In exploring community forestry in southern Mexico, this article first focuses on the broader canvas of events in the Sierra Juarez, where one finds a historical pattern of outside exploitation of local resources. The events in Santiago Comaltepec are then presented as a microcosm of conservation and development in the Sierra, where highly politicized struggles appear finally to be leading to the optimistic premise that there need be no conflict between prudent exploitation and the conservation of forests. Part of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the Sierra Juarez mountain range of northern Oaxaca is 186 miles long and 47 miles wide, with average altitudes of 8202ft and peaks above 9842ft. Cool temperatures and high rainfall have allowed great biological vigor. A WWF report on the Sierra's ecological richness catalogued cloud forest, pine, mixed pine-oak forest, moist and dry montane tropical ecosystems, the richest oak forests in the world in terms of species diversity, and remnant populations of rare flowering plants and butterflies. The Sierra's biological richness is in striking contrast to the poverty of its people. -from Author
