Thinking Locally While Acting Globally with David MacFarlane

“Thinking locally while acting globally: community forest conservation in Mexico’s Yucatán”

For many years, the phrase ‘think globally and act locally’ has been adopted as a mantra for local action within a global mindset. However, when acting globally it is also very important to think locally. Efforts to reduce global deforestation, degradation and tree cover loss should consider the needs of forest-dependent communities to maintain their livelihoods, in the face of competing demands for forest preservation and conversion of forests to other land uses.  In this talk, I will discuss the concept of “human-forest mutualisms” exemplified by small-scale, forest conservation efforts in Mexico’s Yucatán. These efforts link conservation of globally-important forest ecosystems with production of natural, non-timber, forest products (vanilla and honey) that can help support local communities involved in conservation.