GUAJILOTE (PRONOUNCED WA-HEE-LOW-TAY) COOPERATIVO FORESTAL WAS A FORESTRY cooperative that operated out of Chaparral, a small village located in the buffer zone of La Muralla
National Park in Honduras’ Olancho province. Olancho was one of 18 Honduran provinces
and was located inland, bordering Nicaragua. The cooperative was one result of a rela-
tively new movement among international donor agencies promoting sustainable economic development of developing countries’ natural resources.
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A cooperative in
Honduras was similar to a cooperative in the United States: It was an enterprise jointly
owned and operated by members who used its facilities and services.
Guajilote was founded in 1991 as a component of a USAID (United States Agency for International Development) project. The project attempted to develop La Muralla National Park
as an administrative and socioeconomic model that COHDEFOR (the Honduran forestry development service) could transfer to Honduras’ other national parks. The Guajilote Cooperativo Forestal was given the right to exploit naturally fallen (not chopped down) mahogany
trees in La Muralla’s buffer zone. Thus far, it was the only venture in Honduras with this right.
A buffer zone was the designated area within a park’s boundaries but outside its core protected
zone. People were allowed to live and engage in economically sustainable activities within this
buffer zone.
In 1998, Guajilote was facing some important issues and concerns that could affect not
only its future growth but its very survival. For one thing, the amount of mahogany wood was
limited and was increasingly being threatened by forest fires, illegal logging, and slash-and-
burn agriculture. If the total number of mahogany trees continued to decline, trade in its wood
could be restricted internationally. For another, the cooperative had no way to transport its
wood to market and was thus forced to accept low prices for its wood from the only distributor in the area. What could be done to guarantee the survival of the cooperative?