In this interview, Torres explains the conception of Mexico’s Payment for Environmental Services (PES) program, the process of its expansion and its role in relationship to other federal environmental programs. He describes the implementation of pilot projects based upon similarly designed programs in Costa Rica, and the involvement of such organizations like the World Bank in the program’s funding. He talks about the importance of creating technical committees that provided means for discussing the program’s criteria for preventing deforestation. He addresses the operational challenges that he faced as director general of the National Forest Service of Mexico/Comision Nacional Forestal (CONAFOR) that was in charge of PES, including the implementation of matching-funds and price differentiation programs. Finally, he reflects on CONAFOR’s main goals in relation to PES and the sustainability of the program. 

In this interview, Carlos Muñoz discusses the implementation of the Payment for Environmental Services (PES) program in Mexico. He relates how the idea for PES developed during his studies and his travels through Mexico and Latin America. While finishing his dissertation at UC Berkeley, Muñoz received an offer of employment at the Mexican National Institute of Ecology (INE). As the Director of Economic Research at INE, Muñoz worked to earmark a portion of existing water taxes to fund the PES program, which pays communities for the positive externalities of their forests. Muñoz describes the complicated but ultimately successful processes of developing the PES policy at INE and then building political consensus to pass it into law. Once this was accomplished in 2003, PES quickly gained support from the involved communities, and program funding was expanded. INE then focused on improving PES by better targeting the forests at greatest risk of being destroyed. Muñoz describes how the program successfully reduced deforestation rates and empowered communities, who used PES money for education and community forestry firms. He lastly relates the program’s greatest challenges and the influence of outside groups like the World Bank. Muñoz hopes that PES will continue to improve its targeting of forests, and sees discretional use of PES as the program’s biggest threat in the future.

In this interview, Sigrid Arzt Colunga explains the role of the Technical Secretary of the National Security Council in Mexico. She discusses the administrative coordination necessary to serve national and public security needs in Mexico. Just as the Calderon administration is coming into power, she describes the political diplomacy and cooperation she uses to transition into her newly created role as the President’s security adviser. She also details the process of communicating with and reporting to the President and Congress, as well as coordinating efforts with other ministers and technical secretaries. Arzt says one of the challenges of the job is that the legal mandate detailing the power of the position is vague, and because it is a new position, others in the bureaucracy and older agencies do not immediately accept her authority. Arzt also explains the mission and vision behind the National Security Plan, and describes some of her responsibilities, like allocating budget appropriations, working with the governors to secure states, and coordinating agenda items for the President’s meetings with senior administrators. 

In this interview, José Luis Mendez describes the Office of the Presidency’s changing roles under various Mexican presidents, from Vicente Fox to Enrique Peña Nieto. He explains how the office gained power under certain leaders, such as President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, but became less significant under others, including President Ernesto Zedillo. Mendez also applies the leadership models of competitive uncertainty and cooperative certainty to analyze and compare these administrations’ reform efforts. He also explains how Mexican civil service law has affected administrative restructuring. Finally, he discusses the transition to the Peña Nieto administration from President Felipe Calderón’s administration and notes its relative smoothness compared to the transition from Fox to Calderón.