Unexpected Alliances: Biodiversity conservation through Payments for Ecosystem Services, Protected Areas, and Sustainable Timber Management in three regions of Mexico

Our research investigated biodiversity conservation through three strategies – payments for ecosystem services (PES), protected areas, and sustainable timber management (STM) – and their interactions with each other and local social and environmental conditions in Mexico. Multiple strategies have been implemented to conserve Mexico’s biodiversity-rich communally-owned forests while also meeting economic needs. PES programs incentivize good forest management through direct payments to forest-owning communities. Protected areas such as federal biosphere reserves incorporate participatory planning and allow limited economic activities within buffer zones. Voluntary protected areas are established by communities that decide to formally conserve land. STM requires communities to implement sustainability and biodiversity conservation measures. Though these strategies often interact with each other at the community-level, previous research has often studied them independently. This multiple-case study addresses these complex interactions through 56 semi-structured interviews with experts and communal land tenure communities. We conducted our research in three contrasting regions with various combinations of these conservation strategies. We find that interactions among strategies are generally perceived as positive and complementary. Local conditions, such as internal governance and ecosystem type, determine the viability of the different strategies. Numerous participants credited the combination of strategies with improving attitudes towards forest conservation and management.