Social Participation in Forest Restoration Projects: Insights from a National Assessment in Mexico
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Social Participation in Forest Restoration Projects: Insights from a National Assessment in Mexico Eliane Ceccon 1
&
Moisés Méndez-Toribio 2,3 & Cristina Martínez-Garza 2
Accepted: 7 September 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Ecosystem restoration is gaining momentum worldwide, but restoration projects frequently fall short of addressing the human dimension, notably through the involvement of local people. While social participation has been recognized to have a fundamental role in the success and sustainability of forest management projects, it is frequently not incorporated into restoration project planning. We gathered responses from a national assessment program regarding the status of terrestrial restoration projects in Mexico. We found that most of these projects were limited to the use of a local short-term work force in tree planting activities and were designed to alleviate short term local socioeconomic tensions, indicating that effective social participation is not well understood by managers. Keywords Social capital . Collective learning . Dialogue of knowledge . Human dimension . Collaborative adaptive management . Ecosystem restoration . Mexico
Introduction Ecosystems restoration is defined by the Society of Ecological Restoration (SER) as “an intentional activity that initiates or accelerates the recovery of an ecosystem with regard to its health, integrity and sustainability” (SER 2004). However, we argue that it is more complex since restoration can also promote new relationships and policies regarding the natural environment, incorporating socioecological elements necessary for social as well as ecological sustainability (Baker et al. 2014). In light of increasing awareness of the threats posed by both social injustice and the impacts of global warming, many countries are demonstrating the political will to undertake ambitious restoration objectives (Chazdon et al. 2017; Schweizer et al.
* Eliane Ceccon [email protected] 1
Centro Regional de Investigaciones Multidisciplinarias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria de la UAEM, Av. Universidad s/n, Circuito 2, PC 62210, Col. Chamilpa, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico
2
Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Conservación (CIByC), Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Av. Universidad 1001 Col. Chamilpa, PC 62209, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico
3
Instituto de Ecología, A.C. Red de Diversidad Biológica del Occidente Mexicano, Carretera antigua a Coatepec 351, El Haya, Xalapa PC 91070, Veracruz, Mexico
2019). The most recent, the Bonn Challenge, which is designed to restore a total of 350 million hectares by 2030, will also generate around 170 billion USD per year in net benefits from watershed protection, improved crop yields, and forest products, and could sequester up to the equivalent of 1.7 gigatons of carbon dioxide annually (NYDF-New York Declaration on Forests 2015; Bonn Challenge 2020). Also, in March 2019 the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) de
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