In a bid to stem deforestation in the Petén, in northern Guatemala, the government has given five community organizations permission to sustainably log trees in their neighboring forests over the next 25 years

Conservationists are watching closely to see how effective these locally managed forest concessions will be, both in curbing deforestation and providing stable incomes to residents, most of whom are subsistence farmers.

The concessions are in the multiple-use zone of the Maya Biosphere Reserve, established in 1990 and the largest forest expanse in the country. The reserve is divided into three areas: an untouchable nuclear zone; multiple-use zones, where activities that won't permanently harm plants or wildlife are allowed; and buffer zones, where low-impact farming is permitted.

Nearly 90,000 people live within the reserve, and the population of the Petén is expanding at a rate of about 10 percent annually. The pressures of increased migration to the area have taken a toll on the reserve; settlers in search of free land have deforested nearly 10 percent of the reserve since 1986.

With assistance from such groups as the Costa Rica-based Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE in its Spanish acronym), Guatemala's parks agency, CONAP, is granting concessions to interested communities. According to CATIE forester Glenn Galloway, communities that want a forest concession must demonstrate that they are well organized and present a land-use plan for their piece of the forest. The first 25-year concession was granted in 1996; now concessions cover 1.2 million acres in the reserve's multiple-use zone.

CATIE's Bas Louman notes that the concessions have been successful in slowing the advance of slash-and-burn farmers into the reserve. He explains: Communities with concessions have a contract with the state. Within that contract, they are not allowed to help other people settle in the area or convert the forest to other uses. Within their land-use plan they may dedicate certain areas to agriculture, but beyond those areas, it's prohibited." Communities that don't adhere to their contracts risk losing their concessions.

To provide communities with the technical assistance they need to win concessions from the government, the CATIE/CONAP project, which is supported by the US Agency for International Development, fostered a conservation group based in the Petén. Now technicians with the group, the Nature for Life Foundation (NPV), help residents develop and follow forest-management plans and provide them with training in sustainable forestry. Carlos Gómez Caal, the group's executive secretary, was born in the Petén, and says that he has seen positive changes in people's attitudes. "Most people still want titles to their land; that's indisputable", he says. "But we have convinced many that under the constitution, this is impossible, and that forest concessions offer them the best opportunities."

A recent CATIE study shows that the forest concessions can be profitable. A 30,000-acre concession granted in 1998 to a small cooperative yielded an annual profit of u$s 4.400 for each of the 29 member families, a substantial increase to annual incomes. But Louman warns that each cooperative's circumstances are different, and not all concessions hold the same quantity of harvestable timber. Most concessionaires will need to depend on more than sustainable forestry for their livings, he says.

Other problems the concessionaires face, notes Galloway, are the lack of equipment, a need for technical, legal, and organizational assistance, and a struggle to find markets that will pay enough for the timber. While NPV helps communities overcome these obstacles, Gómez acknowledges that they are hampered by a lack of available capital. Banks in Guatemala won't grant loans to concession organizations since they do not have titles to their land. @