Chile: support to forestry development at the community level

In spite of an important advancement in poverty alleviation, the government efforts and tools aimed to combat rural poverty have not been very successful, particularly because of the difficulties found in the poorest mountain communities with fragile ecosystems. The lack of management of the territory and of people¿s and authorities participation in natural resources management is encouraging the migration of the poorest rural communities, who are those more vulnerable from the environmental point of view.

To face this problem, the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF) has developed since 2000 a new initiative aimed to train its professional and technical staff in participatory planning with the rural communities. This staff is later on assigned to the different rural communities.

In order to build a solid basis in those aspects of decentralization of the forestry activity that show important gaps, the Government of Chile requested the support of the FAO who started a project from December 2003 to May de 2005.

The Project to support forestry development at the community level developed by FAO had the objective of improving the forestry production and commercialisation, the conservation of natural resources, using the methodology of participatory planning and management of the territory, in selected municipalities of rural communities. A training component was included to target municipality officers and peasants.

The community-based enterprise development component of the project was carried out during three missions aimed to: introduce the stages of the Community-base enterprise development programme of FAO; explain the methodology of Market Analysis and Development (MA&D) and the experience acquired in that matter by Colombia through its Humbolt Institute; estimate the opportunities to use this methodology to support the Project on forestry development at the community level, and introduce it to the organizations who would be responsible for the implementation of the methodology.

The main activities developed by the project were:

Organize and implement training workshops on the Market Analysis and Development approach for the technical staff of municipalities and institutions participating in the project, and carry out joint practices with the communities, specially in the micro watershed of El Maqui.

  • Assist and supervise the technical personnel of municipalities and peasant communities in the implementation of MA&D and identify potential markets for their products.
  • Facilitate cooperation and synergy with private enterprises and institutions that may provide services to the enterprises or that may become a potential market for the project area products.
  • Prepare a management report and support the preparation and publication of a manual on MA&D approach aimed to the communities and the technical staff of municipalities and institutions cooperating with the project.

    • The outcomes of MA&D implementation in the micro watershed of El Maqui were the following:

    Implementation of MA&D approach to create a touristic footpath in the framework of ecotourism services and the formulation of a working plan to implement an ecotourism project in the micro watershed of El Maqui.

    The ecotourism project has several objectives: carry out Phase 3 of MA&D approach; discuss and formulate the project with the families living in El Maqui; provide instructions on how to build the touristic path and provide information on how to request financial support, training etc; promote the establishment of relationships between institutions in order to launch the project, and help in finding other agencies that may provide support to the project.

    For more information, please contact:

    Sophie.Grouwels@fao.org
    Forestry Policy Service (FOEP)
    Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy
    Phone: +39 06 57055299
    Fax: +39 06 57055514
    last updated: Monday, October 15, 2007