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Forest Management and Poverty in Bolivia, Honduras and Nicaragua: Reform Failures?

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Abstract

This study is a policy assessment contrasting forestry reforms and their intended objectives against the state of the forestry sector in Bolivia, Honduras and Nicaragua. The study finds that there is a gap between policy objectives and the state of forestry in the three countries, and that the policy frameworks are characterized by lack of policy implementation and intrinsically flawed design. In other words, reform failure matched by failure to reform is present in each country. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers followed, and possibly reinforced, existing policy trends but they were unable to solve the implementation problems and lack of coherence that mark the policies of the sector.

Cette étude est une évaluation de politiques mettant en contraste les réformes forestières et leurs objectifs d′une part et l′état de l′industrie forestière en Bolivie, au Honduras et au Nicaragua, d′autre part. L′étude constate un écart entre les objectifs de la politique forestière et l′état des forêts dans ces trois pays et montre que les cadres politiques sont caractérisés par une absence de mise en œuvre des réformes, et par une conception intrinsèquement imparfaite. En d′autres termes, dans chacun de ces pays, à l′échec des politiques s′ajoute un manque de réformes. Les Documents de Stratégie de Réduction de la Pauvreté ont suivi, et peut être renforcé, les tendances politiques déjà existantes mais n′ont pas pu résoudre les problèmes liés à la mise en œuvre et au manque de cohérence caractérisant les politiques concernant le secteur forestier.

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Notes

  1. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) are planning documents elaborating a strategy to reduce poverty and explaining how the resources generated by debt forgiveness will be used for the purpose. The drafting of these documents through a participatory process including social actors –the national dialogues– is necessary condition for debt relief (see Komivez and Dijkstra in this issue).

  2. For a discussion of pragmatism in the context of economic analysis of environmental policies, see Bromley (2004, 2006).

  3. According to FAO, the yearly deforestation rate for the period 2000–2005 is 0.41 per cent (FAO, 2007).

  4. It is worth noting that managed does not mean exploited: the management plans allow for regeneration following a 20-year cycle, hence the yearly harvested surface is maximally 5 per cent of the concession.

  5. Another factor – apart from the limited area under management – that contributes to the slight contribution of the sector to the Bolivian economy is low productivity. The extraction focuses on few high-value species and the result is that the average extracted volume is 3 m3/ha, while the estimated potential is 15 m3/ha (UDAPE, 2004; Benneker et al, 2005), and the transformation process is also wasteful at around half of the potential (Ibáñez-Chávez, personal communication).

  6. The law has been criticized for not allowing enough in terms of local decision making (Larson, 2006). Furthermore, given the lack of implementation of the law, not enough information is being collected on natural regeneration and no management practices to accelerate the reproduction of the most valuable species are implemented (Fredericksen et al, 2003). Under current management practice, there is some evidence that regeneration cannot be achieved in the 20-year cycle (Dauber et al, 2005).

  7. The system has changed in 2003, following the crises on international prices of wood and the consequent lack of capability of logging companies to pay the royalties (Fredericksen et al, 2003, p. 40; Pacheco, 2006b, pp. 24, 36). Now, the companies pay effectively 1/20 of the royalties and a small tax to finance the administration of the Forest Superintendence. As a result, the revenues to the state administration and enforcement capability of the Superintendence have both been diminished.

  8. The Forestry and the Agrarian Superintendence have been abolished and a new institution established in the second half of 2009: the Authority for the survey and social control of forest and land (ABT, Autoridad de Fiscalización y Control Social de Bosque y Tierra). The set-up of the new authority might be a step towards the effective decentralization of enforcement operations, but at the moment of writing it is too early to assess the outcome of the process.

  9. ‘El Sector Forestal dio 60 días al gobierno para cumplir la ley’, http://www.cfb.org.bo/CFBInicio/CongresoForestal/boletin.notaNF02.htm.

  10. ‘Preocupación en sector forestal por anuncio de empresas mixtas’, El Diario, 11/9/2007.

  11. For examples and evaluations of cooperation projects, see Stegeman (2003, 2005), Benneker et al (2005), Robertson and Wunder (2005), Endara Agramont and Villca Huanaco (2006), PROBONA (2006), COSUDE (2007).

  12. On corruption episodes involving COHDEFOR, see also EIA (2005, pp. 11–14, 17–18).

  13. ‘Aprobada la ley forestal’, El Heraldo, 14/09/2007, the law was eventually published only at the end of February 2008.

  14. This was confirmed by numerous sources including researchers, environmentalists and developmental NGOs.

  15. For an introduction to the legal framework, see Larson et al (2006, pp. 35–37).

  16. See also ‘¿Quién está detrás de mafia maderera?’, Confidencial, 07 to13 May 2006.

  17. ‘Alerta por tucas extraviadas’, El Nuevo Diario, 26/11/2006.

  18. For example, on the CDM see Fitzroy and Papyrakis (2010).

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Acknowledgements

This work is part of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper research project (see www.iss.nl/prsp) and the financial contribution of SIDA is gratefully acknowledged. I thank Kristin Komivez and Cris Kay for the useful inputs and discussions. In addition, I am thankful to Juan Carlos Aguilar and Rafael del Cid for their support in Bolivia and Honduras, respectively. This study is dedicated to Mario Guifarro. Guifarro was killed while working for the protection of the Biosphere Tawahka (Honduras) and the empowerment of its inhabitants.

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    Lorenzo Pellegrini

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Pellegrini, L. Forest Management and Poverty in Bolivia, Honduras and Nicaragua: Reform Failures?. Eur J Dev Res 23, 266–283 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/ejdr.2010.49

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