Sustaining mahogany: research and silviculture in Mexico's community forests

Background

Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) is one of the most important timber species in the neotropics yet it is still harvested directly from natural forests, which has led to it being listed under CITES, required nationstates to develop sustainable production systems. This paper provides a meta-analysis of years of research in order to identify challenges and opportunities of sustainable manageing mahogany and make suggestions for production systems. The authors use the forest ejidos of Quintana Roo in Mexico as a case study.

Conclusions & Takeaways

The author states that the future of mahogany production needs to look more like the management styles of the forest ejidos reviewed. To do so, she suggests an increase in community tenure over forest land and the creation of a certification scheme for sustainable production. The author concludes by stressing that investments made by foreign donors to support forestry and research efforts in Quintana Roo have led to positive outcomes, which should encourage other agencies to replicate similar relationships with local stakeholders elsewhere.