ABSTRACT
Around 500,000ha to 800,000ha of forest are lost each year in Mexico, placing the country in the second worst position regarding deforestation in Latin America. Worldwide, between 2000 and 2005, the country had the fourth highest rate of deforestation in terms of loss of primary forest (FAO, 2006). Public policy until the end of the 1990s, regarding the dynamics of land-use change, followed a pattern that favoured an increase of field cropping areas, as well as induced and cultivated grasslands in the country's forest areas. The forest sector had a weak capacity to compete economically with these alternative uses, including a low level of financial support. In an attempt to decrease the deforestation rate, the Mexican federal government implemented several strategies that included actions to develop the commercial forest sector; promote forestry plantations; reforest areas that have suffered deforestation; and protect and conserve native forest that is important in terms of environmental services.
