The Local Politics of Decentralized Environmental Policy in Guatemala

This article identifies the conditions leading to successful decentralized environmental management in the developing world. It focuses on Guatemala, a country where lawmakers have devolved forest protection to 331 municipalities. This study is based on an original survey of 100 randomly chosen mayors who held office between 1996 and 2000 and a database constructed from several national censuses that include geographic, demographic, socioeconomic, and biophysical variables. It suggests that local community pressure and central government support encourage mayors to value forest protection. Survey results also indicate that mayors allocate staff to forest protection when the central government makes this a priority. Mayors also dedicate personnel to this sector when they have more education and when their municipalities boast larger amounts of forested area.