Western Sierra of Jalisco

Sustainable development

From 2022 to date

As a follow-up to our work in the Sierra Occidental de Jalisco Biocultural Landscape (PBSOJ), during the second half of 2022 we carried out a diagnosis of the current situation and options to strengthen the productive activities of a group of cattle ranchers and another group of agroforestry producer that have the PBSOJ seal, which recognizes better environmental and social practices in the value chain.

We collaborated with members of the group of producers and learning community “Sistemas Integrales de Producción Sostenible de Sierra Occidental y Costa” (SIPSSOC) belonging to the municipalities of San Sebastián del Oeste, Talpa de Allende and Mascota who carry out their livestock activities on 952 hectares.

In the agroforestry area, we worked with people from communities in the municipality of San Sebastián del Oeste who are engaged in the production and marketing of edible artisanal products produced in agroforestry systems, including: native corn derivatives (cookies, dough, typical sweets), coffee (cherry, parchment, gold, roasted and ground) and edible mushrooms.

In both cases, we identified that the main limitations are weak business organization and associativity, inadequate and intermittent technical assistance, high production costs, low production scale and high market demands. Therefore, they need to strengthen their organization and participation, formalize their productive activities, and maintain them over time, improve their participation in the value chain and improve their access to specialized markets that value the good practices with the environmental and social criteria that they implement in their production processes.

To favorably change this situation in the short and medium timescale, we are working along five lines of action: 1) design and evaluate associative enterprises aimed at reducing production costs and improving product marketing conditions; 2) facilitate the linkage of producers in inclusive and fair trade markets; 3) consolidate spaces for the dialogue of knowledge, exchange of experiences and technical cooperation; 4) strengthen mechanisms to ensure and monitor product traceability; 5) strengthen the self-management capacities of producers, so that they are less dependent on external agents for their development.

In the case of the group of cattle ranchers, two commercial enterprises will be created, one for the supply of resources to reduce production costs and improve product quality in terms of traceability. Another company will collect and market live cattle in the short term, and meat and dairy products in the medium term to ensure that transactions are carried out under fair conditions for producers.

Agroforestry producers are considering setting up a marketing company to facilitate organizational and associative processes, both in the supply of resources and in the marketing of products.