Mexico
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Last updated: April 2016
Laws & Regulations
Forestry Laws
Since 1986, when Mexico devolved ownership of forest resources to communities and ejidos, it has become a world leader in community managed forests for the commercial production of timber. Currently, communities can choose if and how much of their forests they want to designate for timber production and who may access their forests. In conjunction with this new power, the ejidos and indigenous land holders have also organized themselves into what are commonly called community forestry enterprises (CFEs), which has allowed them to merge their timber harvest and forest product production into broader markets. Although some skepticism toward private industries and companies still exists, a growing number of Mexican CFEs have developed relationships with timber companies and some have even contracted community-based processing requirements into these land use agreements for their benefit.
The main piece of legislation regulating the forest sector in Mexico is the General Law for Sustainable Forest Development of 2003 and its subsequent related amendments. It assigns specific responsibilities to the competent authorities at local, regional and national levels, and seeks to regulate and promote the conservation, protection, restoration, production, organization, agricultural activity, and management of Mexico’s forests in order to secure sustainable forest development.
The earlier Law for the Ecological Balance and the Protection of the Environment of 1998, which was written to promote the preservation and restoration of ecological balance and environmental protection in Mexico, remains in force. It covers any matters that are not addressed in the General Law for Sustainable Forest Development.
The Agrarian Law of 1992 amended the Mexican Constitution and gave ejidos and other indigenous land holders the right to lease their properties under certain circumstances. The regulations under the law specifies the types of land tenure, and the rights and decision-making processes over these lands, which all have direct relevance to the forest sector.
Processing/Manufacturing Laws
The Department for the Environment and Natural Resources is in charge of issuing authorisations for the processing and storage facilities. Such facilities need to be officially registered and inform of any changes in the registry details they provide. They must also keep a log detailing the timber and timber products arriving at and leaving their premises.
Trade Laws
Transport Laws
Timber transported for commercial purposes must have the relevant transport permit. Two different permits are issued: one to transport timber from the forests to the processing facilities (Remisión Forestal) and a second one to transport timber from the processing facilities onward (Reembarque Forestal). All permits are issued by the Department for the Environment and Natural Resources.
Tax Laws
By law, the timber extracted from Mexican forests belongs to the land owner. Only timber extracted from national forests is owned by the state. Since the large majority of the forests are in the hands of communities and in ejidos, stumpage fees and other commonly due taxes do not apply in Mexico. What does apply are transaction costs derived from forest management activities, and income tax is due for those communities and organisations that manage their forests.
CITES Agreement Information
CITES is an international agreement among governments whose purpose is to ensure that international trade in wild animal and plant species does not threaten the survival of these species. 175 countries have agreed to be bound by CITES, which is a binding legal agreement. It is up to each Party to CITES to draft its own domestic legislation in order to comply with its CITES obligations. Mexico ratified the Convention in 1991.
There are several commercially listed Plantae species from Mexico. These include:
- Guatemalan fir is included in Appendix I, and trade in this species is only permitted in exceptional circumstances. Today, the rate of forest loss has slowed, but the trend of using the species for Christmas decorations and expanding urbanization have contributed to its decline. Most stands today have already been heavily exploited except for the few remaining locations.
- Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), a large decidious tree species listed in Appendix II since 2002, has been decimated in Mexico over the past decades. It is estimated that 80% of the forests where this species was found have now disappeared. Since listing, Mahogany populations have stabilised, and are experimenting a slight growth through plantations. Land-use change and illegal logging continue to threaten its survival.
- Several species from Dalbergia and Guaiacum are also present in Mexican forests and are all listed under Appendix II.
Forest Resources
Resources Overview
Mexico hosts the largest forested area in all of Mesoamerica, with almost 64 million hectares. These forests contain 10% of the world’s biological diversity and make Mexico one of the 12 most biodiverse countries in the world. However, during the 1990s, Mexico had the 6th highest rate of annual deforestation in the world. While the rate of deforestation has decreased in recent years, the country still loses approximately 155,000 hectares annually. The main driver of Mexico’s deforestation is land-use change to make way for agriculture and cattle ranching. Fires and illegal logging are also contributing to Mexico’s yearly forest loss.
Mexico is unique in that most of its forests are communal land that is owned by either ejidos or communities. As a result, this requires any forestry project to first consider locals’ needs and interests.
Within the 7,000-9,000 existing Mexican forest communities, there are an estimated 500 of which that have logging permits for their land. Although Mexico’s deforestation rate may be declining, it is still thought that the majority of Mexico’s forest communities are not practicing sustainable forestry and a lack of community investment in forestry planning, operations and monitoring has led to unsustainable practices and stalled economic improvements for these communities.
Although Mexico’s long history of community forestry includes some very successful initiatives, it has also led to the development of many challenges.
(Profile last updated December 2015)
Forest Management
Management Overview
Since 1986, when Mexico devolved ownership of forest resources to communities and ejidos, it has become a world leader in community managed forests for the commercial production of timber. Currently, communities can choose if and how much of their forests they want to designate for timber production and who may access their forests. In conjunction with this new power, the ejidos and indigenous land holders have also organized themselves into what are commonly called community forestry enterprises (CFEs), which has allowed them to merge their timber harvest and forest product production into broader markets. Although some skepticism toward private industries and companies still exists, a growing number of Mexican CFEs have developed relationships with timber companies and some have even contracted community-based processing requirements into these land use agreements for their benefit.
Transparency
CITES Agreement Information
CITES is an international agreement among governments whose purpose is to ensure that international trade in wild animal and plant species does not threaten the survival of these species. 175 countries have agreed to be bound by CITES, which is a binding legal agreement. It is up to each Party to CITES to draft its own domestic legislation in order to comply with its CITES obligations. Mexico ratified the Convention in 1991.
There are several commercially listed Plantae species from Mexico. These include:
- Guatemalan fir is included in Appendix I, and trade in this species is only permitted in exceptional circumstances. Today, the rate of forest loss has slowed, but the trend of using the species for Christmas decorations and expanding urbanization have contributed to its decline. Most stands today have already been heavily exploited except for the few remaining locations.
- Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), a large decidious tree species listed in Appendix II since 2002, has been decimated in Mexico over the past decades. It is estimated that 80% of the forests where this species was found have now disappeared. Since listing, Mahogany populations have stabilised, and are experimenting a slight growth through plantations. Land-use change and illegal logging continue to threaten its survival.
- Several species from Dalbergia and Guaiacum are also present in Mexican forests and are all listed under Appendix II.
Forestry Laws
Since 1986, when Mexico devolved ownership of forest resources to communities and ejidos, it has become a world leader in community managed forests for the commercial production of timber. Currently, communities can choose if and how much of their forests they want to designate for timber production and who may access their forests. In conjunction with this new power, the ejidos and indigenous land holders have also organized themselves into what are commonly called community forestry enterprises (CFEs), which has allowed them to merge their timber harvest and forest product production into broader markets. Although some skepticism toward private industries and companies still exists, a growing number of Mexican CFEs have developed relationships with timber companies and some have even contracted community-based processing requirements into these land use agreements for their benefit.
The main piece of legislation regulating the forest sector in Mexico is the General Law for Sustainable Forest Development of 2003 and its subsequent related amendments. It assigns specific responsibilities to the competent authorities at local, regional and national levels, and seeks to regulate and promote the conservation, protection, restoration, production, organization, agricultural activity, and management of Mexico’s forests in order to secure sustainable forest development.
The earlier Law for the Ecological Balance and the Protection of the Environment of 1998, which was written to promote the preservation and restoration of ecological balance and environmental protection in Mexico, remains in force. It covers any matters that are not addressed in the General Law for Sustainable Forest Development.
The Agrarian Law of 1992 amended the Mexican Constitution and gave ejidos and other indigenous land holders the right to lease their properties under certain circumstances. The regulations under the law specifies the types of land tenure, and the rights and decision-making processes over these lands, which all have direct relevance to the forest sector.
Processing/Manufacturing Laws
The Department for the Environment and Natural Resources is in charge of issuing authorisations for the processing and storage facilities. Such facilities need to be officially registered and inform of any changes in the registry details they provide. They must also keep a log detailing the timber and timber products arriving at and leaving their premises.
Trade Laws
Tax Laws
By law, the timber extracted from Mexican forests belongs to the land owner. Only timber extracted from national forests is owned by the state. Since the large majority of the forests are in the hands of communities and in ejidos, stumpage fees and other commonly due taxes do not apply in Mexico. What does apply are transaction costs derived from forest management activities, and income tax is due for those communities and organisations that manage their forests.
Transport Laws
Timber transported for commercial purposes must have the relevant transport permit. Two different permits are issued: one to transport timber from the forests to the processing facilities (Remisión Forestal) and a second one to transport timber from the processing facilities onward (Reembarque Forestal). All permits are issued by the Department for the Environment and Natural Resources.
Forest Products
Production Status
Years of intense timber extraction in Mexico have decimated many forests in the country, and high access and transport costs make timber production a difficult activity to sustain. Plantations have long been presented as a means of increasing production, and a potentially good investment for foreign capital. However, they have failed to materialise at a significant scale.
Pine is the most harvested species and represents more than 79% of the total volume, followed by oak (8.7%) and a range of tropical species (5.4%).
Mexico imports four times the amount of timber and timber products it exports in terms of value. The Mexican export market is proportionally very small, but has shown recent increases. In 2013, exports of wood and wood products rose by almost $403 million dollars. The main wood products exported from Mexico include: sawn timber, charcoal, moldings, and planks.
Contacts
Industry Associations
Consejo Nacional de la Madera en la Construccion (COMACO) is an industry organization that partners with the Mexican government and several sponsoring institutions to promote sustainable wood use, develop industry standards, provide assistance between institutions, and more. Its members are residential wood manufacturing and construction companies.
Civil Society Organizations
The Mexican Civil Council for Sustainable Forestry (CCMSS) works with communities and communal forests (ejidos) to strenghten their governance and ability to achieve a sustainable management of their forest resources.
Reforestamos Mexico works with forest communities to support their competitiveness within the timber market and to promote a rights-based sustainable management of forests.
Pronatura works in ecosystems conservation and restauration, as well as on community development and environmental education.
Government Ministries
The Department for the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) is given a number of responsibilities by law, which include writing laws and policies related to the forest sector, proposing strategic plans and establishing and keeping up to date the National Forest Registry. It is also the CITES administrative authority.
The National Forestry Commission (CONAFOR), which sits under SEMARNAT, is the forest authority in Mexico. It is responsible for overseeing forest management acitivies and implementing the sector's legal and political framework. Its 2014 National Forest Program Plan, PRONAFOR, can be accessed here.
The National Commission for Natural Protected Areas (CONANP), also under SEMARNAT, is responsible for all protected areas in Mexico, and also has competencies related to sustainable development programmes aimed at reducing poverty and marginalisation of communities living within those areas.
Two institutions under the Department for Agricultural Development are relevant to the forest sector: the National Agrarian Service includes information about the ejidos and community-owned areas, including the rights they have over their lands; and the State Attorney's office for Agriculture, which provides legal advice to local communities and ejidos.
The Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection is in charge of inspecting activities related to natural resources, including those coming from the country's forests.
The National Biodiversity Commission works to enhance the knowledge around natural resources and their preservation, and is also the CITES scientific authority in Mexico.
The National Institute for Forest, Agriculture and Fisheries Research is a public scientific institution under the Ministry of Agriculture responsible for improving knowledge for the better management of these sectors.
Tools & Resources
The Illegal Logging Portal, hosted and maintained by Chatham House, provides information on illegal logging and the trade in illegal timber. The country pages provide a brief overview of the forestry sector in the country, followed by a regularly updated list of news articles, reports, and other related contents.
Country pages:
The Spanish Timber Trade Federation (AEIM) has developed a risk assessment tool, "Madera Legal", that allows users to learn about timber producing countries. The tool includes information about main product categories sourced from these countries and legality and governance concerns, and provides a risk rating and recommendations for due diligence steps.
Madera Legal (website is only available in Spanish; use Google Chrome browser to auto-translate pages)
Global Forest Watch (GFW) is a dynamic online forest monitoring and alert system that unites satellite technology, open data, and crowdsourcing and provides access to timely and reliable information about forests. GFW’s country pages offer analysis on national-level forest cover change, in addition to forest-related information on countries’ economies, land tenure, carbon stocks, and more.
Sources
- FAO Country Profile: Mexico.
- Barton Bray, D. (2003) Mexican community forestry: Perspectives on common property enterprises and asset building. Paper presented at the International Conference on Rural Livelihoods, Forests and Biodiversity.
- Rainforest Alliance. Community Forestry in Mexico.
- Article 1, 2, 4 y 27 of Mexican Constitution (in Spanish)
- General Law for Sustainable Forest Development (in Spanish)
- Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales
- CCMSS (2008). Strategic study of the Mexican Forest Sector (in Spanish)
- FAO (2012). Assessment of the impact of fees and taxes over forest management in Mexico (in Spanish)
- FAO (2004). Estudio de tendencias y perspectivas del sector forestal en América Latina Documento de Trabajo - ESFAL/N/02
- Transparency International: Corruption Perception Index 2013
- CITES Country Profile: Mexico