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Positive impact of social capital on community forest governance: A quantitative analysis

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Vol. 36 No. 2 (2021)
https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-529X.2021.65567

Abstract

Social capital is unobservable but can be inferred from its effects on society. We evaluated the influence of cognitive and structural social capital on deforestation rates in community forests in Mexico using surveys and statistical modeling. We examined predictions concerning the influence of demography, education, ethnicity, gender, and geography on community-based forest governance outcomes. Results revealed lower deforestation rates in remote forests managed by majority indigenous communities with above-average education levels and a higher proportion of female-headed households. Our findings support the main hypothesis, which proposed that sustainable forest governance is determined by social capital and cohesion. Our methodology constitutes a transferrable analytical framework and the results serve as a point of reference for the design of agrarian, conservation, and rural development policies. We recommend additional studies to reduce sampling uncertainty and increase the explanatory power of the models.

Keywords:

community-based conservation, forestry, rural and indigenous communities, socio-ecological systems

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Carrillo-Rubio, E., Morreale, S. J., & Pérez-Cirera, V. (2021). Positive impact of social capital on community forest governance: A quantitative analysis. Revista De Sociología, 36(2), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-529X.2021.65567
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Revista de Sociología
Facultad de Ciencias Sociales
Universidad de Chile
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