The Arbolitos Project emerged more than 20 years ago as a forest conservation and production project that would provide environmental services, capture CO2, and would reduce clandestine logging by legally producing timber on a sustainable fashion. Over time, it evolved and nourished itself with information, knowledge and, above all, a different sensitivity regarding forests and their relationship with people.

 

At the beginning, it was proposed as an initiative for timber production in staggered stages, which would serve to finance the conservation of a segment of the forest. Caveat: The project today does not look much like its origin, although the motivation has not changed.

 

Thanks to a lot of dialogue, especially with knowledgeable and committed organizations and people such as those of Tlaloc Foundation; to some management failures with different actors but, above all, thanks to the natural maturation of the project, today we propose a more precise climate change mitigation approach, based on a comprehensive and sustainable forest management model, where forest ecosystems and human activities can coexist with a negligible impact.

 

The harmony we seek is not only with respect to the ecosystems, but also with respect to the people and communities that inhabit their environment, through processes of empowerment and local development.

 

This model is also financially viable, so that it will allow us to care for and expand the forest areas under our direct management. Between the area that will be under direct control of the project, and that which could be added up by other actors, such as local communities (ejidos) or property owners, we have the goal of incorporating 2.5 thousand acres (one thousand hectares) of forest to the region in the following years.

 

By replicating this forest management model with other organizations, actors, and communities, we could incorporate thousands and thousands of more hectares throughout Mexico.