Market Study Growth Analysis of Native Tree Species in Guatemala's Tropics
Abstract
This report presents the results of a market study on native tree species for tropical forests, initially focusing on northern Guatemala. It highlights identifying and prioritizing 23 valuable species based on export records of at least 5 years and ITTO reports. It also reviews official growth data for mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) and Spanish cedar (Cedrela odorata) to analyze prediction equations, although these are not very reliable due to the unknown origin of the data.
Key findings:
- Guatemala's forestry sector requires improved research and data generation on direct measurement of silvicultural variables to enable accurate growth predictions.
- Successive Guatemalan governments need to formulate policies supporting initiatives like Las Azucenas that boost the largely untapped potential of native species.
- Native species represent an enormous market niche short, medium and long-term due to their properties and specific uses.
- Las Azucenas demonstrates impressive growth results at wider spacings using conservation agriculture principles, unlike typical plantation forestry in Guatemala.
- Locally generated knowledge from Las Azucenas will be valuable to implement in similar projects, aligning with the principle that empirical knowledge approaches "ancestral knowledge" often ignored.
- Northern Guatemala's tropics can potentially prepare timber and carbon sequestration offers using valuable native species. Opportunities exist to leverage the Las Azucenas model.
In general, the report reflects that the forestry sector in Guatemala needs to improve research and information generation, such as direct measurement of silvicultural variables, to have reliable data sources to make accurate growth predictions in the coming years. It also notes that successive Guatemalan governments need to improve the investment climate by formulating policies that support initiatives like Las Azucenas, which would boost the largely untapped potential of tropical forests in the country.
The report concludes that the country could potentially increase future exports of native tree species and consequently attract local and foreign investment. Native species should be seen as an enormous "market niche" in the short, medium, and long term, due to their in-situ properties and specific, important uses. Initiatives like Las Azucenas are pioneering, by promoting the growth of commercially valuable species at wider spacings outside a plantation context and using conservation agriculture principles to obtain impressive growth results. These should be seen as incomparable since plantation forestry in Guatemala has different objectives and solutions not even sought in other countries. The locally generated knowledge from Las Azucenas will be enriching to implement in similar projects, based on the principle that local and even empirical knowledge is now seen as much more valuable, as it approaches the emerging concept of "ancestral knowledge" that is not written down or recorded and has been largely ignored.
Among the important and interesting aspects to highlight is the potential of northern Guatemala's tropics to drive projects that prepare a considerable timber and carbon sequestration offer using valuable native species. In a changing and unpredictable global economy, there are opportunities to leverage the Las Azucenas model.
This report and its findings are important for current and potential Las Azucenas tree owners.