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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Mexico's
Lacandon Forest on Brink of Extinction
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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org
http://forests.org/ -- Forest
Conservation Archives
http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest
Conservation
06/19/00
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY
So many
of the Earth's special places, the ecological heritage of the
Planet,
have been and are being destroyed in an orgy of consumption
by a
few generations of human beings. The
real culprits are in the
over-developed
World, you and me, not settlers striving to eke out a
living. Only one-third of the tremendous Mexican
Lacandon forest,
home to
the ancient Mayans, remains; and the rest is likely to be
gone by
2015. Rainforest destruction is a
global crisis that
warrants
emergency responses and a reallocation of World financial
resources
to address. The consequences of
rainforest loss will be
felt
for the rest of human history.
g.b.
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RELAYED
TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: FEATURE - Mexico's Mayan paradise on brink
of extinction
Source: c 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights
reserved.
Date: June 16, 2000
By: Monica Ballesca
MEXICO:
LACANJA - Its ancient residents, the Mayans, could have never
imagined
it, but the verdant paradise of Mexico's Lacandon forest is
on the
verge of extinction.
As
little as one-third of this pre-Columbian Eden - home to bubbling
springs,
monkeys, jaguars and towering trees supposedly imbued with
spiritual
powers - is still intact.
After
decades of crop burning, forest fires, insufficient
environmental
protection and a recent invasion by displaced indigenous
people,
the prognosis for this natural wonder in southern Chiapas
state
is alarming: 15 years of life.
"In
the last 14 years the forest area has diminished by 41 percent,"
said
Alejandro Lopez Portillo, head of a government programme that
administers
resources in the Montes Azules Reserve in the heart of the
jungle.
"That's equivalent to 33,500 hectares (82,745 acres) per year
in the
Lacandon jungle."
The
Lacandon region comprises some 1.9 million hectares, of which two-
thirds
is now pastureland or cultivated for crops.
"Given
this tendency, in 2015 the trees and jungle could disappear,"
Lopez
said, eyeing one of the gaping holes in the dense forest from
the
windows of a helicopter.
During
an aerial tour of the region, Martin Gonzalez of the Federal
Prosecutor's
environmental protection wing Profepa said deforestation
has
been a problem for decades but has accelerated in the last few
years.
In 1998 alone, an abnormally strong season of forest fires
destroyed
some 25,000 hectares.
MONTES
AZULES, HEART OF LACANDON
The
government in 1978 declared about 600,000 hectares a "protected
zone,"
giving the land to the Lacandon indigenous group, considered to
be the
purest descendants of the Mayas.
The
heart of the protected area is known as Montes Azules (Blue
Woodlands)
and is an ancient region of virgin forest. Even its abrupt
ravines
and inaccessible areas have not saved it from settlement by
other
indigenous groups.
Montes
Azules is home to 26 communities - 700 families with an average
of
seven members each - who invaded the forest illegally, a government
report
says. Many were fleeing violence between pro-government
paramilitary
groups and the armed rebel group Zapatista National
Liberation
Front (EZLN), which declared war against the government in
1994 to
demand improved rights for the Mayan Indians. Others came to
escape
poverty.
Profepa
estimates that the groups have devastated some 600 hectares
(1,500
acres) within Montes Azules.
"What
worries us most is that the invasions are not being halted; on
the
contrary, in the last year they've increased," Lopez said as smoke
rising
from agricultural fires obscured the helicopter view of the
area.
Montes
Azules, with just 0.16 percent of Mexico's land, shelters 28
percent
of its mammal species, 32 percent of its bird species, 14.4
percent
of fish and 12 percent of reptiles.
Jose,
one of the hundreds of Indians who have moved into the jungle,
said
the land in the village where he was born is no longer suitable
for
cultivation. So he and a friend decided to tap new land at the
border
of the Yanqui lagoon.
Jose
and his friend Pedro, with their wives and seven children each,
formed
the settlement of El Semental about two hours by foot from the
interior
of Montes Azules.
After a
tough negotiation to convince him the indigenous guides would
not
harm him, Jose - with machete in hand, his head covered with a
hood -
agreed to an interview by Reuters.
'THEY
WILL ONLY REMOVE US DEAD'
"This
evil government wants to remove us ... but they will only remove
us dead!
No way are we going to leave. The land belongs to those who
work
it," an agitated Jose said, paraphrasing famed revolutionary
Emiliano
Zapata who fought for social equality at the beginning of the
1900s.
Fearful
of the military and police who he says harass his people
ceaselessly,
Jose said in halting Spanish that the jungle offers his
community
all it needs.
"Here
we have pineapple, papaya, beans, corn, coffee and even lemons
to
flavor the water we give our children," he said, displaying his
crops
proudly. He conceded they lack medications but added, "If you go
to the
public hospitals, the government gives you the same pill
regardless
of the pain."
Jose
and Pedro, admitting they are Zapatista sympathisers, denied that
they are
robbing the forest of its trees. "We know how to work the
earth,
our grandparents taught us. Yes, we set fires but (other
Zapatistas)
come and control them," Jose said, offering a journalist
fresh
fruit from his homestead.
"We're
not evil, we just want land for our children."
The
Lacandon jungle is the stronghold of commanders and soldiers of
the
EZLN army, which broke off peace talks in 1996, claiming the
government
had failed to observe part of an accord on Indian rights.
The
indigenous migration in impoverished Chiapas state has stemmed
largely
from their repression by anti-Zapatista paramilitary groups.
Faced
with growing migration to the natural reserve, the federal and
state
governments last year launched a plan to relocate the
settlements
in Lacandon territory.
Lopez
said the government helps indigenous people who agree to
relocate
from the jungle, including up to 12 acres (5 hectares) of
land
per family, a prefabricated house and technical help on crop
cultivation.
So far,
just seven of the 26 new settlements in Montes Azules have
agreed
to the package; four have started to leave. But for Jose and
Pedro
the offer holds little attraction.
"The
worthless houses they give you collapse when it rains and the
land
provided isn't suitable for planting and isn't enough," Jose
said,
noting he had to pass his land on to seven children.
"Here,
meanwhile, we have everything we want."
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