| Riassunto: | This research study focused on strategic planning for sustainable community forestry in Chihuahua State, Mexico. The research involved two forest ejidos in the Sierra Tarahumara: Basihuare and Cusarare from Guachochi Municipality. The objectives were: 1) assess the current forest resource management in both communities, 2) conduct a Search Conference (SC) (participative strategic planning methodology) for forest-based community development to achieve a greater awareness of development needs, positive perceptions and attitude change and to design a strategic action plan for a future community, and 3) assess the attitudinal and perceptual impact of the SC (strategic planning intervention) of local people toward community development. The results showed that: 1) ethnographic interviews were a valuable complement to and cross-check on the participatory approaches to obtaining views from the community members about their community forest resource management, and 2) the SC achieved a greater awareness of development needs and created more positive attitudes and perceptions about community development in Basihuare more than Cusárare who did not receive the intervention (SC). Additionally, the SC helped the Basihuare community to design its own strategic action plan for future development. The community not only developed its own strategic action plan, but also, because of the participative and democratic process they used, they became a planning community. Finally, the results suggest that the study could serve like a model for the application of the open system theory for the development of sustainable forestry communities in the Sierra Tarahumara and in other places more to regional, national, and international level.
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