Capacity for timber management among private small-medium forest enterprises in Madre de Dios, Peru.

摘要

Madre de Dios is one of the few mega-diverse zones in the world, which possesses some of the last intact commercial populations of mahogany ( Swietenia macrophylla). This Department has been suffering from severe forest degradation in the past several years, due principally to illegal logging of mahogany. The "forest concession system," the heart of the first legal framework to promote sustainability in the use/management of Peruvian forests (the 2000 Forestry and Wildlife Law N° 27308), is being implemented in the department and private small-medium forest enterprises (SMFEs) have become the most important social actors engaged in forest management there. However, the management and conservation of Madre de Dios permanent production forests, while improving the livelihoods of local inhabitants (i.e., small-medium entrepreneurs) is not a simple task since it also involves the interests of several different actors. Drawing from the literature on capital and political ecology, this study explores the capacities of private SMFEs to carry out forest management for timber production and the influence that the main stakeholders of the forest sector have on that capacity.;Data from a census of 29 private SMFEs, and from a purposive sample of 29 representatives of forest organizations (representatives of NGOs, government, and grassroots organizations), were collected from face-to-face interviews. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to determine whether the population means of the sets of dependable variables (types of capital) vary across levels of province, certification status in the Department, and certification plans in the Tahuamanu province. Qualitative data analysis was used for the purposive sample to evaluate the actions and roles of forest actors in the concession system and how they influence private SMFEs performance for forest management.;Results indicate that: (1) the forest concession system was not set up with adequate state resources for sufficient oversight to ensure legal forest management; (2) NGO support proved crucial, but constituted a patchwork with little coordination and many shifts in priorities and collaborations---due to limited capacity and problematic management of expectations; (3) private SMFEs, while needing assistance from NGOs, received very short-term assistance instead of sustained support over time; (4) private SMFEs vary greatly in their capacity by province and certification status (this especially occurs in terms of their produced and natural capital assets), and while most lack adequate capacity for sustainable forest management certification, those that attained certification received more support for it from NGOs. Important implications of this study include the need for policies that can strengthen the institutional framework to maintain more responsible forest practices in the future and can develop SMFEs' capacities for forest management with mechanisms that secure consistent assistance (technical, financial, access to information).