| Community Conserved Areas
The historical presence of community conserved areas (CCAs) and the creation of new ones are extensive phenomena in Northern Mesoamerica, despite limited external support and ambiguous political and social conditions for community-led organization. In Oaxaca State alone there are over fifty CCAs and in 2007, the forty-four participating communities managed a total of 175,000 Ha of land, - an amount equal to 49% of the state's officially protected areas. These numbers are constantly growing. Multiple Faces of CCAs in Mexico
Literature and field reviews of community experiences in conservation inform GDF's creation of a preliminary classification system for Mexican CCAs. The eleven categories of CCAs we propose are: community reserves, ejidal reserves, permanent forest areas, forest management enterprise community reserves, community association reserves, symbolic sites, cellular reserves, wildlife conservation, management and sustainable use units (Unidades de Manejo de Vida Silvestre or UMAs, in Spanish), agroforestry and agroecology systems, soil and vegetation conservation areas, and autonomous municipal reserves. We cast our net relatively widely, considering CCAs that are officially recognized at a national level as well as others that are exclusively community-based. We incorporate areas that have been intentionally set aside by communities as well as de facto sites of biodiversity conservation, such as agricultural landscapes. Functions of CCAs
Depending on the type of CCA and the specific concerns of the communities involved, CCAs fulfill various objectives and may include aims to: - complement or substitute existing community forestry initiatives;
- facilitate joint management of natural resources between communities for the greater good;
- protect places with strong symbolic or sacred cultural significance;
- maintain or restore secondary forests and increase wildlife that can be sustainably harvested for monetary or subsistence benefits;
- ameliorate ecological disturbance;
- participate in land struggle movements;
- conserve biological resources;
- create small scale biological corridors;
- establish living seeds banks, sustainable extraction of useful species, animal breeding areas and natural heritage conservation sites;
- provide norms for the regulation of natural resource access and use;
- improve livelihoods through sustainable use of natural resources;
- maintain timber reserves that enable efficient forestry production;
- contribute to governmental initiatives, through the National Commission for Protected Natural Areas (CONANP), whose main aim is to increase the total area of land under national conservation;
- fulfill international principles and criteria, such as those upheld by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), through which communities aim to sustainably use the resources in High Conservation Value Forests;
- ensure environmental services to communities, such as water capture;
- follow international or national guidelines of land management, for example through Community Territorial Planning (CTP) exercises;
- establish better control of territories and access to natural resources, especially in the case of reserves based on CTP processes and those in autonomous municipalities;
- achieve more community and external involvement, education and research; and
- set aside recreation areas for local people and visiting tourists.
History of Chinantec CCAs
The six Chinantec communities currently working with the GDF have set aside more than 26,770 Ha of land for community conservation. The Regional Committee of Natural Resources of the Chinantla Alta (CORENCHI) is the grassroots community-based organization responsible for land management. These robust community reserves have been officially recognized and certified by CONANP. CTP processes for officially establishing community conservation in this region began with the community of Santa Cruz Tepetotutla in the year 2000. Institutional support came from two non-governmental Mexican organizations, Geo Conservación and Rural Studies and Advising (ERA), with Geo Conservación as the chief source of technical guidance. Funding was provided by Mexico's National Forest Commission's Community Forest Programme (PROCYMAF) and the United Nations Development Programme in partnership with Mexico’s Integrated Ecosystem Management Project (MIE-PNUD). The World Wildlife Fund has granted money for CTP studies and management, and the Mexican enterprise Grupo Modelo provides financial support of a local field station. In 2006, the communities of San Antonio Analco and Nopalera de Rosario were the final CORENCHI members to complete the steps involved in CTP. Steps in Community Territorial Planning
Local interest has been the catalyst for all CTP experiences. Each stage of the planning process is conducted in a workshop format and decisions made in these settings are subsequently presented to General Community Assemblies for validation or revision. After CTP is completed, community statutes regarding use and management of natural resources are produced and spaces are zoned for various levels of conservation. Among specially delineated zones are those featuring sustained protection of traditional nature sanctuaries and areas designated for strict conservation. The main objective of such conservation measures is protection of ecosystems and biodiversity, with special emphasis on maintaining original vegetation and watershed areas. Two instruments of rural development and nature conservation that have backed CTP results are CCA certification by CONANP and the Regional Accord for Forest Conservation in the High Chinantla. Key Results and Future Prospects
Significant results obtained through CORENCHI's CTP efforts thus far are: - creation of communal statutes that regulate use and access of common resources,
- establishment of a joint strategy among six communities for the preservation of common land,
- conservation of more than 20,000 Ha of tropical forest, and
- development of projects aiming to strengthen community economy and conservation
Currently, CORENCHI is looking towards diversifying the local portfolio of non-timber forest products for commercialization and sustainable use. |
