Santiago Fernández Ordóñez

Prof. Santiago Fernández Ordóñez

Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala City, Guatemala, Guatemala

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

5Years (2022-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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7 June 2022 in Sustainability
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
Eduardo Fernández LuiñaEduardo Fernández Luiña
Eduardo Fernández Luiña
Santiago Fernández OrdóñezSantiago Fernández Ordóñez
Santiago Fernández Ordóñez
William Hongsong WangWilliam Hongsong Wang
William Hongsong Wang
This article covers the current research vacuum on how Guatemala partially conducts forest preservation through community concessions. Our paper starts its analysis by synthesizing the private property-rights approach environmentalist theory and the community concession theory. It is argued that the shared common private property as a community arrangement can turn conflicts into potential opportunities for the involved parties to solve the existing environmental problems by win-win games. Based on the above theoretical views, our study extends the scope to the modern and democratic municipals’ forest preservation in Guatemala, as previous research mainly focused on how the Guatemalan traditional indigenous communities have conducted forest preservation. Our empirical results show that the in-force forest concessions in the Maya Biosphere Reserve have achieved the Guatemalan government’s forest conservation target in recent years. However, as the Guatemalan forest concession arrangements are just usufructs and the state still owns forest titles, the current Guatemalan forest concession could reverse the result of the limited, decentralized forest reform. In this regard, we suggest that Guatemala state should privatize all these forests to the concessions’ communities and firms. If the results are positive, we propose the Guatemalan government further apply the decentralization forest policy to the whole country.