In recent years, the forest-related cooperation of Mexico and Finland has focused on strengthening the organisations of forest owners in Mexico. There are 64 million hectares of land classified as forest in Mexico, almost all of it in private hands. The government of Mexico does not own forests.

Instead, the owners consist of municipalities, villages and individual citizens. The body responsible for forest policy in Mexico is the National Forest Commission (Comisión Nacional Forestal) under the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources.

The two countries have engaged in forest cooperation for a long time. The acknowledgement is for all this work, begun by Mr. Aarne Nyyssönen and Mr. Gustaf Sirén, both professors of forestry, in 1967. Closer cooperation began in 1982. At first it focused on creating a forest strategy for Mexico, methods for planning forestry activities, training and education, transferring forest technology as well as making forest inventories.

Mr. Juan Manuel Torres Rojo, General Director of the Forest Comission and Markku Simula opening the library. Photo: Conafor.

The forests in Mexico do not bear much resemblance to those in Finland. They are mountainous – which means that one usually cannot use Finnish forest technology without modifications – and a large share of the land is low-productive. The loggings in Mexico amount to up to seven million cubic meters annually.

The wood is bought mainly by the sawmilling industry, but there are also three pulp mills in Mexico. The sawmills are small by Finnish standards, their capacity being less than 30,000 cubic meters annually.

There are two main reasons to this: harvesting is expensive and the share of illegal logging high, which does not create a sustainable basis for large investments.

Finnish forest owners’ MTK is involved, too
Mexico is a federal republic, and the governance of its villages is regulated by the Constitution. When the country gained its independence, forest and agriculture lands were nationalized and given to the villages.

The villages were given the right to hand over the agricultural lands to their inhabitants. As regards forestry lands, they have had a similar right only since 2005. At the moment some 15 percent of the forestry lands are owned by individual citizens, though the share is increasing.

Forest owners are organized according to the model used in Finland. Finnish forest owners’ union MTK has been involved in creating the structure.

All in all, 210 local associations of forest owners have been established in Mexico. These form unions on the state level, which in turn form a federal organisation called CONOSIL.

MTK has supported the development of Mexico’s forest owners’ organization and the services it offers to its members.

During a three-year joint project between MTK and CONOSIL, over 8,000 forest owners and forest officials have been trained; additionally, forest planning has been developed. In general, the size of forest holdings owned by the villages varies between five and 30,000 hectares, but the largest holding reaches up to two million hectares.

The forest cooperation of Mexico and Finland continues between the Commission and the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. During previous years, roughly one hundred Finnish forest specialists have participated in the work, and in addition some biologists and economists.

By Hannes Mäntyranta
Forest.fi