The Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE) has conducted a performance evaluation on the "Community-based Forestry Development Project in Southern States (Campeche, Chiapas and Oaxaca) ” (DECOFOS) in Mexico. The project, implemented between 2009 and 2016, showed that forests and natural resources in general have an important productive potential and can be managed sustainably. The available data suggest that the project contributed to forest preservation in the implementation areas. Overall, the project made a contribution to poverty alleviation among vulnerable and marginalized groups in rural areas. 

The evaluation also reveals that the impact and sustainability prospects would have been greater if the project had formulated an exit strategy to consolidate the undertakings. This strategy could have focused on improving the managerial capacity of grassroots organizations, their access to working capital and connection to markets and value chains.

The executive summary is also available in English.