Community-forest relationship

When approaching the forest as a territory built by social groups, shaped by recursive relationships at different scales and levels of power, it was found that the different forms of appropriation of forest resources are constructed based on the reproduction strategies that those groups perform. The different reproduction strategies generate different systems of management, valuation, meaning of the forest space, which translate into diverse forms of territorialization. The territories that different social groups build often overlap geographically, and conflicts can arise between appropriators.

In the community of Lachatao, the conception and management of the forest has varied during the last 100 years, due to transformations in the reproduction strategies caused by changes in the economic-political system at broader levels. The reproduction strategies in this research were understood as the social practices that they perform consciously or not, to maintain or change the position of the women and men subjects that perform them. These practices find their limits in the macro social conditions, but at the same time they function as constituent elements of the structures ^{(De Oliveira and Salles, 2000)}.

The reproduction strategies are dynamic and constantly reconstructed in face of changes in the broader economic, political and social systems. The social, economic and productive practices are recreated in symbolic systems anchored in cultural gender traditions that establish important differences in the experience of men and women, and mark dissimilar spaces and activities for the genders. These activities and spaces are signified and valued unequally in the public and domestic spheres, with those performed and appropriated by men having a higher valuation, representing the decision making spaces and the resources with greatest economic importance ^{(Agarwal, 2004}; ^{Kabeer, 1998)}.

In the domestic groups of the rural environment it is common for the social practices for reproduction to outweigh the domestic sphere, in addition to including social relationships of solidarity and reciprocity. Loans and donations of dietary and monetary resources are included in these, as well as solidary work and mutual help in agricultural tasks and community works with which domestic services, such as drinking water, are provided, and natural resources for production, such as the irrigation water systems, are appropriated ^{(Agarwal, 2004}; ^{De Oliveira and Salles, 2000)}.

For the case of the community studied, it was confirmed that the reproduction strategies have been continually reconstructed through changes in the economy and policy at wider levels, which has provoked transformations and continuities in the valuation systems and meanings of the territory, the forest and its resources, and gender relations in and of themselves.

The disadvantageous conditions that have come up for peasant groups through history, aggravated by structural reforms ^{(Rubio, 2001)}, have caused for the economic activities for reproduction in Santa Catarina Lachatao to be multiple, where the agricultural practice is combined with the sale of labor (in agriculture, mining and domestic service, primarily), as well as activities of cooperation, solidarity and reciprocity among the population. Through in-depth interviews with social actors older than 60 years, it was found that until 1950 the community had as financial motor the sale of workforce of men in the mining enterprises that operated in the region.

Paid work of the men in the mines allowed significant commercial exchanges between the communities in regional markets, with economic transactions existing between different social actors (miners, farmers, day laborers). Agriculture in the Lachatao forest was diversified and intensive thanks to the different ecological stories of the vegetation and to the channeling of springs for irrigation carried out with community work. When the mining activity stopped because of depletion of the minerals there was a marked fall in the flow of resources in the region, provoking a strong migration wave from the population to other centers and cities. The population that remained in the locality of Lachatao was devoted to diversified agricultural work, mostly for self-supply.

The concentration of services in the cities and the difficult conditions for agricultural production represented motors for migration since the 1970s in the population of Lachatao. The men and women migrants continued to participate with the community to provide services and improve local infrastructure, to continue having rights as citizens and communal land owners. During the 1990s migration towards the United States (US) was intensified due to the precarious economic conditions generated from the structural reforms of the Mexican State.

The recession in the US economy, the worsening of violence on the border, and the increasingly punitive policies for illegal migration in that country significantly reduced international migration of women and men from Lachatao, with there being even some cases of population returning who resided in that country during the first decade of the 21st century.

In Lachatao the phenomenon of reintegration of the pensioned population who migrated in the 1970s and 1980s is now present, and which, through professional or technical studies could gain access to formal employment with labor rights such as retirement. The retired population with significant financial resources from businesses of their own has begun to return, seeking in their native town conditions of peace and environmental health to enjoy their last stage of life.

What there are too much of in Lachatao are professionals. There’s a lot of people with a profession; that is where the problem is, because professionals do not return; there are teachers, graduates, engineers, architects, who do come, they pay to have their services, but the professionals don’t do us any good if Lachatao is going to be empty. Some do return when they retire; for example, that house over there is being built by some teachers from UNAM who supposedly will come live here (Luis Ángel, 39 years, communal land owner from Lachatao).

This population imposes new dynamics on the local economy, hires services of young men and women, who are employed in domestic services or agricultural tasks. Those who “return” influence the local culture from their work experiences and their aspirations and imaginaries regarding communal development, which they value “differently” in relation to the cities where they lived. The reproduction strategies in the locality are reconfigured from the synergy of recursive relationships with national and international economy and politics, and the environmental, cultural and social characteristics at the local level.

The reproduction strategies in Lachatao are reconstructed vigorously since 2008 with tourism, since in an effort to attract economic resources to the locality, the community has implemented an ecotourism project, subsidized and technically supported by the State. The community has appropriated the project and has positioned it as a fundamental part of local development, attempting to implement it autonomously in its “territory”.

I think that tourism does benefit the town and it will benefit us more in the future, when this grows, because it has been seen already. Perhaps, for example, if I’m not working there directly, but I do see the man who sells bread, the one who sells some fruit or preserves, when a tourist comes they have the chance to sell. We earn a little more and the more people come, they will consume the products from others and then we will all be benefitted (Patricia Gutiérrez, 27 years, citizen and head of a domestic group).

Ecotourism is proposed based on the community as a new form of forest exploitation, compatible with the conservation of the forest’s environmental conditions required for the preservation of springs and land fertility. The community considers priority to conserve the forest’s good conditions for it to supply water and fertile land for agriculture, as well as firewood, fungi, and medicinal plants for the habitual consumption of domestic groups at the local level. The community considers that their town will persist if the forest is kept in good conditions, so they have been entering into conflict with six other communities that carry out forest exploitation since slightly over three decades ago.

The conflict over the forest between Lachatao and six communities from pueblos mancomunados (jointly responsible towns) has had pivotal moments, for the population from Santa Catarina suggests that forest exploitation be suspended at 3000 ha, which it considers that corresponds to it as community; this means a decline in the productivity of the community forest enterprise that has the concession. Pueblos Mancomunados (jointly responsible towns) is a unique entity in community land ownership in México, for a forest territory of 29 000 ha belongs to three municipalities, made up in total by eight communities: the municipality of Lachatao, with its township, Santa Catarina Lachatao, and its municipal agencies Latuvi, La Nevería and Benito Juárez; the municipality of Amatlán, with its township San Miguel Amatlán, and its agencies Cuajimoloyas and Llano Grande, and the municipality of Yavesía. Immediately, after one year of having been recognized legally as part of the “Pueblos Mancomunados” (in 1958), Yavesía has attempted to separate and has blocked forest exploitation in the 3000 ha of forest that it recognizes and manages as its own ^{(Mitchell, 2008)}.

Despite the economic resources of the forest exploitation being sizeable, the communities that are members of the joint responsibility present high economic marginalization, according to ^{INEGI (2011)}. The community enterprise has a water purifying plant and a furniture factory. Although since its foundation the community forest enterprise has set out in its objectives to generate employment, to conserve forests, and to strengthen development, the conditions of poverty in the communities of the Pueblos Mancomunados have not been overcome.

The low remuneration of forest work and the distance from the community of Lachatao and the centers of wood processing have discouraged their participation in the activities of forest exploitation since more than one decade ago. Members of the community of Lachatao accuse the directives of the community enterprise of corruption practices in the control of the government structure and decision making, as well as in resource management. According to them, there is no true participative democracy in the assembly and the decisions are made in a single direction by the directives.

Unfortunately we go into building community enterprises and when it is not done properly they are not structured well; we fall into very serious problems that lead us to overexploiting our natural resources. In the Pueblos Mancomunados enterprise there are water companies, furniture companies, in which unfortunately you get lost because of lack of knowledge; with the effort of wanting to do more and more, eventually the natural resources run out, which in our case is the water and the forest part that the elders left us and now it is our turn to conserve (José Meza, 40 years, Communal Representative from Lachatao).

For the community of Santa Catarina Lachatao, the forest pest Dendroctonus adjunctus is out of control ^{(Ortiz, 2011)} and the desiccation of many springs in the Pueblos Mancomunados (Plan de Desarrollo Regional, 1996-2000), is the manifestation that the forest exploitation carried out by the community forest enterprise is not adequate and the forest ecosystem has deteriorated. Therefore, under the traditional structure of the government of customs and traditions, the community of Lachatao has begun to manage the forest territory arranged since 2011, against the posture of their municipal agencies in the municipality of Amatlán, as well as the state and federal authorities.

The community of Santa Catarina Lachatao has taken advantage of errors in conflict management and has shown fierce determination, accompanied by acts of resistance, confrontation and negotiation; it has achieved the recognition for the protection of its forest area under the structure of traditional government of customs and traditions, in force in the state of Oaxaca, obtaining local rights of authority over the forest resources.

The conflict around a common territory by the eight communities that make up the Pueblos Mancomunados is critical, entails the confrontation of different visions and practices around the forest resources by actors that are found at different levels of power and which participate in different reproduction strategies around the same territory and resources. The communities deploy at the same time diverse strategies framed by their levels of power and capacities, attempt to defend their forms of appropriation and lifestyles. The common management of the Community Forest Enterprise and those of the communities obey to historical recursive relationships with different actors and public policies, as well as to the historical, economic, environmental and development context of local infrastructure and technologies.

In addition to the territorial dispute with the other six communities of the Pueblos Mancomunados and the Community Forest Enterprise, Lachatao currently faces a concession for the mining exploitation in their forest that the federal government granted a Canadian mining enterprise which has the intention of performing open-pit gold exploitation. Thus, in 2007 the mining enterprise reached the community, certain that the concession from the highest federal power would allow them to work without difficulties in the forest of the Pueblos Mancomunados; however, facing the arrival of machinery, inhabitants from the Lachatao area mobilized quickly to close the access paths to the forest and retain the mining machines.

The Lachatao community carried out a decisive peaceful defense of what they consider to be their territory, which led to intense negotiation tables between the authorities and the men leaders, with broad experience in these processes, where the two parts set out their positions, supported by the authority aspects that they considered having. The community stated its categorical refusal to allow mineral extraction in its territory, due to the fear towards the pollution that open-pit mining could cause, which could provoke irreparable damages in the course of the springs and the soil quality with the explosions, as is expressed in the following testimony:

Five years ago a company arrived that wanted to exploit the resources. We organized ourselves as a community; we stopped all the equipment they brought. We told them, “we are not going to allow you to come to exploit here in the community”, we had about a week in direct dialogue. It was a Canadian company; they came to offer us money, they asked if we wanted a sports field, a school or a highway. The community decided that “nothing”, for they were going to be close to the community, to work right on the ground, to impact strongly the zone, and it was going to be very negative for tourism. The Canadian mining company argued that they had the concession in this zone and that they could enter, exploit; we answered that maybe they had the concession of the subsoil, but that the part of the soil was our responsibility, the community’s (José Meza, 40 years, Communal Representative from Santa Catarina Lachatao).

Mining is rejected because of the historical recognition that men and women communal land owners have that its practice means meagre earnings in the towns and large earnings for the businessmen. The collective memory generates rejection towards the mining exploitation, particularly if it is a foreign company. Despite the offer of the creation of a source of jobs for the communal land owners and the construction of infrastructure for the community by the Canadian company, the prior experience of mining activity in the community generates rejection towards this type of project.

Forty or fifty year ago, the strongest activity in Lachatao was mining, with the “minimal” security conditions, from this that many citizens died at 55, 60, 70 years; they didn’t hold out much, and that’s why there are many widows, few men (Valeria Sánchez, 34 years, secretary of the Ecotourism Committee).

Their collective strength allowed them to face the rich mining company; however, far from feeling confident for having safeguarded their territory, the awareness that in face of a powerful adversary it is important to weave alliances and participate jointly with other communities has led the community of Santa Catarina Lachatao to create a rejection front to the mining activity in the region, together with the municipality of Calpulalpam de Méndez, Oaxaca. It was observed that in Santa Catarina Lachatao what ^{Rodríguez et al. (2010)} point out as a movement of global character is taking place in parallel to the new indigenous movements that struggle for the recognition of their territory and which resort to alliances to broaden their scales of power, appealing to international treaties and solidarity between indigenous peoples of the world, as is confirmed next:

The community has been protected from the invasion of foreign companies; we have had talks, and alliances with Calpulalpam to defend our natural resources. These companies speak of perforations of 300 to 500 or even up to 1000 meters deep, and then they can damage the aquifers. In our case we are in the low part; the mining exploitation would have large consequences, filtering, but the other communities have not become aware (Joaquín Fonseca, 60 years, communal land owner and former president of Lachatao).

The alliance was established formally between authorities and members of the two communities. It included a peregrination accompanied by band music, a religious event, and the participation of the grandmothers, considered the guardians of tradition, and of the original Zapotec culture. Therefore, the defense of the territory and natural resources transcends the identity plane, renovated and recreated by the communities. The alliance between communities is strengthened with the rite, and through it the pact acquires greater importance, reinforcing the ideal of resisting and fighting for the continuity of their millenary communities.

The forest is then a fundamental space not only in the material aspect, but also in the identity aspect, as has been manifested by ^{Nabanoga (2005)}. Life and reproduction of the community depend on the “hill” resources (vegetation), and their environmental characteristics, on the dynamic economic, political and social context that generates changes in the reproduction strategies, which are influenced by the collective memory of past experiences and by a collective lifestyle that is rooted and regulated by strong and legitimate institutions.

The government of customs and traditions and forest management in Santa Catarina Lachatao

Like the other 417 towns in Oaxaca, the community of Santa Catarina Lachatao resisted the attacks against the “communality” of the governments by the “Reforma”, managed to conserve the indigenous ownership of the land, as well as its traditional government form, which is currently known as government by “customs and traditions”, which was recognized legally in Article 14 of the Oaxaca State Government in the year 1995 ^{(Vázquez, 2011)}.

The government of customs and traditions is made up of four agencies: the assembly, the municipality, the public prosecutor, and the group of “caracterizados” or “tatas mandones”. These organisms have different attributions and different spaces of power that have evolved to adapt to the changes and new needs in local contexts and broader scales.

The government of customs and traditions is characterized by being close to what is known as “participant democracy” in which decision making does not fall on a small group of leaders, but rather in the group of citizens that make up the maximum authority through the institution of the “assembly”. All the themes related to communal life are dealt with in the assembly and all the men and women who reach adulthood at 18 years participate in it, according to what they say ^{(Mitchell, 2008)}.

However, there are differences in the political participation of men and women, as manifested by the conformation of the assembly, which does not agree with the proportion of men and women residing in Santa Catarina Lachatao. In the list of recognized men and women citizens, there are 57 men and only 37 women (who are majority in the community), which is because, according to some interview respondents, “women or men heads of households” attend the assembly by obligation. Women can attend with their spouse and participate; however, only three active women citizens who are not “heads of households” actually do.

At 18 years old, they begin to become active citizens; even then, some young men and women who maybe are not overage, but who are becoming involved in affairs of the town, as in the tequios, start attending the assemblies as listeners and from there they start becoming aware of the responsibility of the positions that must be performed… there in the assembly when list is taken, they name men and women. Many women do not attend because of the criterion that their husbands or sons are the ones who do it, but this criterion should not be; before, there were punishments for those who did not attend, but currently that has been lost and that stays in each person’s conscience (Joaquín Fonseca, 60 years, citizen and former president of Lachatao).

The assembly

Community assemblies are carried out the first Saturdays of the month and every man and woman citizen from the community can participate; that is, overage men and women, young people who have formed a domestic group or are single women. In Lachatao´s government of customs and traditions, participation in the assemblies is an “obligation” for active citizens, since they must all participate in decision making and it is considered mandatory to be well-informed and fulfill correctly the positions they are assigned, for if they do not they could lose their rights as communal land owners, which include land possession, provision of public services such as drinking and irrigation water, sanitation services, and community help in case of emergency. If they do not comply with the positions, the men and women citizens can be dispossessed of the land, which represents the maximum expression of citizenship in indigenous communities.

In the assemblies the municipal authorities occupy the presidium, together with the municipal trustee; these take place at night, begin with a solemn opening by the municipal president, and attendance list is taken. “Paisanos” who reside in Oaxaca City or Mexico City also attend the meetings, and they are organized into three associations of “lachatenses”. They participate by raising funds, managing resources, and providing different services (dental care, legal counsel, technical advice) in benefit of their community.

I was interested in knowing what was happening in the town so that I couldn’t be misled by commentaries that are not true. In the case that a person leaves, we have to notify the authority. If they have properties they have to comply with the town, provide a service, pay their taxes; if they do not comply or do not support, the town realizes it and can say: this house can be sold because this person doesn’t support us in any way. It has happened before that many have their properties and suddenly they come back and say: “I’m going to sell”, without knowing if the town has worked to get water to their terrain or house and they are told: “you owe this much in tequios, cooperation, land, commissions. You must be up to date when you want to sell” (Joaquín Fonseca, 60 years, communal land owner and former president of Lachatao).

In the assemblies, the authorities inform about their activities and the municipality’s finances. The inhabitants have the right to talk, express their opinions and question the authority at any time, requesting their turn by raising a hand. There is space for “general affairs”; the attendants can present proposals, criticisms, and clarifications of the community’s issues.

In the assemblies, all the issues of the municipality are dealt with and the authorities’ and the different committees’ work is accounted for, as well as the expenses and investments; proposals for community work and financial requests for local development projects are also made. In the assembly, women and men have right to voice and vote; however, women’s participation is reduced, as was confirmed in person and from declarations by interview respondents.

Women can attend the assembly, nobody prohibits it, a president insisted a lot once for them to attend, and they were even summoned by name and they would attend. The president said “it is important for you to attend the assembly, for you to be in the know, so that later you don’t say the wrong thing; in addition, woman many times thinks better than man”; but the president died, the women stopped going, and it’s very wrong because later they don’t know things because they don’t go (Evelia Ruíz, 50 years, citizen of Lachatao).

Despite the assemblies taking place at night, in order not to interfere with the work schedule of the collectivity, most women citizens do not attend, because many are young women who have young children, sick people and elderly under their care, or because there are not interested in the political life of the community; for example, in March 2012, out of 37 active women citizens only eight attended. It should be pointed out that the assemblies last for several hours, since there are many issues to deal with or strong disagreements to settle, so they can last up to eight hours and finish during the early morning the next day. What ^{Agarwal (2001)} points out should be considered, in the sense that low participation of women in assemblies and committees dominated by men is because they perceive that their participation is of low significance, and that the influence that they can have in decision making is low. This reflection by Agarwal is made patent in the scarce participation that women had in the assembly witnessed, and in that most of the attendees occupied the furthest places from the presidium table.

In the positions as municipal and syndical authorities there is a low feminine presence and participation, however some women (older than 60 years) currently occupy positions that previously were destined only to men (two decades ago), as is the case of the position of topil and mayor. In June 2012 a 64-year-old woman who lived in Mexico City, retired, would travel every third week to Lachatao to serve for 15 days as topil, to later return and tend to her unmarried son. The woman pointed out that this was the first position that she had and that she felt satisfied for holding it. Her character of older woman allowed her to stay to watch over the municipal presidency, as well as travel alone to other towns without her honorability being at risk.

In Santa Catarina Lachatao a woman occupied the position of Municipal President from 2002 to 2004; since then, no other woman has held such a position. She was not elected by the assembly; the one chosen was her husband, who being absent won the shortlist of three candidates for municipal president. In face of the permanent absence of the spouse, because of business commitments, Catalina Martínez became the first woman to occupy the highest level of individual power in the government of customs and traditions.

I like being the mayor and knowing how to write a document, measure the perimeter and dimensions of the terrain, all of that. I cannot climb everywhere, on very inclined lands, because I can fall, I can tumble; instead, the men, being men, go wherever and I tell them, I write it down, and they tell me the measurements. Before, women did not hold positions; for example, my father did have one, but my mother didn’t; my grandfather, but not his wife. Before, women did not go to the assemblies, they didn’t vote, I think they started in 1980 or 1981. I say that this change came to see if women could really respond when having a position (Mayoress Catalina Martínez, 69 years).

Starting with the exercise of Catalina Martínez in the municipal presidency, more women in the region have occupied this position. However, in the community there persists the conception that women have a “supporting” role in the government of customs and traditions, which is why holding positions is transgressive and can contribute to negotiating new fields of action for women and to transforming traditional gender cultural systems, although there is still strong resistance against it.

Here, when a tequio is carried out the authority leads and the president and his councilors begin their work. The lady president could not work with the machete, could not handle the “hoe” or the “wheelbarrow”, she could not be “front and center”. Also, the lady president did not like to give out mezcal as the men presidents do; so, she would hand out bread or water and that’s it, and at some point she said: well, hand me the shovel, but the men said: “no, no, you are good like this, better to bring the mezcal”. Then, she was there and that’s what she did because she knew she had to be upfront (Ernesto González, fourth session of the Seminary on Communality: Lachatao, 2012)

The position of municipal president is considered the supreme authority in the community, and its figure is fully respected; all men and women address him as “president”, since he holds the baton. The president directs the assemblies, but his power is not absolute, for it must be ruled by the principle of “to lead by obeying”. The president is the person who responds for his people, but his voice is the voice of the community; that is, his pronouncements are not personal or authoritarian, but rather representative. If the president does not comply with what the majority decide, he is removed if it is interpreted that he is not fulfilling his role as representative. The governments of customs and traditions are closer to participative democracy than those of party regime, where there is no room to discuss problems, agree on solutions and common projects, or for the authorities to be held fully accountable to the citizenship, or for the removal from the mandate because of the breach of their duties, as reported by ^{Mitchell (2008)} for the case of the community of Yavesía.

However, by law the communal agrarian groups have different jurisdiction than the municipal authorities. In the case of Lachatao, it has ceased to be this way because a committee has been constituted based on the government of customs and traditions, chosen in the assembly, that is held accountable to it, whose actions are determined by the citizens and the group of caracterizados. Municipal community and authorities have been building a strategy for the allocation of the territory, the aspects of local authority on forest resources. Women have been practically absent from the discussion and decision spaces; however, they have a role in this defense, which is subordinate and with very low power and valuation, but fundamental to the concretion of the strategy.

People from Latuvi came last week in an ugly attitude, demanding to be part of the new government. The thing is they got bad information; they put ideas into them that they should demand things that do not correspond to them here in the municipality. What they wanted to do is go into the municipality because of the vegetation, weakening us, infiltrating, but my husband says that they talked to them calmly, they explained that it could not be, and they were appeased or disillusioned. They had a lawyer and when people here told them about the forest and the government, they said: “the forest is something quite different than the government (of customs and traditions)”, but it can’t be set apart, it is the same, it cannot be separated (Evelia Ruiz, 50 years, citizen from Lachatao).

Even with the lack of knowledge of the authority of the communal commissary of the Pueblos Mancomunados, the town of Lachatao has created a committee for vigilance and forest sanitation which is inserted in its traditional government structure, disrupting with it what is mandated by the Law on the separation of local aspects of the authorities of communal and civil goods. The community considers that under its own social, economic and political organization, there cannot be a division of power and authority in these spheres (the municipal and the communal property). Therefore, because of customs and traditions, his nephew, who has as maximum authority the assembly, has resumed the management of the forest through all its traditional government agencies. Due to the violation of national laws and of the interests of the other communities that make up the Pueblos Mancomunados (which legally have possession), the conflict over differences in forest management and what it means to these actors has been coarse at certain moments. The Lachatao inhabitants care about the environmental services of the forest and its care, and the localities that support the community forest enterprise, their usufruct.

Conditions of sustainability in the appropriation of the Lachatao forest

From the critical view of gender, it is recognized that the government of customs and traditions has democratic, positive and effective aspects for the negotiation between different groups that integrate the community, but it also has a markedly exclusive character for women, reproduces factors of inequality for them, with which, despite its management of the forest, strays away from sustainable development. In this form of local government, some favorable conditions are created for the sustainable forest management that ^{Ostrom (2011)} suggests, although due to the existence of the exclusion of women from the spaces of discussion and decision making about the forest, the character of sustainable forest management is not favored. As ^{Lagarde (1997)} and ^{Martínez (2000)} point out, sustainability includes gender justice and what is sustainable can be reduced to the management of forest or other ecosystems.

^{Ostrom (2011)} points out that the factors that favor sustainability in the management of the RUCs are:

“1) well-defined limits on the inclusion and exclusion for the appropriation of the RUCs; 2) coherence between rules of appropriation and provision, and local conditions (well-designed rules); 3) arrangements for collective election where most of those affected by operative rules can participate in their modification; 4) active monitoring and accountability of those who monitor; 5) calibrated sanctions, depending on the gravity and context of offense by the appropriators, corresponding officials, or both; 6) existence of mechanisms for the resolution of conflicts where there is a fast access to these.”

In terms of the clear limits regarding who gain access and appropriate the forest resources, it was found that in the community there are defined mechanisms to determine who the men and women appropriators are, stemming from the recognition of the citizenship of the man or woman head of household. The adult citizens who participate actively in the community are the ones who have the right to appropriate the forest resources; it is the assembly that defines the resources to be appropriated, as well as aspects of their management (amount, season, closed season, among others). Citizenship is not a status that is granted, but rather a position that is earned with the participation in obligations and responsibilities of free communal work (known as tequio), community service through the exercise of some position or commission in the government structure and social organization, and with the payment of cooperation for community services and festivities. In the government of customs and traditions the character of the collective work to be performed is defined in the assembly, as well as the participation of the women and men citizens in public positions and commissions, and the amount of monetary cooperation to cover the expenses of the community services and festivities.

The fact that men and women heads of households do not fulfill the obligations agreed upon leads to their disclaim as citizens and their exclusion from communal services and goods, which include forest resources such as water, wood, firewood, medicinal plants, fungi and forest land. This way, the community established well-defined limits regarding the inclusion and exclusion of resources of common use.

It was found that the assembly is a space in which men and women citizens agree on the rules of appropriation and provision in agreement with the local conditions. Once a month they meet to deal with matters of common interest, including those related to the forest. The assembly has established the forms of appropriation of the resources of common use which include the definition of those resources that can be taken advantage of, the volume that can be extracted, the seasons and the restrictions on them. The volume of morillos (tree posts for construction) which corresponds to each citizen have been defined; the forest species that can be taken advantage of in the case of firewood point to specifications of the parts and characteristics of what can be extracted, such as dry secondary branches; the total cut of the tree or shrub is prohibited.

In terms of non-timber resources, the extraction of moss and ornamental vegetation such as orchids and bromeliads is prohibited, but the exploitation of medicinal plants and edible fungi for self-supply is still permitted, prohibiting the sale of these in external markets. It is allowed for forest land to be used to fertilize backyards and small agricultural units, although its commercialization has been prohibited. It has been agreed to prohibit the hunt of birds and mammals, which are conceived currently as resources for tourism activity, same as the plant diversity and the landscape itself.

The community has undertaken the task of forest restoration through the “tequio” (unpaid mandatory community work) by performing reforestation and establishing dead barriers to decrease soil erosion and to increase the organic matter in it, as well as even forest sanitation, with the elimination of sick trees and contaminated plant residues.

However, the fact that the conception that the man is the head of household prevails, and that he represents the interests of the whole domestic group, provokes for feminine participation in the assemblies to be quite low, with which equality between genders becomes impossible in the design of the norms and real coherence between the rules of appropriation and the local conditions cannot be guaranteed. The low access that women have to this space of discussion and agreements increases the propagation of rumors that question the decisions of the assembly and generate instability in the collective action, damaging the agreements assumed.

The reproduction of inequality is justified with the role and the responsibilities assigned to men and women, which have an impact on the access to spaces in community decision making.

As a citizen, I want to tell you the importance that women have in community participation in Lachatao; I believe it is an example that our mothers have inherited to us, such an important role in taking care of the family, which has been a support for all the citizens that have given much of their time, of their effort (Valeria Sánchez, 34 years: participant in the Seminary of Communal Land Owners in Lachatao, 2012).

Although the community assembly is a space where those affected by the operation rules can participate to modify them, the factual exclusion of women leads to not being able to assert the universality of this right. The cultural conception that the man head of the domestic household represents the opinion and interests of his family members and that the women are only in charge of caring for the family cannot be taken for granted; therefore, work must be done to generate mechanisms that guarantee the egalitarian participation of women and men in the different spaces.

From the stance of the community of Santa Catarina Lachatao there is active monitoring of the forest, because the local population maintains that members of the other communities carry out nocturnal plundering of natural resources. There are permanent stalls to monitor that outside people do not gain access to the territory that the community has obtained and for the population itself from Santa Catarina Lachatao not to infringe the norms. The permanent monitors receive a small compensation for their work; they are assisted by the body of officers from the municipal syndicate that carry out this task as part of the fulfillment of their community position. The monitors produce their reports and accounts at the community assemblies, with which this principle pointed out by Ostrom as necessary for the sustainable management of the RFUCs is confirmed.

The community has defined calibrated sanctions for internal offenders in the space of the assembly where the conflicts generated are discussed in an expedite manner. However, the community and the forest commission do not have the possibility of sanctioning the population that does not belong to the community and infringes on the agreements, for the forest management currently made of the forest by their vigilance bodies and internal norms are not recognized in their totality by forestty institutions. The community of Lachatao has resorted to protesting, divulging accusations of the alleged corruption of the Community Forest Enterprise, taking advantage of mistakes by the agents involved who they confront to earn outside recognition, of their organization for forest management. However, this recognition has implicit the character of fragility that places community management of the forest in the community at risk.