Transaction costs and the organization of CFEs: Experiences from ejidos in Quintana Roo, Mexico

Abstract

Forest areas owned by indigenous people, families, and communities are increasingly linking to markets and attempting to harness the benefits of timber commercialization by setting up community forestry enterprises (CFEs). The interaction between markets and commonly owned forests is only until now enjoying greater attention from researchers. Common property scholarship has normally been used to study community natural resource management but currently it is deemed insufficient for understanding market interactions. This paper adds to this growing area of scholarship through the application of transaction costs economics (TCE) to the organization of community forest enterprises. TCE proposes..