Iliana Monterroso POLICY SEMINAR The Future of the Commons Co-organized by IFPRI, the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC), and the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

1. Investment in the Commons:
Lessons learned from the Mayan Biosphere Reserve, Guatemala
ILIANA MONTERROSO1, STEVEN LAWRY1, SOPHIA GNYCH1, ANUKRAM ADHIKARY2
REBECCA MCLAIN
1Center for International Forestry Research
2Forest Action Nepal
IFPRI Policy Seminar: The Future of the Commons
Funding: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and CGIAR
Research Program on Policies, Institutions and Markets (PIM) (Activity
Number 176)

2. Devolution of forest rights across developing
region
Source: Based on Lawry and McLain, 2012:56. Devolution of
Forest Rights and Sustainable Forest Management. Volume 1.

3. Linking rights devolution to community forest
investments and environmental and social outcomes

4. THE MAYAN BIOSPHERE RESERVE: THE RIGHT
DEVOLUTION PROCESS
Source: PRISMA 2018

5. Type and sources of investment: Who is investing in
community held resources in Peten?
• Substantial investments from international donor organizations and NGOs were key in establishing
the community concession model in the MBR (Gray et al., 2015; PRISMA, 2016)
• Setting up the institutional and regulatory framework: Protected area management
• Supporting sustainable forest management activities and promotion of secondary-level
community forest organizations: ACOFOP; FORESCOM
• Strengthening existing forest product value chains (timber and non-timber); scaling up CFEs;
developing REDD+ and other ecosystem service mechanisms
• Public financing in the national protected area system represented less than 1% of the GDP in 2009
(Bovarnick et al., 2010). Government investment has targeted capacity building, policy
implementation and enforcement.

6. Type and sources of investment: Who is investing in
community held resources in Peten?
Investment in FSC certification
(Regulatory requirement) – Timber
certification: (350,000 hectares, 9
concessions) + NTFP Xate palm and
chewing gum certification (8
concessions)
Investment in forest fire and
protection, more than
450,000USD/year to cover fire
prevention, monitoring, and control
activities (Davis and Sauls, 2017).
investment in demarcating and
enforcing concession boundaries
(Sesnie et al., 2017; McSweeney et
al., 2017) Source: PRISMA, 2018 (Forthcoming. based
on data provided by ACOFOP, 2018)

7. • Employment generation: Extraction and
Processing (Timber, NTFP), tourism – Over
80,000 daily paid job opportunities
• Investments in social mobilization
(strengthening CFE and secondary level
organizations)
• Community infrastructure (health,
education, roads)
Investments at the household level:
• Housing, health, education and productive
activities
• Income from CFE varies from 5% to 45% of
total household income (Stoian et al.,
2015)
Type and sources of investment: Who is investing in
community held resources in Peten?
Source: Monterroso et al., 2018
(Forthcoming. based on data provided by
ACOFOP, 2018)
y = 0.2218x + 3.5239
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
MillionsUS$
y = 4.2653x + 24.893
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
MilesdeUS$
Año

8. • Blended finance mechanism ⇢ USD1,5M
Multilateral Investment Fund (85%) and a
commercial bank (15%) channeled through
an NGO (Hogdgon and Lowenthal, 2015)
• Credit through the Private Banking system
(Supported by the USAID Development
Credit Authority and a private commercial
bank) ⇢ USD13M used for
commercialization activities working
capital and expansion of NTFP value-chains
(xate palm)
• CFE capitalization has allowed nine
concessions to invest in a shared lumber
mill, value-added processing, creating jobs,
and diversifying livelihood opportunities
(Stevens et al., 2015).
Type and sources of investment: Who is investing in
community held resources in Peten?

9. Investing in the commons:
Reviewing research propositions

10. 1. Barriers to commons based investments are not insurmountable ⇢ investment in
community-owned resources is taking place.
2. Each sector has specific roles and responsibilities for effectively mitigating risks.
Investments depend on the risks or level of assurance
3. Common-based investment readiness is conditional on the level of assurance stakeholders have
that the obligations of each party will be met. Investment readiness develops over time, in stages, as
levels of assurance increase:
Stage 1: Investment in rights devolution
Stage 2: Investment in Capacity Building
Stage 3: Investment in Community Forest Enterprises
4. Community rights have fostered investment that recognizes the social character of commons
ownership and delivers environmental and social returns, as well as profits.
Summing up: Investing in the commons

11. cifor.org
blog.cifor.org
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