Study area

The research was carried out in three ejidos of the municipality of Texcoco, Estado de México: Ejido San Miguel Tlaixpan, Ejido San Pablo Ixayoc and Ejido Tequexquinahuac. The three ejidos are located in the forest area known as “mountainous zone”, which is the highest part of the municipality and where most of the forest ejidos and communities are located.

This municipality is located in the eastern foothills of the endorheic basin called “Valle de México”, at a distance of 25 km from Mexico City, between geographic coordinates: Longitude 98° 39’ 28” W and 99° 01’ 45” W; Minimum Latitude: 19° 23’ 40” N and 19° 33’ 41”. The territorial extension is 418.69 square kilometers and located in eastern Estado de México, at an approximate distance of 25 kilometers from Mexico City¹.

This study was performed in the municipality of Texcoco which has, according to the INEGI (2010) census, a population of 235 151 people; however, it shares the aquifer with Chicoloapan, Chimalhuacan and Nezahualcoyotl, which are among the municipalities with highest population number and density in the country. This situation makes the aquifer on which Texcoco is settled one of the most overexploited in the whole county. According to the National Water Commission (CONAGUA), Texcoco is located in the Water Extraction Zone 9-01 Valle de México, whose hydrological condition is of extreme overexploitation, which is why it has been declared as a closed zone for the opening of new wells. ^{Escobar and Palacios (2012)} calculated the rate of aquifer overexploitation in -67.61 hm³ year^-1, which translates into an average annual reduction of the water table of 1.20 meters during the period 1969-2009.

For this reason, this aquifer was selected by CONAFOR and PROBOSQUE as a zone to support actions for the recharge of aquifers through environmental services.

Case study method

The study was performed in 2012, based on the case study method. This has a qualitative and descriptive character, primarily, even when both qualitative (flexible structured interviews, observation and others) and quantitative (archives, field measurements, and others) information is gathered. The results from this method cannot be inferred for a larger population, but they allow an examination and in-depth scrutiny from the gathering of a large amount of detailed data, allowing a complete image of a social phenomenon (^{Salkind, 1999}).

^{Rodríguez (1996)} mentions that a study of multiple cases presents more convincing evidences and, therefore, the study is more robust; because of this, three cases were selected.

Sampling

The selection of the three ejidos was made based on three common characteristics: 1) they are located in the same forest zone of the municipality of Texcoco; 2) they were benefitted by the Federal Program for Hydrological Environmental Services during the 2005-2010 period; and 3) the five years of backing from this program had already concluded.

Non-probabilistic directed sampling was carried out because the PSAH beneficiaries are the ejidos and not the individual ejidatarios, which is why most of them did not understand the process of negotiating the backing and many didn’t even receive payments for their workdays because they did not work in the tasks carried out on the properties benefitted. Therefore, the greatest part of the information came from key informants who functioned as ejido representatives in the management of PSAH supports and were the ones who organized the conservation works in the properties benefitted by the program.

A quota sample was taken of five ejidatarios per ejido (15 in total) who had participated in the construction of conservation works and tasks in the properties benefitted. The ejidatarios were asked only a few questions to corroborate aspects that they knew about, such as, for example, accountability of the PSAH resources, or else, about information that would interest them, such as payment of workdays that they received for their work in the conservation tasks. Therefore, this sample of ejidatarios cannot be considered representative and only had the function of detecting inconsistencies, imprecisions, or explanations given by the key informant. In the end, no significant discrepancies were found between the leaders and the ejidatarios.

Lastly, an interview was performed with the Forest Technical Services Provider (Prestador de Servicios Técnicos Forestales, PSTF) from each ejido. A questionnaire was designed with a much more technical approach, but also repeating some points to verify the information obtained with the key informants and ejidatarios chosen randomly.

Research instruments

Structured interviews: Three questionnaires were designed that served to gather information through direct interviews with the social actors: key informants, ejidatarios and technical advisory staff.

Field visits: Field visits were carried out in the three ejidos, visiting the forest properties that participated in the PSAH program with the aim of understanding the different conservation practices and tasks that were performed in the forest during the period of backing, as well as understanding their current state once the support from the program ended. In the three cases a commission was designated, integrated by two or more people from each ejido who knew the place perfectly well and who had been fully involved in the PSAH activities.

Participant observation: It is a research and learning method through which the researcher is exposed and becomes involved in the day-to-day life or routine activities of the participants (^{Kawulich, 2005}). The information was obtained during several visits to the ejidos where activities of the ejidatarios were observed, performing activities related to the forest.

Condition of the properties benefitted, before participating in the PSAH program

The predominant forest species in the three ejidos was Abies religiosa (sacred fir), occupying more than 60 % of the total surface of each one of the properties. This was due to the altitudinal characteristics of these properties (above 2500 masl). The second predominant species was pine (Pinus hartwegii, Pinus pseudostrobus, Pinus montezumae (ocote) and in a lower percentage, oak (Quercus spp.).

At the beginning of their participation in the program, the three properties were contemplated within the forest management program of each ejido, except under status of “in recovery or rest”. This means that during the five years of backing they could not be exploited to allow the forest tree cover to become stronger. In 2005 the properties in the ejidos of Tequexquinahuac and San Pablo Ixayoc were waiting to be exploited, and in the case of the ejido of San Miguel Tlaixpan the property had just been exploited.

According to the information obtained, one of the main reasons to participate in the PSAH was not only to continue caring for and conserving the forest, but also because the participating property was resting at that moment.

In the three cases the surface backed was 200 hectares located in a single property or polygon. This coincidence is because in 2005 the area in recovery or rest did not have to exceed 200 hectares per beneficiary. Therefore, each ejido could not aspire to participate with a larger surface.

In the three cases the participating properties were not the areas with highest risk of deforestation, nor were they abandoned areas, but rather they were included within the ejido’s Forest Management Program. Even in the ejido of San Miguel Tlaixpan, the participating property was the best conserved zone of the forest.

Payments for hydrological environmental services

The main mechanism for backing from the PSAH toward the ejidos was the transference of economic resources in exchange of two principal conditions: 1) not to perform forest extraction in the properties benefitted; and 2) to carry out conservation works and tasks to improve the ecological conditions of the properties to maintain the plant coverage.

In 2005, the PSAH paid a fee of $300.00 ha^-1, which meant an amount of $60 000.00 annually for the 200 ha in each property benefitted. The money had to be destined to paying for workdays, services and materials necessary to perform conservation works and activities. When asking the ejidatarios what they invested the resources in, the ejido of Tequexquinahuac and San Pablo Ixayoc pointed out that they were destined entirely to the forest conservation actions and in the ejido of San Miguel Tlaixpan, 60 % was destined to conservation actions and 40 % to building the ejido hall.

None of the ejidos destined the money to distribute to ejidatarios, which is why the only form of economic benefit was payment for workdays to carry out conservation works. In the interviews they key informants and the ejidatarios agreed that the fee paid by the PSAH is too low and that it doesn’t even cover the costs of giving good maintenance to the forest. The majority agreed that the fee should be at least $1500.00, in addition to paying for the whole surface of the ejido and not only for 200 ha. Even so, the interview respondents appreciated the backing received from the PSAH because they considered that the conditions of the forest improved.

According to ^{Porras et al. (2008)}, the payment from programs for environmental services promoted by the national or local governments seek to be temporary payment mechanisms that the State makes to owners of forests and rainforests, while a market for environmental services is formed where water consumers pay a certain amount of money to the forest owners for their conservation that allows maintaining the infiltration of underground water and runoffs toward superficial channels.

Key informants pointed out that CONAFOR never suggested the possibility of creating a permanent market mechanism where consumers of water extracted from the aquifer would pay the ejidatarios a certain amount for payment of hydrological environmental services provided by their forests. This meant that at the end of the five years of backing granted by the PSAH the ejidos ceased to obtain income for environmental services.

Conservation works, of soil and water, carried out during the backing period

In 2005 the operation rules of the PSAH did not contemplate the implementation of the Better Management Practices Program (Programa de Mejores Prácticas de Manejo, PMPM). Within the rights and obligations of the PSAH beneficiaries, it was only considered to “maintain as minimum vigilance of the property”, with the aim of ensuring the conservation of the same forest cover that the property had at the beginning of the backing.

Backing of the PSAH to the three ejidos began in 2005, which is why none of them had the commitment or obligation of performing activities of conservation or restoration in their properties. However, in the three cases several activities were carried out to improve the conditions of the forest.

Some of the works performed were: reforestations, opening ditch trenches, dams with branches, andirons and arranged stones, opening firebreak trails, arrangement of dead plant material, placing signs, pruning and chaponeo, among others.

Reforestations: Reforestation was an activity carried out in the three ejidos; although there was a variation in the number of hectares reforested, this difference was not significant. The ejido with smallest surface reforested was San Pablo Ixayoc (15 ha) and the largest was San Miguel Tlaixpan (30 ha).

Blind tubs or ditch trenches: They were made in the ejidos of San Miguel Tlaixpan and Tequexquinahuac. In the first these works covered a surface of two hectares. The size of the ditches was two meters long by 0.5 m deep, and 0.4 wide. In Tequexquinahuac a total surface of three hectares was covered, with presence of ditches of two different sizes, two and five meters long (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Area of blind tubs in Ejido de Tequexquinahuac. 

Branch dams: They were built only in the ejidos of Tequexquinahuac and San Pablo Ixayoc, with the objective of retaining sediments, as well as reducing the speed of runoff. In total, four works of this type were identified in the ejido of San Pablo Ixayoc and three in Tequexquinahuac (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Branch dams in Ejido de Tequexquinahuac. 

Andiron dams: The ejidos of Tequexquinahuac and San Pablo Ixayoc were the only ones that carried out this type of works for soil conservation. In Tequexquinahuac, three dams of this type were found, and five in San Pablo Ixayoc.

Arranged stone dams: This type of works was only performed in the ejido of Tequexquinahuac, building in total three dams (Figure 3).

Figure 3 Arranged stone dam in Ejido de Tequexquinahuac. 

Repair and maintenance of paths: The three ejidos invested resources in this type of works. They joined efforts and resources to repair, together, part of the main access road to the forest, since the benefit was collective. However, San Pablo Ixayoc invested more resources in the repair of secondary roads (Figure 4).

Figure 4 Maintenance of the main access road to the forest. 

Vigilance: The vigilance activities were covered totally by the three ejidos, without the support of the PSAH, although the ejido of San Pablo Ixayoc is the one that stood out most in this activity.

Firefighting brigades: None of the three ejidos has a permanent firefighting brigade; however, both Tequexquinahuac and San Pablo Ixayoc are very well organized to combat the fires when they happen. In its turn, San Miguel Tlaixpan does not have a defined strategy where each brigade member executes a function to combat this type of disasters, which is why they have asked for support from neighboring ejidos when a fire has taken place.

Opening and maintaining firebreak trails: The three ejidos already have a Forest Management Program, including the properties supported. This means that the firebreak trails had been traced prior to the PSAH and they only gave them maintenance. Only the ejido of San Miguel Tlaixpan opened a new trail (50 meters long) (Figure 5).

Figure 5 Opening of firebreak trails in Ejido San Miguel Tlaixpan. 

Placing signs: Although it was not mandatory, the three ejidos placed more than two signs in each property supported (5 to 20 signs) (Figure 6).

Figure 6 Sign placed on the property in Ejido San Pablo Ixayoc. 

Condition of the forest properties once backing from the PSAH concluded

In the interviews, the ejidatarios and the key informants manifested that the properties benefitted by the PSAH are in better conditions today than at the beginning of the program backing because works to improve the forest were carried out with resources from the program. In the field visits it was observed that the forests in the three ejido properties have a vigorous, healthy and pleasant appearance as a result of the good care and management that ejidatarios have performed. Therefore, the properties fulfill adequately the provision of hydrological environmental services (Figure 7).

Figure 7 Pine forest (Pinus spp.) in Ejido Tequexquinahuac. 

All the interview respondents agreed that the forest properties supported by the PSAH are in better conditions than before receiving the backing and they pointed to three reasons: 1) in the properties benefitted no timber extraction was done for five years; 2) the ejidos fulfilled the commitments acquired through operation rules of the PSAH because they carried out conservation works and activities to improve the forest conditions (reforestations, works for soil and water conservation, prevention of fires, among others) with the PSAH resources; and 3) no serious disasters took place (such as the presence of fires, pests or diseases), or problems with clandestine felling in the three periods supported.

Two years after having concluded with the payments for environmental services from CONAFOR to the three ejidos, the ejidatarios continue to perform some improvement activities. For example, it was observed in the field that in Tequexquinahuac chaponeos and pruning were performed; in San Miguel Tlaixpan, reforestations and maintenance of firebreak trails; and in San Pablo Ixayoc constant vigilance is still being performed.

After concluding their participation in the PSAH, currently only one of the ejidos continues to receive backing from CONAFOR and the other two participate in the Payment for Hydrological Environmental Services of the Estado de México government. However, the three are participating with properties different from the ones backed by the PSAH from 2005 to 2010. This indicates that they have been able to take advantage of the backing available in different levels of government (federal and state), which is motivated because the payments for environmental services that the PSAH grants were very scarce.

The properties from the three forest ejidos that participated in the PSAH (2005-2010) currently have the following use:

The property in the ejido of Tequexquinahuac is being exploited under the Forest Management Program because its “resting” time has concluded, as well as its participation in the program. Today’s interest in the ejido is to carry out timber extraction.

The property in the ejido of San Miguel Tlaixpan was declared “reserve area”, with the aim of conserving it and not making timber extractions. The decision of the ejido was based on the fact that this property is located at a distance far from the ejido nucleus, which is why it has always been one of the areas of the forest best conserved and is found on the perimeter of the Izta-Popo National Park, which is a Natural Protected Area. The property is currently in closed season and is being watched by the ejidatarios, although extraction of moss and lama has been authorized.

Lastly, the property in the ejido of San Pablo Ixayoc is waiting to be exploited, once the new Management Plan in the ejido is approved, because the last one’s validity ended in 2010.