Expanding Access to Finance For Community Forest Enterprises

One of the issues that has long been recognized as a key obstacle to improved Community Forest Enterprise (CFEs) competitiveness is lack of access to finance. This case study examines work undertaken by the Rainforest Alliance (with support from a previous project funded the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), member of Inter-American Development Bank Group), the Guatemalan government and a private bank to structure a new financial mechanism specifically for CFEs and small forest enterprises. It then analyzes the technical work supported by the MIF project to assist two CFEs in the Maya Biosphere Reserve to access and execute credits via this mechanism. These two CFEs are Carmelita, a forest management cooperative operated by a community that resides in the heart of the Maya Biosphere Reserve, and Impulsores Suchitecos, an association of people who reside in several communities in the Maya Biosphere Reserve buffer zone managing a concession located in the eastern part of the reserve.