Community forest enterprises as entrepreneurial Firms: Economic and institutional perspectives from Mexico

Few examples exist in the common property literature of community-managed forestry enterprises (CFEs) operating in competitive markets. Yet, in Mexico, there are hundreds of such examples at varying levels of vertical integration. At a time when devolution of rights to forests is expanding worldwide, collective management of timber operations presents an emerging community forestry policy option. CFEs have unusual institutional features that force a reconsideration of theories of the firm, unique management tensions, varieties of possible institutional arrangements governing stocks, and flows of the natural resource, and may have special importance in delivering both economic equity and environmental protection.