Engaging youth and community leaders
To involve the forests inhabitants we work with: -Youth leaders: they participate in forest events as guides of the corporate volunteers, teaching and training in environmental issues and creating awareness. Young people help us create a strong environmental culture and promoting sustainability. -Community leaders. forest inhabitants willing to develop entrepreneurial, financial and technical skills based on their own reality in order to implement tailor-made sustainable forest management projects in their communities. This project has a people-centered approach. The process involves 3 stages: (1) work with communities to better understand their context, priorities and capabilities; (2) deliver intensive training sessions on project development and risk assessment; (3) help forest owners communicate their work and learn from other forest communities.
The social environment that has allowed us to develop this project in Mexico is built around the fact that approximately 80 percent of the forests of Mexico are under the legal jurisdiction of comunidades and ejidos , which coincides with a development, during the last 25 years, of reasonably successful, commercial community forestry enterprises based on timber and non-timber products. Mexico is unique because of the way comunidades and ejidos control forestry. Currently 12 million people inhabit the forests and jungles of Mexico.
The lack of opportunities in the rural environment means that half the population that inhabit the forests, whether of mixed-race or indigenous, live in poverty. Many people migrate to the United States and urban areas. These are the main reasons that our project has a people-centered approach and why creating a dialogue, opening channels and networking with stakeholders are really important elements to achieve success with this project. We should be clear outlining the responsibilities and the benefits that each party will receive from the beginning of the project to avoid misunderstandings and to be able to create real strong alliances between the parties involved.