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Mtro. Salvador Anta Fonseca
Consejo Civil Mexicano para la Silvicultura Sostenible, A.C.
On July 1, 1959, the commemoration of the Forest Festival, which is celebrated throughout the month of July, was decreed in the federation’s official gazette.
The conservation and management of forest ecosystems require decisive actions that must be guided by the government agencies that society has established to achieve these purposes.
However, it is not enough to define objectives and goals from public policies, since civil society and the communities that own forest resources must be attentive in the development of these actions and actively collaborate with government entities.
The agenda that from my perspective we must follow to maintain and increase forest cover is the following:
- Maintain and conserve the forest areas that still remain in our country. For this, various instruments have been developed such as forest management, protected natural areas, payment for environmental services, wildlife management units, nature tourism, among others.
- Avoid deforestation and forest degradation. We must prevent our country from continuing to lose forest coverage, especially as a result of the change in land use caused by the advance of the agricultural frontier, urban growth and tourism.
- Restore areas that have been deforested or that have lost their forest quality.
- Promote productive activities and services that avoid deforestation derived from agriculture, livestock and tourism that integrate the conservation of biodiversity and are low in carbon emissions.
- Protect forest areas from forest fires, pests and clandestine logging. Most fires are caused by the misuse of fire in agricultural activities. Forest pests and diseases are spread by inattention in due time. Illegal logging is the result of a lack of governance in forest areas and a lack of law enforcement.
- Incorporate more communities, ejidos and small properties into forest management. Of the 14,341 ejidos and communities that have 200 ha or more, only 16% have authorization for forest management and use (that is, 2,310 ejidos and communities).
- Recover investment in the forestry sector in order to strengthen forest conservation, protection and restoration activities. Currently 2.7 billion pesos are allocated to Conafor, while in 2012 there was a budget of 6.8 billion pesos.
- Promote the consumption of timber and non-timber forest products that come from legal use and certified by national and international standards.
- Strengthen local governance (communal, communal and municipal) that allows improving the management for the sustainable management of forest areas.
- Long-term public policy monitoring with the participation of society for accountability, evaluation and necessary adjustments.
We must also value the great contribution of forest areas that provide us with various ecosystem services to society and the country, such as: climate regulation through carbon capture; they minimize the impact of hurricanes; allow the capture of water for human consumption, agriculture and ecological flow; maintain biodiversity and pollination services; They prevent soil erosion, silting of bodies of water and floods in the lower parts of the basin. They are spaces for recreation, they provide food, tools and raw materials for society and have great symbolic and cultural value for indigenous communities.
For this reason, the month of the forest must become a daily activity since its permanence does not ensure the survival of humanity.
