Ecobreves – MEXICO: Forests in Danger

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

MEXICO CITY, Apr 21 2002 (IPS) - Mexico's Federal Environmental Protection Prosecutor will attempt this year to implement protection this year for eight of the 100 areas in the country undergoing intense deforestation, and will boost forestry inspections 38 percent, in an attempt to halt the annual average loss of 1.1 million hectares of woodlands. Seven million cubic meters of timber, nearly half of Mexico's total yearly output, is marketed illegally.

Forested areas, which now cover approximately 55 million hectares, will disappear in five or six decades if the current pace of destruction continues, warns the government's Environmental Secretariat.

Environmental groups applaud the Federal Prosecutor's decision, but say it is still not enough to confront the magnitude of the problem.

In 2001, the authorities seized 56,000 cubic meters of lumber, arrested 376 people for “environmental crimes” and applied more than 11 million dollars in fines.