Neoliberalism and Commodity Production in Mexico

9. Neoliberalism and the Social Relations of Forestry Production in Chihuahua

187 N i n e NeoliberalismandtheSocialRelationsof ForestryProductioninChihuahua ThomasWeaver O el árbol o la tortilla de mis hijos. Y de que coma el árbol a que coman mis chamacos, pues mejor mis chamacos. (It is either the tree or my children’s tortilla . And in a choice between the survival of the tree, it is better that my kids eat.) Response from a forester; Weaver Field Notes 1997 Poor farmers and pastoralists differ from environmentalists, foresters, and corporations in their views and expectations regarding the goals of timber production. Poor farmers view attempts to protect the forest as inimical to providing food for their families. Environmentalists rarely consider the welfare of long-term residents of these lands and at times appear to support corporate interests. The corporate view holds that forest products are commodities that should be distributed for profit to national and international markets. The result is that although Mexico possesses one of the largest forest reserves in the world, overexploitation makes it a net importer of wood products. This chapter examines this condition by discussing forestry policy, production, and commodity chains in the context of neoliberalism. I have divided the analysis into four phases: (1) the extraction 188 ThomasWeaver of lumber during a long period of Spanish and Mexican mining, ranching, and farming estates up to the end of the Mexican Revolution in the second decade of the twentieth century; (2) an era of Mexican control of forests followed by the 1950s, characterized by the replacement of foreign corporations by local companies , and the 1960s’ economic demise; (3) the recurrent economic crisis and institution of neoliberal policies in the 1970s and 1980s; and (4) an assessment of forest production at the end of the twentieth century. This analysis focuses on the impact of neoliberalism and social relations of production on forestry. Neoliberalism, as defined in chapter 1 of this book, includes economic policies such as deregulated markets, privatization, democratization , decreased social programs, and the required restructuring of agencies. Although economically developed countries expect open markets from others, they place tariffs and restrictions on the importation of competing products, including timber. While proponents of neoliberalism point to success in controlling inflation and stabilizing troubled economies, critics note that behind the aggregate statistics that measure success lies the tale of individuals who pay the price in low wages, unemployment, displacement, poverty, crime, and absent social services, as well as countries that suffer from unequal trade. The chapter’s second focus is on the social relations of production. This framework demonstrates how elites operating as a class and acting as agents of governments, bureaucracies, corporations, and informal institutions channel the value of commodities to themselves and their constituents, to the disadvantage of the indigenous and working classes. They do this by restricting access and creating laws and regulations that support the oppressive practices of agencies, bureaucrats , and employees of Mexican and US corporations. People of all classes and occupations participate in what becomes a culture of domination. Finally, analysis of the political economy of forestry incorporating the concept of commodity chains provides greater insight into inequality within forest production. Greater profit is assured by control of the forest product through the entire commodity chain, which includes management; cutting trees; loading, transporting, and producing rough and finished lumber; retailing, manufacturing, marketing, and exporting. This chapter will show that indigenous communities do not control the commodity chain, thus channeling profits to outside groups. Forests and People Commercial forests occupy more than 70 percent of Mexico’s landmass, or about 28 million hectares of tropical broad-leaved trees. Coniferous and temperate forests account for three-fourths of this amount, to which can be added another 17.8 million hectares of deforested areas. The forests of the Sierra Madre Occidental, the focus of this study, extend from the US border in Chihuahua to parts of 189 Neoliberalism and the Social Relations of Forestry Production in Chihuahua Sonora and Sinaloa to the west and south through Durango. Together they constitute the second-largest single contiguous forest in Latin America. Chihuahua forests extend for 500 kilometers, with a maximum width of 160 kilometers, and cover 7.6 million hectares. About 4.2 mil­ lion of those hectares are in temperatezone mixed pine and oak of commercial grade, with the rest in the contiguous semiarid zones (World Bank 1989:3). The state’s population is around 3 million, located mostly in urban areas. The thirty rural municipios...