m asl. The CINSJP is 190 km2, of which 30% are covered with ask from Paricutin Volcano (Bocco and others 1998). The major economic activity is the community’s forestry enterprise, although about 20% of the territory is still used for traditional agricultural practices.

The CINSJP comprises about 1300 comuneros (community members) and their families. These community members either work in permanent or temporary jobs in all timbering activities conducted in the community enterprise (Alvarez-Icaza 1993). Thus, over 8000 people depend financially on this forestry enterprise. Until 1993, the CINSJP harvested approx. 100,000 m3 of timber per year; this yielded about US$500,000 a year (1993 dollars), from sale of products in national and international markets. Hence, the CINSJP has been considered as a successful model of community enterprise for timbering activities (Alvarez-Icaza 1993). After 1994, when Mexico, Canada, and United States of America signed the NAFTA agreement, the markets for timber Mexican products were negatively affected; the yearly income of the CINSJP was reduced in 25% (personal communication of community managers). Therefore, the leaders of the community considered the need to generate new marketable products through alternative activities. Academic institutions were consequently invited to explore new financially and ecologically sound approaches for natural resource management.

Methods Landscape and Participatory Research Approaches Landscape evaluation systems (sensu FAO; see Rossiter 1990) permitted us to explore, the extent to which maximum production and sound biodiversity conservation could be conducted simultaneously. This approach, furthermore, generates spatially explicit land use scenarios that allowed comparisons between social demand and environmental suitability (Naveh and Lieberman 1993, Bocco and others 1998). Land use scenarios requested by the CINSJP demanded that all information should be spatially linked to landscape units. To achieve this, a geographic information system (GIS) was used so that automated land evaluation, monitoring, and analysis was geographically conducted (Rossiter 1990, Zhu and others 1998). Participatory research was fundamental within the frame of the research activities for two reasons: (1) to ensure that methods and products were understood and accepted by community members in the long term (Nassauer 1995), and (2) to favor capacity building in community leaders so that skilled people may help in decision making (Ludwig and others 1993, Hilborn and Ludwig 1993, Panda 1999). Since this research process of teaching/learning is a two-way model (comuneroresearcher), adaptive management was conducted

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throughout all research activities in order to field verify, monitor, and calibrate the land use alternatives formulated (Mangel and others 1996). Technical workshops and courses were needed to fulfill capacity building in the CINSJP. The community appointed 14 comuneros as active, full-time trainees to follow workshops in landscape ecology, mapping, soil surveying, wildlife management, and GIS. Other nonproductive sectors within the community were also involved, namely elderly people, women, and children. The workshops conducted with these groups aimed at including different ways of participating within the community’s enterprise, as well as promoting long-term conservation concern in the active comuneros via their closer relatives. Efficient decision-making relies upon appropriate communication links (Castillo 1999, 2000). To cope with that, a strategy of output transference was pursued. This consisted of informing at three targeted levels of decision-makers, namely a community council (comprised of elderly and former enterprise managers), a current enterprise manager, and a technical department (responsible for all productive land use practices). The first group transmitted tangible results to the general assembly (the most important level of decision making), whereas the enterprise manager and the technical department were in charge of implementing all alternatives practices derived from the ‘comunero-researcher’ group. Conducting the Research A broad landscape unit was defined using spectral classification of a Landsat TM image. We thus identified major homogeneous strata to formulate a sampling design strategy (location, number, and intensity of sampling units) to characterize landscape units, such as lava flows, foot-slopes, volcanic plains, etc. (see Results). Geomorphologic surveying and mapping was carried out using panchromatic, black and white aerial photo interpretation and terrain analysis at approximately 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 photo scales. Landform mapping was based on the discrimination of volcanic structures according to their age following tone, texture, pattern, lithology, drainage pattern, and literature information on age of lava flows. A digital elevation model was created by interpolating 20-m-interval contour lines digitized from a 1:50,000 topographic map. A slope gradient map was then derived from the digital elevation model. The geomorphologic map was digitized and geometrically corrected into a GIS database (Bocco and others 1998). Using standard techniques (soil profile description), soil surveying was conducted in each terrain unit to

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thoroughly delineate geopedologic units (Siebe and others 1996). Over 150 sites were surveyed so that all geopedologic units were proportionally sampled. All field information was incorporated into a database and later used to direct vegetation, bird, and terrestrial mammal inventories. These three groups included most species with great potential use for economic purposes as well as likely bioindicators of sustainability (Scott and others 1998, Breninger and others 1998). Vascular Plant Inventories Three sequential steps were followed to achieve complete integration of the vegetation component into landscape units. First, three years of continuous botanical sampling were carried out, collecting over 2000 exemplars eventually identified at species level (Medina and Guevara 2000). Second, 135 relevés were surveyed, estimating coverage values of all species and layers (sensu Velázquez 1993). The third step regarded classification and ordination analyses of vegetation data in order to link vegetation clusters (plant communities) to land cover classes previously obtained from spectral classification. All vegetation data were eventually linked to landscape units in order to delineate final boundaries This was done by joining both geopedologic and land cover class maps. A thorough description of all plant communities and vegetation dynamics is given elsewhere (Velázquez and others 2000). Bird and Terrestrial Mammal Inventories Line transects crossing most different landscape units were established. Along these, 250 sites were visited four times in a one-year period, recording all birds by sightings and vocalisations (Hutto and others 1986). Bird records were conducted from daybreak until 10:30 hr. Medium-size and small mammals were inventoried at eight 1-ha permanent plots allocated in all major terrain units. Live traps were placed 10 m apart from one another in the case of Sherman type traps, and 25 m in the case of Tomahawk type traps. Trapping was done for three consecutive nights and four times in a one-year period. Each individual captured was identified at species level; detailed inspection on reproductive status and general condition was recorded. Birds and mammals needed for identification or for further research were taken to the collections of Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas Hidalgo. Large mammals were recorded using footprints, feces, and other indirect methods (Sutherland 1996), which included 120-km walking transects along roads. Complementary night spotting with the aid of local hunters was made for as complete a terrestrial mammal inventory as pos-

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sible. All data were linked to landscape units by means of ordination techniques (Velázquez and Heil 1996). Forestry Inventory A detailed forest inventory was crucial for the CINSJP. To accomplish that, homogeneous forest stands were detected from aerial photographs (scale 1:25,000). At each stand a sampling site was surveyed measuring five variables of major tree species (dbh, age, height, density, and treelings) and 10 environmental attributes (e.g., location, altitude, slope gradient and aspect, soil depth, and other). In total, 4000 sampling sites were surveyed so that final forest stands were detected after cluster analysis (Ter Braak 1986) was performed. Each forest stand was assigned to a landscape unit for further land use scenario building. Building Landscape Scenarios All data were allocated into a database that included geographic location of the information. The landscape units were used as geographic entities to represent spatially all inventory data. These landscape units, in turn, might become land use management geographic entities (Zhu and others 1998). The spatial modeling was conducted with the aid of a GIS (ILWIS 1997). First, landscape units were digitized into the GIS. Then, all data from bird, mammal, and forest inventories were incorporated into the GIS. The first scenario, which describes the present situation, was elaborated by displaying thematic information. Secondly, integrated data were used to assign to each landscape unit a number of alternative land uses. This was performed on basis of a land suitability analysis or land evaluation system (Rossiter 1990), contrasting social demands versus land aptitudes. From this confrontation, alternative potential land uses were selected for decision-making (Bocco and others 1998). Finally, sound long-term conservation land uses were strongly recommended to the community technical staff.

tures, whereas the northern part comprises subhumid temperate forest types with cool to cold temperatures. The northern area is mainly devoted to forestry and a few patches to avocado and peach orchard plantations. Livestock production is scanty throughout the whole area (Bocco and others 1998). The prevailing soil types in the area are mollic Andosols, vitre-eutric Regosols, litic-vitri Leptosols and vitri-eutric Fluvisols. The final result of terrain and soil data was integrated into geopedologic units that were later spatially represented in a map. These were further converted into landscape units by adding vegetation information, and a land quality classification map was made based upon land use management (Figure 2). A total of nine plant communities were distinguished in the area. Three are the result of primary succession processes taking place on recent lava flows of Paricutin Volcano. Short grass-dominated chamephytic types are characteristic of these three communities (Figure 3). The rest of the communities are under continuous management so that secondary succession processes prevail. These communities are tree-dominated phanerophytes, hemicryptophytes, and therophytes (sensu Raunkiaer 1937). In spite of continuous forest management, over 90% of the expected species were found. From the inventory, key species were detected; this included nurite tea (Satureja macrosterma), gordolobo tea (Enaphalium oxyphyllum), among 56 other species (Figure 4). These key species represent large economic value either as species or as habitat. For instance, nurite tea is highly valued in current markets, and its being favored by community members for harvesting (Medina and Guevara 2000). Plant communities, in turn, were linked to geopedologic units by means of ordination techniques (Fregoso 2000). These nine communities were also clumped into six land cover classes as obtained from spectral classification, hence final vegetation units were delineated. Crossing geopedologic and vegetation unit maps spatially denoted final landscape units. This process was carried out with the aid of the GIS.

Results and Discussion Bird and Mammals Landscape Unit Definition In total, seven major terrain units were recognized within the study area, namely: monogenetic volcanic cones, andesistic lava flows, andesistic– basaltic lava flows, andesistic– basaltic lava flows of the Paricutin volcano, footslopes of Tancitaro stratovolcano, accumulation plains, and erosional valleys (Bocco and others, 1998). The southern part of the CINSJP includes humid temperate forest types and permanent agricultural fields. These areas also have mild to warm tempera-

The species richness of these two groups was less than expected (Figure 5). Over 15% of resident bird species were not detected in our inventory. A large number of birds that perch in shrubs and bushes were not recorded, perhaps due to forest management that includes mowing and branch cutting to favor tree growth (Sosa 1996). Terrestrial mammals also were found in substantially lower numbers of species and abundance than expected (Lobato 1999). This scanty species richness of vertebrates is the result of two fac-

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Figure 2. Landscape map of the CINSJP describing forest quality attributes per land unit. Terrain, soil, and vegetation attributes were needed to depict these units, which explained most soil, nutrient, and vegetation dynamic processes. Very high quality: Recent (⬍10,000 years) basaltic and basalticandesitic gently sloping (⬍15% gradient) lava flows. Deep (⬎1 m) soil depth, without apparent erosion processes. Communities of Abies–Trisetum and Pinus–Piptochaetium. High quality: Recent (⬍10,000 years) basaltic and basaltic-andesitic sloping (⬎15 to ⬍40% radient) lava flows. Relatively deep (⬎0.75 m) soil depth, with negligible erosion processes. Communities of Pinus–Piptochaetium and Festuca–Quercus. Medium quality:

Relatively recent (⬎10,000 to ⬍ 50,000 years) andesitic sloping (⬎15 to ⬍40% gradient) lava flows. Relatively shallow (⬎0.5 to ⬍0.75 m) soil depth, with ongoing (splash and interrill) erosion processes. Communities of Gnaphalium–Pinus and Aegopogon–Gnaphalium. Unforested areas: (a) Paricutin lava flows (55 years old). Communities of Gaulteria– Gnaphalium, Buddleia–Coriaria, and Elaphoglossum–Phlebodium. (b) Relatively recent (⬎10,000 ⬍ 50,000 years) andesitic rolling (⬎40 % gradient) lava flows. Shallow (⬍0.5 m) soil depth, with ongoing (splash, interrill, rill, and locally gullying) erosion processes. Community of Baccharis–Eupatorium.

tors. First, refaunation processes after volcanic events, such as the one at Paricutin, seems to take longer than repopulation with plant species; second, permanent forest management negatively influences reproduction and dynamics of most vertebrates (Torres 1999). These groups, nonetheless, represent an important economic input for the CINSJP. In total 26 birds and 12 mammals were detected as key (Figure 5). Specific reproduction programs were started in order to reestablish population densities of these key species and for further harvesting. Community members understand the role of bird and mammals in seed dispersal, polli-

nation, and pest control. For example, we showed them that some of the current problems with a large abundance of coyotes (Canis latrans) and squirrels (Sciurus aureogaster), and therefore great avocado, small mammals, seed and pines sapling consumption are due to continuous hunting of large carnivores (birds and mammals). In other words, natural biological populations to some extent control landscape dynamics (Velázquez and Romero 1999). Currently, the CINSJP is conducting reproduction programs with the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), and the wild hen (Dendrortyx macroura). Furthermore, con-

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Figure 3. Dendrogram showing all plant communities present in the study area. Plant communities were named after dominant genera. A clear division between those plant

communities experiencing primary and secondary succession development trends was clearly found (Modified from Velázquez and others 2000).

servation programs are being made to protect the habitat of the endemic gopher (Zygogeomis merriami) and other species restricted in distribution to this region (e.g., Sylvilagus cunicularius). The white-tailed deer reproduction program has surpassed our forecasts (Figure 6). This has promoted a high level of environmental consciousness within community members and favors ecotourism as a new economic alternative. At CINSJP a large wildlife utilization scheme promoted by the federal government is underway. Community members consider ecotourism, reproduction, hunting, and reintroduction programs in this new way of using wildlife forest products. Other species formerly considered as a problem are now being taken as sustainable management indicators. This is the case of the coyote, with populations being monitored yearly (Monroy and Vázquez 1999).

Ecotourism is perhaps the most promising economic activity to reach a trade off between forest management and conservation. So far, the CINSJP has invested over US$100,000 into facilities for this activity. It is expected to hold over 2500 visitors a year; on the basis of current activities, the daily expenditure per visitor has been calculated at $40, resulting in a potential annual revenue of $100,000. Furthermore, this activity implied 20 new permanent jobs for community members (Figure 7). Forest Management Timber utilization still remains the most important economic input for the community. In our research, we guarantee harvest of 100,000 m3 of timber yearly; this, however, is conducted under a planned land use scheme in order to favor conservation of biodiversity

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Figure 4. Total number of families, genera, species, and key taxa of vascular plants recorded during our study. The area still harbors a large percentage of the original plant taxa and about 10% of the total species were considered as potential economic inputs. Former forestry activities included Ca. 2% of the total species only (Modified from Medina and Guevara, 2000).

Figure 5. Total number of families, genera, species, and key taxa of birds and mammals recorded during our study. This group of vertebrates included in the landscape perspective represents promising economic alternatives for CINSJP. This, in addition, implies serious and long-term conservation practices to conduct integrative natural resource uses.

too. This was possible through the GIS system operating in the technical department of the CINSJP. Forest stands and landscape units are compared frequently in order to evaluate suitability (Kolosvary and Corbley 1998). In fact, data from both geographic entities permitted an optimum wood harvesting strategy. Certain areas suitable for forest production, however, are being used for traditional cropping activities (Thoms and Betters 1998). These areas are used by comuneros for traditional milpa, production (corn, pumpkin, bean, and pepper). Corn is cropped using environmentally

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Figure 6. Comparison of expected and observed density values of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) for the reproduction program conducted in CINSJP. The results surpassed substantially our forecast in the last two years. A diversified use of this species is already taking place. Among these, ecotourism, reintroduction, hunting, and meat harvesting are already implemented.

friendly techniques, such as green manure and soil conservation techniques (Bocco 1991). Three long-term studies of key species are being conducted in order to calibrate current forest uses and conservation practices and to actually adapt resource management (Mangel and others 1996). These tasks are extremely important since forest yield, for instance, has never been measured, so actual timber harvest may be more or less than estimated (Cortez, 2000). The first study concerns forest yield of Pinus pseudostrobus (the most important tree species for timbering). This pine species is distributed across most landscapes but its yield varies greatly from one place to another. Furthermore, forest cutting strategy also seems to affect production. These aspects are being researched via an experimental design and will be monitored for 20 years. The second regards the wild hen (Dendrortyx macroura) reproduction program, which is of enormous ecological value in the ecosystem (Chávez 2000). This bird species is extremely sensitive to changes in forest conditions. Its reproduction is negatively affected by drastic forest physiognomic changes so that overused areas will be denoted by the absence of this species. The study monitoring coyote dispersal and population density represents the third bioindicator used by the CINSJP (Monroy and Vásquez 1999). Large populations of this species also imply land use transformation from forested areas into agricultural fields (orchards or perennial crops). These three investigations, as well as the previous studies, were conducted with the

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Figure 7. Economic productive activities supporting CINSJP. The black bars represent current activities and their contribution (in percent), whereas hatched bars are the forecasted contribution for the year 2001. Wider options in alternative and emerging markets of diverse natural resources is lessening pressure on timber products. Multiple use of natural resources, conducted under a planned landscape perspective, proved to be efficient in reconciling sound conservation and production activities in the study area.

assistance of undergraduate and postgraduate students. In total, 17 students have been involved in this project, whereas only 14 comuneros were permanently active throughout the research activities. Capacity Building While conducting the research, long discussions took place between comuneros and researchers. Many concepts, techniques, and ideas differed significantly between the two groups, so that formal traditional courses and workshops were needed to achieve sound results (Ortiz 1997). The 14 skilled comuneros are now in charge of important offices for decision-making within CINSJP. Moreover, the community is already responsible for further training of other indigenous communities at the national scale. This new income, usually provided by World Bank-funded programs as consultants is also the result of the participatory approach followed. The GIS established in the community and operated by comuneros is a crucial stepstone towards durable natural resource management. This has been also reported in other tropical regions (Zhu and others 1998, Kolosvary and Corbley 1998, Panda 1999). The permanent monitoring and data input in the system help the general council in decision-making. Environmental risks (such as fires and illegal logging) are, to some extent, predicted and controlled by the comuneros, since all is displayed automatically in maps (Rosete 1998, Rossiter 1990). Most members of this indigenous community are concerned with the fragility of their ecosystem, and

complementary courses for further capacity building are being organized (Castillo and Toledo 1999). This already includes neighboring communities, where both researchers and community members organize necessary workshops. The social scope is of great relevance for future forest uses since landscape units depend largely on cultural aspects (Nassauer 1995). Sound and sustained management of natural resources depend largely on an optimal combination of technical and scientific knowledge. In our experience, biodiversity conservation relied upon this combination. Experiences documenting this, however, are scant (Ludwig and others 1993, García-Ruiz and others 1996, Panda 1999). In the present paper we focused on the principle of including biodiversity conservation within the frame of land use planning strategies (Faeth 1993). Land use planning, moreover, was fully adopted and implemented by the actual land use managers. This is perhaps the most enduring guarantee of long-term sustainability (Nassauer 1995). Landscape, as a recently emerging scientific approach, has proved to be relevant in reconciling land use and conservation in our study case (Blankson and Green 1991). Landscape units depicted homogeneous geographic entities that permitted comparison among current markets and emerging markets for the same resources per unit (Scott and others 1998). This homogeneity suggests that equivalent ecosystem processes are driving landscape unit dynamics as a natural entity (Huggett 1995). The landscape units, nevertheless, are not independent of the cultural background of the managers (Nassauer 1995). On the contrary, whichever

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Table 1.

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Community proposals and researcher viewpointsa

Community proposals and demands Short-term 1. Harvesting autochthonous wildlife (hunting) 2. Wildlife production of exotic species in captivity (such as red deer Cervus spp.) and turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) 3. New cropping practices including external inputs (basically agrochemicals) 4. Support to conduct the forest management plan to satisfy government requirements 5. GIS as a mere cartographic tool 6. Charging entrance fees to the Paricutin volcano area Long-term 1. Sustainable forest production

2. Increasing job opportunities 3. Increasing capacity building

Researchers viewpoint 1a. Performing inventories of type and amount of actual wildlife 1b. Implementing a total closed season to favor wildlife recovery 2. Implementing reproduction programs of local wildlife species of large cynegetic demand (white-tail deer, Odocoileus virginianus). 3. Comparison between short- and long-term benefits of traditional versus mechanized cropping systems 4. Strengthening local capacity building to improve community’s forest technical services 5. Creating an automated system (GIS) to help in decisionmaking 6. Establishing a full ecotourism program including large economic investment (see text) 1a. Diversifying forest management to avoid wood market dependence 1b. Automated data base management to ease scenario formulation (resource conservation/use) 2. Creation of new small enterprises including children, women and elderly people 3a. Self-sustained technical support by continuous capacity building 3b. Offering consulting services to other community enterprises to replicate this experience elsewhere (e.g., World Bank training program)

a

The right column indicates the final actions taken with the contribution of the university researchers. Most research activities always included direct products for the community.

decision was made would have had some implications for the entire system. Regional planning including protected areas, where a compromise is achieved between land use and conservation, is therefore the forthcoming dilemma for the new millennium (STAP 1999).

Concluding Remarks Scientific advancements (e.g., remote sensing images, GIS, and biological inventories) help in achieving sound land use practices and biodiversity conservation (Bocco 1991). These instruments, properly handled, helped greatly in defining sound forest management alternatives in the long term. In our experience, indigenous communities became less dependent on current market change, which favors ecosystem conservation and promotes emerging markets such as environmental services (Daily and others 1996, Constanza and others 1997, Scott and others 1998). This experience granted the green certification to this CINSJP by the Smartwood World Forest Council. This recognition implied both economic and ecological benefits and promoted the search for alternative forest uses by the general assembly of the community (Kolosvary and Corbley 1998). The community, furthermore, reinforced

its role as a leading group at a national scale. Nowadays, over 30 communities covering about 4.5% of the Mexican national territory are attempting to follow this natural resource management model. Governmental policies, however, need to be reoriented in order to make community organizations less dependent upon incentives, which normally favor production for conventional markets (Alvarez-Icaza 1993). Research and community agendas were difficult to match, since each group established its own priority and time schedule. As a consequence, time and budgets were negatively affected, making the collaboration less efficient. This implied that a project originally planned for three years turned into a five-year effort (Table 1). The time invested by researchers was more than expected, but this was needed to achieve the goals desired. In total, 120 days per year (an average of 10 days a month) for four years were needed to fulfill CINSJP’s demands. This implied that at least one of the three authors was always present during these days in the community. The community council persistently asked for short-term productive, rather than long-term conservation projects. This has affected our research agenda drastically and forced us to conduct long-term studies and short-term surveys simultaneously (Table 1).

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Last but not least, production of scientific papers also represented an obstacle during this project. The major conflict we confronted was the continuous demand for academic products, frequently question-oriented, in order to fulfill university requirements. Most funding agencies and journals support and accept, respectively, challenging scientific questions rather than problem-oriented research. In our experience, most research questions were decided in collaboration with the actual stakeholders of the natural resources (Table 1). This meant that most studies were of great local weight but of limited universal value. In spite of that, this research followed strict scientific methods. Our results may not be necessarily measured by the number of scientific citations in journals only. Proper land use management, conversely, has positive repercussions on the living standard of over 8000 people and on biodiversity itself. This type of outcome is not being effectively valued by most scientific organizations yet, although most current ecological literature is concerned about this compromise (Mangel and others 1996).

Acknowledgments Financial support was given by UNAM (projects IN209094, IN101196, and IN210599), the US Fish and Wildlife Service, International Foundation for Science (D/2540-1) and CINSJP. We thank Nicolas Aguilar, Ma. de Lourdes Anguiano, Adolfo Chávez, Luis Toral, and Ambrocio Rodríguez (CINSJP) for support. V. M. Toledo is also recognized for early discussions and encouragement during this research. D. Breninger and especially M. Hockings, referees, provided useful criticism to the first version of the manuscript. Most credit is given to the students who contributed with their thesis work.

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