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Role of linkages and diversity of partnerships in a Mexican community-based
forest enterprise
Alejandra Orozco-Quintero and Fikret Berkes
Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
Purpose: To identify and describe the pervasiveness and importance of various types of institutional and
organizational interactions across multiple levels for the management of a community forest enterprise.
Design/Methodology/Approach: The paper analyzes a long-standing case in Michoacán, Mexico, the
San Juan Nuevo enterprise, a community-based system with a multiplicity of actors, objectives and
partners. Information was collected through 100 semi-structured interviews. By presenting and discussing
the main community-based development strategy within the overall socio-political context and
achievements of the case, we attempt to understand the complexity of cross-scale institutional and
organizational linkages and their role in sustainable resource management.
Findings: San Juan Nuevo enterprise had linkages with some 22 major partners over the years across
four levels of organization: local, state, federal and international. Cross-scale partnerships were not
merely important, but essential for the overall success of the enterprise in the face of uncertainty over
resource ownership and lack of legal jurisdiction. These diverse partnerships and interactions enabled
robust institutional structures, making possible the development of linkages to help conserve the resource
base and create grassroots socio-economic development for the comuneros.
Research limitations/implications: Further understanding of the importance of partnerships and
linkages for the development and maintenance of community-based initiatives will require the analysis of,
and comparison between, several long-standing case studies.
Practical implications: There is the need to recognize the multiple roles of partnerships, from business
networking to research and training, thus unpacking different kinds of capacity building. Actors at various
levels can influence management practices in diverse ways, helping to find a balance between local
livelihoods and larger conservation needs.
Originality/value: The paper brings a new approach to analyze how indigenous and other rural
communities are “opting-in” to the global economy, through a diversity of partnerships and a complexity of
interactions across organizational levels.
Journal of Enterprising Communities:
People and Places in the Global
Economy
Vol. 4 No. 2, 2010 pp. 148-161
© Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1750-6204
DOI 10.1108/17506201011048059
The authors thank community members of San Juan Nuevo for their
hospitality and time; Leticia Merino, Laura Barraza, Jonathan Ryan,
Iain Davidson-Hunt, and members of the Equator Initiative
research team for their help and advice, and Christian OrozcoQuintero for the figures. The paper was supported by the
International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and the Canada
Research Chairs (www.chairs.gc.ca) program.