Forest soil conservation in central Mexico: An interdisciplinary assessment ☆ , ☆☆ ,★ Helena Cotler a, ⁎, Silke Cram b , Sergio Martinez-Trinidad c , Eduardo Quintanar d a Instituto Nacional de Ecología. Av Periférico sur 5000, Col. Cuicuilco-Insurgentes, 04530 Coyoacán, Mexico D.F., Mexico b Instituto de Geografía-Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, Mexico c Posgrado de Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, Mexico d Facultad de Ciencias Políticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico abstract article info Article history: Received 8 June 2012 Received in revised form 17 December 2012 Accepted 18 December 2012 Keywords: Soil conservation Public policy Soil indicators Mexico An inter-disciplinary assessment of the conservation practices on forest soils in Mexico was conducted (i) to evaluate their effectiveness in terms of soil quality indicators and (ii) to use social indicators of their acceptance and execution; such information would be a means of improving the design and implementation of public policy. After four years of soil conservation measures in areas under common ownership, involving ditches, individual terraces or arrangement of plant material, soil indicators such as bulk density, total carbon, total nitrogen and pH in nine sites and 54 plots showed deficiencies in soil properties involved in productivity and hydrological reg- ulation, in comparison with the control groups. The results suggest that the conservation practices are not im- proving any of these functions. Social indicators revealed that the soil conservation program only encourages participation through economic stimulus without considering that non-financial interest can play an important role, then the rate of adoption and replication of these measures is low. These results led us to make some sug- gestion with policy implications such as taking into account landscape heterogeneity and social complexity to define conservation actions; considering strengthening conservation attitudes among ejidatarios and also to as- sess the conservation program through results that have measured the impact of the practices on the recovery of soil quality. Interdisciplinary approaches to understand attitudes for soil conservation are a prerequisite in future research. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Soil conservation policy in Mexico started in the 1940s, influenced by the decisions taken in the United States after the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. Between 1946 and 1986, soil conservation techniques were conducted in less than 2% of the country, giving assistance, technical training and subsidies (Simonian, 1999), without showing successful results (Vásquez, 1986). Nowadays, land degradation affects 45% of Mexico (SEMARNAT- COLPOS, 2002). The government responds to this situation by legislat- ing and establishing public policy programs. The perception of this re- source within Mexico is reflected in eleven laws concerning the soil: six regard the soil as a substratum, and three as a source of productivity, while in only two are environmental concepts introduced (Cotler et al., 2007). These laws support public policy programs, among which the most important is the Forest Soil Restoration and Conservation Program implemented by the National Forestry Commission, in which conserva- tion practices on forest soil are requested by the owners and carried out by them in return for a subsidy. This economic incentive is paid to pro- ducers “to do something he or she would not otherwise have done” (Pearce, 2002). This program has been running since 2002 and applies rules that seek to make the allocation of financial resources at national level transparent (CONAFOR, 2012). To access this annual subsidy, the owner of the land must submit an application. Once this application has been approved, payments are made (70% at the beginning and 30% at the end). But it is important to consider that about 55% of Mexican forest land is social prop- erty (called ejido) and that the ejido assembly is the highest authority. In this sense, to apply for the subsidy the ejido hire a technician or adviser, certified by CONAFOR, who assist in planning, siting, design and imple- mentation of conservation works and also write the reports. The technical personnel selects a conservation practice from a manual (CONAFOR, 2006), in which 70% of the described conservation practices are mechan- ical, and the implementation should not exceed a predetermined cost. It is important to note that the program only finances one type of conserva- tion practice for the entire plot. The final choice of the applied practice is approved in ejido assembly, which also defines the persons from the ejido who will be carrying out the conservation work and receiving a pay- ment, but the assembly is under no liability to monitor and maintain the conservation works through time. Areas supported may be 10 to 150 ha Catena 104 (2013) 280–287 ☆ Soil conservation practices assessment through soil and social indicators in Mexico. ☆☆ Soil conservation practices do not improve soil quality. ★ Conservation practices are implemented without considering biophysical setting and social environment. ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +52 55 54246449; fax: +52 55 54245491. E-mail addresses: hcotler@ine.gob.mx (H. Cotler), silkecram@igg.unam.mx (S. Cram), sergiomtzt@geociencias.unam.mx (S. Martinez-Trinidad), eduardoquintanarg@hotmail.com (E. Quintanar). 0341-8162/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2012.12.005 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Catena journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/catena