Sustainable Management of the San Nicolás Forests

Abstract

Written by the project coordinator and the General Director of CORNARE, this article presents the Alternative Financing Model for the Sustainable Management of the San Nicolás Forests, developed through an agreement with the International Tropical Timber Organization since 1999, covering 72,367 hectares of forest-suitable land. The authors describe the shortcomings in the economic valuation of forest services and present a financing model based on the combined sale of secondary-forest products, Environmental Action credits, and Clean Development Mechanism Certified Emission Reductions under the Kyoto Protocol. The text documents the 2003 creation of Masbosques, a corporation made up of 23 partners, and describes the participatory planning process with local peasant communities.