Mapping the Policy Terrain: Political Economy, Policy, Environment, and Forestry Production in Northern Mexico

Abstract

This paper examines the political economy and policy environment of forestry production in northern Mexico. The objective is to review the multiple policy issues that impact forestry production and act together as articulatory mechanisms to move capital from periphery to core. The policies examined that affect forestry emanate from international, national, and state levels.The main point made is that a single event or activity cannot account for existing conditions of forestry in the Sierra Madre Occidental. The purpose is to analyze, perhaps well-known facts by mapping the policy terrain in the context of articulation theory to help scholars and policy makers gain a better understanding of linked social and historical conditions that maintain a political economy. The unique aspect of this presentation is that it brings a political economic, historical, and holistic framework to bear on the problem of policy analyses. Thus, policy formation is viewed from a perspective that considers power interrelations among policies and policy makers

Key words: policy, forestry, Mexico, political economy