Agroforestry Systems and Local Institutional Development for Preventing Deforestation in Chiapas, Mexico

The transformation of natural forest to secondary forest and pastures has been the most common process of land use change in tropical countries in recent decades (FAO, 2010). The main causes of deforestation include institutional factors, markets, public policies and global forces, which often act synergistically (Deininger and Minten, 1999; Bocco et al. 2001; Lambin et al., 2001). Mexico is a country with 64,802x103 ha of forested land, and it is one of the ten countries with the largest area of primary forest (3% of total). The annual net loss of deforestation in Mexico has been estimated to be 0.52% for the period of 1990-2010, but the net loss, on average, has decreased over the past few years (FAO, 2010). The highest deforestation rates are concentrated in the south and central regions of the country, as documented elsewhere: 8.4% in el Nevado de Toluca, state of Mexico (1972-2000) (Maass et al., 2006); 8% in Patzcuaro, Michoacan (1960-1990) (Klooster, 2000); 6.9% in some areas of Campeche (ReyesHernandez et al., 2003); 6.1% in the highlands of the state of Chiapas (Cayuela et al., 2006; Echeverria et al., 2007); and 2-6.7% in Selva Lacandona, also in Chiapas (Ortiz-Espejel & Toledo, 1998; de Jong et. al., 2000). Precisely, the states of Chiapas and Yucatan have registered the highest rate of forest conversion to grasslands and slash-and-burn cultivation over the past two decades, and Chiapas alone has contributed towards 12% of national deforestation during the period 1993-2007 (De Jong et al, 2010; Diaz-Gallegos et al., 2010). In Mexico, deforestation occurs because forests become converted to agriculture, livestock and urban areas. But also because logging activities fail to meet the requirements of forest management plans. All these processes result in the loss of forest goods and services (Lambin et al. 2003), and they contribute to ecosystem fragmentation (Ochoa-Gaona & Gonzalez Espinosa, 2000; Cayuela et al., 2006), biological invasions (Hobbs, 2000), greenhouse gas emissions (Watson et al., 2000), biodiversity loss (Lugo et al., 1993), soil degradation (Lal, 2004) and water siltation (Sweeney et al., 2004).