The Community Commitment to Sustainability: Forest Protection in Guatemala

Eduardo Fernández Luiña, Santiago Fernández Ordóñez and William Hongsong Wang
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Eduardo Fernández Luiña: Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Relaciones Internacionales, Universidad Francisco Marroquín (Madrid Campus), Calle de Arturo Soria 245, 28033 Madrid, Spain
Santiago Fernández Ordóñez: Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Relaciones Internacionales, Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Calle Manuel F. Ayau (6 Calle Final), Zona 10, Guatemala 01010, Guatemala
William Hongsong Wang: Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Relaciones Internacionales, Universidad Francisco Marroquín (Madrid Campus), Calle de Arturo Soria 245, 28033 Madrid, Spain

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 12, 1-20

Abstract: This article covers the current research vacuum on how Guatemala partially conducts forest preservation through community concessions. Our paper starts its analysis by synthesizing the private property-rights approach environmentalist theory and the community concession theory. It is argued that the shared common private property as a community arrangement can turn conflicts into potential opportunities for the involved parties to solve the existing environmental problems by win-win games. Based on the above theoretical views, our study extends the scope to the modern and democratic municipals’ forest preservation in Guatemala, as previous research mainly focused on how the Guatemalan traditional indigenous communities have conducted forest preservation. Our empirical results show that the in-force forest concessions in the Maya Biosphere Reserve have achieved the Guatemalan government’s forest conservation target in recent years. However, as the Guatemalan forest concession arrangements are just usufructs and the state still owns forest titles, the current Guatemalan forest concession could reverse the result of the limited, decentralized forest reform. In this regard, we suggest that Guatemala state should privatize all these forests to the concessions’ communities and firms. If the results are positive, we propose the Guatemalan government further apply the decentralization forest policy to the whole country.

Keywords: Guatemala; forest; property rights; community concession; entrepreneurship; forest sustainability; economic development; free-market environmentalism; economic development; Latin America (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:12:p:6953-:d:833043

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