Guajilote was founded in 1991 as an attempt to develop La Muralla National Park. Guajilote Cooperativo was given the right to develop naturally fallen mahogany trees in La Muralla's buffer zone. People were allowed to live and work within this buffer zone. In 1998, Guajilote started facing major issues that could affect the future growth of the company. Forest fires, illegal logging, and slash-and-burn agriculture were threatening mahogany wood. If mahogany trees continued to decline, trade for its wood could be restricted internationally like ivory trade (Wheelen, p 8-1).
As a business venture, Guajilote has been able to improve its income and quality of life of the members of the Cooperativo. As it says in the case, these members were earning 2,000 lempiras a year, if they were lucky. Now since the membership of Guajilote, they earn 1,000 to 1,500 in one month. They have also been able to rise up prices of the mahogany slightly. There are also some negative points to this venture as well. A major concern is the threat of deforestation. Another concern was that the growth of Guajilote was limited by the amount of mahogany it could produce in one year. Guajilote was legally restricted to only getting the mahogany trees that were downed. This made it difficult to find the trees and more difficult to find the trees in a safe environment. There was also a lack of transportation. The cooperative did not own a truck and did not have enough money to buy one. The cooperative mainly relied on their distributor for transportation of the wood. If they had their own truck, they could sell the wood without the distributor (Wheelen, pp 8-4 through 8-5). T ...