Producing more with less? Community forestry in Durango, Mexico in an era of trade liberalization

Through a qualitative case study of peasant-organized forestry in Durango, Mexico, this paper examines how neoliberal policy reform is reshaping the c ommunity forestry sector. Post-1992 agrarian and forestry laws facilitate t he emergence of new forms of association in ejidos (collective property com munities created by agrarian reform) and agrarian communities, and reorgani ze the delivery of forestry technical services. These developments indirect ly undermine peasants' capacity to deal with the sector's long-standing int ernal problems, putting at risk their ability to provide themselves with th e services they need for sustainable community livelihoods and forest explo itation. Nevertheless, this study of a forest peasant federation shows that institutional change is a process peopled by groups of social agents who r espond creatively to external structure from local organizational and commu nity contexts. Ethnographic methods can be used fruitfully to study complex interactions between multiple levels of political-economic structure and l ocal action, which both constrain and provide opportunities for the organiz ation of common-pool resource management regimes.