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Tropical Forest Research Network |
VII GLOBAL-LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS FOR CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE FOREST USE: A LATIN-AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE
As discussed in the previous part on the basis of examples from Africa and Asia, new multi-scale and multi-stakeholder partnerships in forest management have the potential to link global conservation objectives with local needs. This section provides examples from Latin America, where multi-scale and multi-sector partnerships in forest management abound. The main question that runs through the articles as a common thread is what opportunities and obstacles such partnerships offer for democratic governance of forest resources and participatory forest management in Latin America, and what is needed to remove obstacles and fully realise the potential.
NICARAGUA: THE RESCALING OF INDIGENOUS FORESTRY
By Mary M. Brook
An analysis of the implementation of two multi-sector, multi-scale Nicaraguan forestry projects shows that balancing diverse needs is a challenging process. A degree of sensitivity to local leadership, history and culture is essential, but may be difficult to articulate into broad networks. These findings are based on two years of fieldwork in the Northern Autonomous Region in the municipality of Prinzapolka, which was chosen for its predominantly indigenous population, high rates of logging and recent entrance of international development institutions. Autonomous Region processes indicate a contested but slowly advancing decentralisation of power from a formerly centralised state. In Prinzapolka, indigenous leaders such as village síndicos and elder councils play important roles in resource decision-making.
Historical constraints
Over the past century, foreign enterprises extracted select species from Prinzapolka
such as big-leaf mahogany and Caribbean pine. Logging followed boom and bust
cycles as companies left once accessible trees were harvested. Villagers had
little control over common-property forests and were treated merely as a labour
force. Even after the recognition of ethnic and communal rights in Eastern Nicaragua
by the 1987 Autonomy Statute, local populations continued to be economically
marginalised. The latest Prinzapolka mahogany boom lasted from 1993 to 2001.
Villagers benefited little: Prinzapolka was identified as the Nicaraguan municipality
with the highest rates of poverty in 2002. Local loggers, struggling to continue
post-boom mahogany sales, entered into delinquency after the government passed
legislation to protect the remaining mahogany and improve production methods.
A lack of capital investment meant that the forests were used inefficiently.
For example, mahogany planks were cut using chainsaws. This illegal practice
wasted more than 30% of the potential timber, but it was the only opportunity
at the village level to add value by processing.
Emerging opportunities
In 2002, the Meadow Lakes Tribal Council (MLTC) in Saskatchewan, Canada, initiated
an indigenous-to-indigenous partnership in the Prinzapolka-Bambana area of Eastern
Nicaragua. A central goal is for the sixteen Nicaraguan member communities to
achieve economic parity with the national population within twenty years. The
project will train local populations in sustainable logging as well as initiate
ecotourism as an incentive to conserve forests, lakes, and wetlands.
MLTC includes nine independent Cree and Dene communities. This council uses pooled resources to function at a scale beyond the reach of any one community. MLTC has become a model for Canadian First Nations because of its ability to generate wealth from the logging, mining and service sectors. MLTC members established a non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Contigo International in 1997 to share what they have learned with other indigenous cultures. Contigo is guiding the creation of a Nicaraguan development corporation, called Limi Nawâh, which is run by a locally elected, multi-village council.
A second organisation, the Network for Forest Resource Management and Protection in the Mining Triangle and Prinzapolka (REPROMAB), works with indigenous communities, companies, government officials, NGOs, universities and forest professionals. For two years, REPROMAB has encouraged participants to work in a horizontal cooperation structure to achieve objectives that would be unobtainable if they worked in isolation. REPROMAB defines four municipalities as one forest management block. Organizers promote multi-sector partnerships for the management of long-term timber concessions as well as regeneration and conservation areas. REPROMAB supports regional wood-processing initiatives to increase local benefit from logging.
Continuing challenges
The greatest challenge for REPROMAB may be the lack of trust between state,
private, and indigenous sectors. While the network articulates national, regional
and municipal governance and creates linkages with the national private sector,
these relationships alienate the indigenous population. Contigo sidesteps this
problem with Limi Nawâh, an indigenous-run corporation. The employment
opportunities mean that local communities fondly recall historical foreign resource
ventures (timber, minerals, beef, rubber and bananas). They are open to international
alliances, yet resist arrangements with the state and businesses from Nicaragua's
west. An east/west split originated prior to the birth of the Nicaraguan nation.
Distrust increased during the Contra War in the 1980s.
While REPROMAB has brought diverse actors from the logging sector together to engage in dialogue, it does not yet have the necessary political or economic clout to attain forest management goals. There is international support for capacity building, but network development and administration are managed within the Autonomous Region. REPROMAB has found balancing diverse needs to be challenging because each participating sector advocates their own needs: the desire for sustainable forest management does not unify. REPROMAB resists promising material gain as a motivation for participation, whereas funding boosts Contigo's acceptance. Contigo involves the same sectors as REPROMAB (indigenous, state, private, NGO) and they both work for common goals:
Contigo has an extensive budget and international offices to deal with administration and funding matters.
REPROMAB invites each village síndico (overseer of common-property resources) to multi-sector meetings. Because, due to recent corruption, they no longer trust one individual to represent communal interests, many villages send multiple representatives. With more than forty member villages, hosts can become overextended. Working on a large scale with few resources, REPROMAB risks disregarding members' priorities. Moreover, addressing the needs of indigenous and non-indigenous sectors requires sacrifices to be made. The network limits language translations at meetings because indigenous participants are only from one sector and there are time constraints. Although REPROMAB's president is indigenous, the lack of translations is considered disrespectful. Since Limi Nawâh works only in indigenous communities, meetings are held in Miskitu. Contigo representatives initially held traditional public assemblies in each village. Now six elected representatives from each village attend multi-village meetings.
Limi Nawâh is smaller in scale than REPROMAB because it works with just sixteen villages, but it is also larger because of strong international networks. While widely supported in the indigenous villages, Limi Nawâh risks creating a new enclave economy where national, regional and municipal linkages remain weak and resources jump back and forth between local and international scales. Time will tell if these two projects can articulate and balance multiple sectors and scales.
Further information:
Mary M. Brook
Department of Geography, University of Texas at Austin
210 West 24th Street,
Austin, TX 78712-1098
USA
E-mail: finleybrook@mail.utexas.edu