History

History

The first contacts in the bilateral cooperation in the forestry sector between Mexico and Finland were made already in the 1960s. Dr. Gustaf Sirén, Finnish forest scientist, worked as a FAO forest expert in Mexico between 1961 and 1963. In 1967, Finnish forest inventory expert Dr. Aarne Nyyssönen visited Mexico and established with his Mexican partners experimental trials in Ejido Pueblo Nuevo, El Salto, Durango.

Broader possibilities for economic, scientific, and technical cooperation were studied in the 1970s. Doctors Nyyssönen  and Sirén organized in 1976 a two-week training course on forest management planning, which had about 80 Mexican participants. Later, other symposia and training courses were organized.

ln 1982, a formal development cooperation agreement was signed between the two parties, which was targeted at forestry development in the state of Guerrero. This represented the first phase of a more intensive cooperation between the two countries.

Mutually positive experiences led to the expansion of joint project activities to other states and the national level later in the 1980s. These activities have continued until today in different forms and intensities.

Half-a century of mutual learning and co-creation between Mexico and Finland represents a unique case in international forestry cooperation between two countries.