Up From The Ashes Through Community Forestry

San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro

Like the legendary phoenix, San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro, a Purepecha indigenous community located in the state of Michoacan, Mexico, has found a new life amid the ashes. In 1943, an eruption of the nearby Paricutin volcano destroyed the old agricultural town leaving only the ruins of the ancient religious temple. Lava and ash laid waste to more than 40 kilometres of the village's productive land and ruined its economic base.

Today, the reborn town of San Juan Nuevo stands proudly as one of Mexico's most successful forest-dependent indigenous communities.

San Juan began its venture into forest management in 1970. By the early 1980s, it opened its own sawmill, generating 25 jobs. Forestry activities are now responsible for 70% of the community's income, contributing 900 direct jobs and countless indirect jobs for the town's 15,000 inhabitants. The healthy forest-based economy encompasses vertically integrated FSC-certified forest management, logging, milling and furniture manufacturing operations as well as harvest and sale of non-timber forest products.

San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro operates its communal forestry enterprise on a truly entrepreneurial model, evolving to take advantage of new opportunities to provide value-added products and services. Currently the enterprise includes forest management operations, two sawmills, a furniture factory, tree nurseries, packaging companies, resin distillation plants, eco-tourism operations, deer breeding services, and cable TV service. Community management maintains high levels of quality circles throughout the enterprise and puts strong emphases on providing specialised training for its workers.

San Juan Nuevo's forest enterprise encompasses departments for planning, production, forest protection and fire suppression, and forest renewal. Its 10,000 hectare certified forest (Certificate SW-FM/COC-101) is populated most heavily by pine and oak. A modified "seed-tree" retention regimen is practiced to sustain the growth and production of the dominant and commercially valuable pines while taking into consideration management of other tree species and the conservation of biological diversity.

Two tree nurseries with an annual production of 1,500,000 seedlings provide the resource for regenerating the working forest. Every year, the community replants some 350,000 seedlings in compliance with a forest management plan endorsed by the Environment Secretariat in Mexico and certified under the FSC system. In addition to assuring the reforestation of pine, oak and local species, the community enterprise also nurtures and plants fruit trees in the nearby orchards. The enterprise constructed four water collection basins that concentrate water for the owners of the orchards located adjacent to the working forest, helping ensure ample production of peaches and avocados.

The community enterprise employs FSC's chain of custody guidelines in the production of a variety of timber and non-timber products. a furniture factory produces kitchen furniture, such as tables and chairs, that are sold to one of the most prestigious stores in Mexico. The enterprise also produces wood moulding for export to the United States, and sells wood packaging to the State of Veracruz and City of Guadalajara in Mexico. In addition, the community has built strong relationships with other indigenous communities in the State of Oaxaca that hold FSC certificates, leading to the joint collection and processing of resin.

Basilio Velazquez Gutierrez, training manager for the enterprise, comments: "We realised that natural resources were part of what we most need to survive as a community. We have been inseparably linked to our land for generations. By taking care of our natural resources, we are able to derive our livelihood from them. To do so, we combine modern day information and techniques with the knowledge and understanding of our ancestors. In this balance of nature and people, of old and new, we can prosper."

According to Ambrocio Rodriguez Echevarria, general manger of the communal enterprise, Forest Stewardship Council certification is a testimony to the merits of the community's approach. "FSC certification gives us confidence in our management of natural resources, and in the creation of positive economic and social impacts as a result of our management."

The keys to San Juan Nuevo's success have been a sharing of the responsibilities of providing for the community, respect for the community leaders, and strong community organisation, based on a General Assembly comprised of some 1,200-community members. In 1984, the Assembly decided not to distribute profits to individuals, but to reinvest in productive projects that would generate more job sources for all the inhabitants of the community. This also precluded division and disagreements over issues of money.

San Juan Nuevo's indigenous organisation scheme and the community's love of the land is what had held the people together in tough times, explained Ambrocio Rodrigez Echevarria, the general manager. "The people of San Juan have had opportunities to go to other parts of the Mexican Republic, but they did not want to leave what they had built here. The people are concerned for the welfare of generations to come, and know that the land will provide for us if we care for it properly. FSC certification is proof that we are managing our resources well."

Thu 1 Dec 2005