Community Forest Enterprise Governance In The Maya Biosphere Reserve

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the governance of community forest enterprises (CFEs) in the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR) of Northern Guatemala. CFEs in the MBR receive access to the forest through 25-year concession contracts with the Guatemalan government. The community forest concessions included in this research were established between 1994 and 2000. Research for this dissertation was conducted in 2017 and 2018 in the MBR. This was an important period of time for CFEs in the MBR as their concession contracts were up for renewal. Each chapter of this dissertation builds upon the literature and provides a unique contribution to understanding factors that facilitate or impede effective and equitable CFE governance in the MBR. The first chapter introduces a framework for understanding and evaluating the local context CFEs face working to manage local resources. The chapter then applies the framework to six CFEs in the MBR. The analysis provides insights into how CFE capitals differ between enterprises over time. The chapter shows how CFEs started out with different advantages and disadvantages related to their capitals and how they have invested in their capitals over time. The second chapter identifies how and why governance structures differ between CFEs. Membership policy, decision-making and oversight roles, strategies for investing in business operations, and strategies for providing social benefits all differ between CFEs in the MBR. This chapter discusses how differences in governance structures facilitate or impede community forest management. Chapter three focuses on the evolution of good governance characteristics within CFEs over time and what factors have facilitated or impeded this evolution. Chapter four summarizes the relationship between CFE capitals and governance from the perspective of local actors operating in the MBR. In aggregate, the four essays aim to contribute to theory on factors that facilitate or impede successful community forest management. Some key take-aways from this dissertation related to governance and capitals include: the confirmation that legal access to forests and markets may be necessary but not sufficient conditions for CFE success. In addition, CFEs were able to overcome initial lack of infrastructure, funding, and knowledge and increasingly emphasized the importance of developing social and human capital over time. This study aims to contribute several unique contributions to the literature on community-based resource management. First, this dissertation introduces the CFE capital’s framework. Second, this dissertation focuses on understanding governance at the CFE scale. Finally, this analysis aims to contribute insights, from the perspective of local actors, into factors that enable or constrain individual community members’ ability to participate in organizing and developing communal forest enterprises.