Harnessing Community Forestry Tourism: A Pathway to Sustainable Development in El Terrero, Puebla

In the communal lands and rural communities of Mexico, forest tourism is emerging as a possibility to diversify productive activities for communal land members, as an alternative to poverty and marginalization. In this research, community forestry tourism is considered as an alternative use of the territory and its resources, both by those who provide the service and by the users, since it implies practices of environmental valuation in situ, recognition of the cultural heritage of the communities and their interaction with them. The aim of this study was to identify and evaluate the potential of community forestry tourism in order to propose a local development strategy for the communal land El Terrero, considering its natural, social and cultural resources. The methodology used was based on Action-Research, considering a holistic research approach, capable of encompassing several dimensions and functions, oriented to analyze each element-dimension in its specific context and to individualize its peculiar combination with the other elements-dimensions. The results showed that the communal land El Terrero has an excellent tourism potential and the communal land members are interested in participating in tourism activities, which represents a development opportunity for the inhabitants of these areas. A very important activity in the communal land is the production of slabs and clay handicrafts, helping as an alternative of entry in the community. In this sense, it is possible to benefit from the current advantages of the new tourist client, who seeks new experiences and motivations, such as the obsession with the search for happy and healthy lifestyles, and the growing awareness of nature and natural things. However, it is necessary to create tourist routes, strengthen the communal land organizational capacity, promote care for the environment and enhance the communal land virtues to attract a tourist demand interested in the relationship with the forest.