Guatemala : Indicators

In the forest management plans all the information referring to the duration of contracts, the locations and the quantity of trees felled or conserved is legally required. Communities and civil society can obtain these permits by requesting the information from regional INAB offices.

A study carried out by the Rafael Landívar University (http://www.profor.info/profor/sites/profor.info/files/publication/Guatemala-forestfees.pdf) concludes that illegal forest use amounts to 95.2% of all forest related activity, while only 4.8% is legal, and the reasons for this are the “…high demand for forest products; procedures which do not promote legal forest management and the existence of a market in illegal products. Added to this is the poor ability of the institutions to supervise lawful activities and to pursue illicit activities…” There is a high degree of impunity reflected in the few cases that are taken to legal action and that achieve a conviction. This means that there are problems related to how to ensure that forest logging complies with the law in force, which requires the need to create a culture accustomed to drawing up forest management plans and to apply for exploitation licences.