Las Cebollas protective forest, Quezaltepeque municipality, western Guatemala

Las Cebollasforest community is located in the municipality of Quezaltepeque, in western Guatemala.  It encompasses a geographical area of 1850 ha of land much of it on slopes of about 1500m. The case study involves a snapshot in time in 1998 and catalogues an action situation involving 43 households which are dependent on the forest for three main purposes: 1) extraction of ocote, or resinous pine, for kindling, 2) extractions of firewood, oak varieties being preferred because they produce less smoke, and 3) pasture areas for cattle that feed on the ground-cover vegetation.   Timber and a variety of forest products are the main stationary resource units.

The original case study authors focused on the creation of self-governance.  The case study has subsequently been used in comparative analyses regarding Ostrom's Design Principles (see bibliography).