Frontera NorteSur   2006

In one of the first actions under Operation Christmas Tree, Mexican environmental authorities have halted a shipment of Oregon-raised Douglas-fir trees at the Mexico-US border. Mexico 's Office of the Attorney General for Environmental Protection (Profepa), publicly disclosed the action this week in an announcement unveiling Operation Christmas Tree, a multi-week campaign aimed at curbing possible environmental threats posed by the brisk seasonal business in Christmas trees.

According to the Profepa, Mexican inspectors seized a shipment of almost 2,000 Oregon-bred trees at the Colombia crossing on the Nuevo Leon-Texas border. Justifying its action, the environmental protection agency said the trees were detained after inspectors discovered live Douglas-fir twig weevil larvae in the shipment. The trees will be returned to the US , the Profepa said.

In a Mexico City press conference, Profepa official Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada outlined the different phases of Operation Christmas Tree. In addition to inspecting US and Canadian tree plantations for infestations and diseases, Elvira said Profepa personnel will check ports-of-entry, monitor highway traffic and visit commercial points of sale. The twin objective of the program is to curb illegal tree harvesting and ensure that Mexican consumers purchase healthy trees grown in a sustainable manner, he added. Operation Christmas Tree is expected to continue through December.

Gerardo Molina, the president of the Association of Mexican Christmas Tree Producers, said that approximately 7,800 planted acres and 500,000 trees in Mexico are ready to be harvested for the holiday celebrations. Mexico , Michoacan , Puebla , Veracruz , Nuevo Leon, Baja California states, as well as the Federal District surrounding Mexico City , all lead in the national production of Christmas trees. However, consumer demand outstrips supply in Mexico . More than 822,000 Christmas trees were imported into Mexico during 2005; some 100,000 trees were ordered sent back to the United States due to plant sanitary issues. Through mid-November of this year, about 75,000 Christmas trees were imported into Mexico .

The northern border states of Nuevo Leon, Sonora, Tamaulipas , Baja California and Chihuahua are popular points of entry for foreign-produced Christmas trees. Colima, Veracruz and Mexico City also register a share of the imports.

Sources: El Universal/Notimex, November 15, 2006. Profepa, November 16, 2006. Press statement.

Water Conflicts Unhinge Chihuahua

Blazing temperatures, dry weather, diminishing water sources, and latent ethnic rivalries have tempers flaring in Chihuahua state. Conflicts between Mennonite and mestizo farmers near the northern Chihuahua communities of Nuevo Casas Grandes, Asencion and Janos are deepening over allegations of illegally drilled wells. In a series of recent meetings, mestizo farmers, Mennonite growers, government officials, and politicians from different political factions squared off over the future of an uncertain water supply in a rural region south of the New Mexico border. Pumped deep from the earth, groundwater from more than 1,000 wells gives life to the historic agricultural industry of the area.

Organized in a groundwater advocacy committee, some mestizo farmers accuse Mennonite producers of drilling or planning to drill 800 illegal wells to irrigate more than 100,000 acres of cropland. Calling the Mennonites “depredators” of water sources, Carlos Ramirez, local groundwater committee spokesman, criticized the National Water Commission (Conagua) for allegedly allowing well-drilling in the Santa Maria Ford, a prohibited zone, without first doing an assessment of the health of an aquifer that is shared by Mennonite, mestizo and Mormon farmers. Conagua critics allege that a web of corruption is favoring some Mennonite and Mormon growers backed by foreign capital.

Ramirez's concerns are shared by several Chihuahua state and federal legislators from the PRD, PRI and PAN political parties. “The Mennonites are not our enemies, we don't see them as such,” said Roberto Cazares, a longtime farm movement leader and local deputy who represents the PRD party. “The problem is that they do not respect the legal regulations and want to use the water without being bothered about the costs that could generate in a zone where there are problems because of the drought,” Cazares contended.

However, Flavio Acosta de los Rios, Conagua's Chihuahua state director, denied that legal restrictions exist on well-drilling in the Santa Maria Ford. According to the federal official, Mennonites are within their rights to drill wells in the area. Farmers led by Carlos Ramirez demand a moratorium on additional well-drilling in the region.

Dependent on underground water for irrigation, agriculture in the Asencion region witnessed a spurt of growth in recent years, due in part to the introduction of jalapeno chile pepper crops which were once grown in New Mexico but relocated to Chihuahua by growers seeking to take advantage of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Settling Chihuahua in the 1920s, Canadian Mennonites have established a strong rural presence in parts of the northern border state. Now, Mennonites and their supporters charge that they are being made the scapegoats of growing water crisis, with unfair criticisms bearing xenophobic and chauvinist overtones. According to some Mennonite representatives, a tense environment bordering on violence is developing in some rural communities.

“The government of Canada offers us farms, and many have already gone over there,” said one unidentified Mennonite leader. “(Mennonites) like to live in communities; the day is going to come when all of us might have to go.”

In a recent meeting attended by Chihuahua Rural Development Secretary Reyes Cadena Payan, as well as federal officials from the environment ministry and Conagua, Mennonite farmers and their spokesman, Armando Villareal Martha, another longtime mestizo farm movement leader, defended themselves from accusations of water-hogging. The session resulted in an agreement to conduct a hydrological resource study of the Asencion area, and announced the establishment of working groups made up of irrigators. Chihuahua Governor Jose Reyes Baeza, meanwhile, proposed that regulations be implemented to avoid the “overexploitation” of groundwater sources.

Sources: La Jornada, June 1, 2006 . Article by Miroslava Breach Velducea. El Diario de Juarez, May 31, 2006 . Articles by Alex Lara, Orlando Chavez and Norma Gomez. El Diario de Chihuahua, May 30, 2006 . Article by Froylan Meza.

Andean Gold Fever Sparks Cross-Border Battles

High in South America's Andes Mountains , a battle continues between rural communities and a large Canadian mining company over the future of an environmentally and culturally-sensitive region. Sparked by a $1.5 billion-dollar project by the Barrick Gold Corporation of Canada , the dispute is an early test of how the new government of Chilean Socialist President Michelle Bachelet will balance environmental and economic concerns. Centered in the Huasco Valley that borders Chile and Argentina , the dispute pits indigenous and rural communities against Barrick Gold over the company's Pascua Lama project.

Projecting the use of tens of thousands of tons of explosives to clear mine entrances, the Canadian transnational proposes to extract 20 million ounces of gold, 600 million ounces of silver and 200,000 tons of copper concentrate over nearly two decades. If precious metal prices continue to stay at their current high levels, the company stands to rake in billions of dollars in profits from Pascua Lima. Many residents of the Huasco Valley contend they will get stuck with the raw end of the deal. They charge the massive mining project will damage or destroy three Andean glaciers, dry up and contaminate groundwater supplies, disturb wildlife habitat, wipe out meadows, and ruin archeological sites.

Pascua Lima will be "the death of the Huasco Valley ," contends Luis Faura, one of the valley's leading opponents to Barrick Gold's plans. Faura is especially concerned about the possible impacts on human health and groundwater from Barrick Gold's plans to use a cyanide leaching process to extract gold and silver; arsenic and mercury pollution are additional worries.

A related conflict involves members of the indigenous Diaguita community of Huascoaltinos who charge that they were stripped of more than 100,000 acres of their ancestral land to pave the way for the project. Nancy Yanez, a lawyer for the community, characterizes the threats posed by the mining project to the Diaguita's traditional farming and grazing activities as constituting ethnocide.

About three-fourths of the project is planned on Chilean territory and one-fourth on Argentine territory. The proposed project site is about 400 miles south of Santiago , Chile , and 180 miles northeast of San Juan , Argentina . The mining is planned to occur at altitudes ranging from about 13,000 to 16,500 feet.

Chile 's National Environmental Commission (Conama) gave a green light to Pascua Lima last February 15, but attached a number of conditions to the project. Conama ordered Barrick to not remove or disturb the glaciers, monitor the groundwater and soil and prevent dust from accumulating on glaciers that supply water to the Huasco Valley .

Vince Borg, a Barrick Gold spokesman, says his company will not challenge the conditions. Barrick Gold's opponents, however, have filed dozens of administrative appeals to Conama's decision. Supporting Huasco Valley residents in the legal challenge are the Santiago-based Latin American Observatory for Environmental Conflicts (Olca) and the international environmental advocacy group Oceana.

According to Cesar Padilla, Olca's mining project director, Barrick Gold's opponents minimally demand the preparation of a new environmental impact statement for Pascua Lima. An Argentine government decision on Pascua Lima is expected by next month. Argentine authorities already have fined Barrick Gold for dumping oil and burying waste in the San Guillermo Biosphere during the company's preliminary project operations. If the environmentalists' appeals fail in Chile , construction of the Chilean portion of the project could begin later this year.

Pascua Lima is the first big project to result from the 1997 mining treaty between Chile and Argentina that lifted binational legal restrictions and eased foreign investment in the mining sectors of the two nations A company with operations five continents, Barrick Gold reportedly has counted among its stockholders former US President George H.W. Bush. Brian Mulroney, the former Canadian prime minister who promoted the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Canada-Chile free trade that facilitated new investments like Barrick Gold's, sits on the company's board of directors. Another prominent company director is Venezuelan media magnate Gustavo Cisneros.

Barrick Gold is not the only transnational company interested in the Andes ' treasures. . Reportedly, the Noranda and Homestake mining companies are also eyeing the region for operations.

Sources: ecoamericas.com, April 2006. Reuters, March 30, 2006 . Article by Lisa Yulkowski. Proceso, February 19, 2006 . Article by Francisco Martin. Inter-Press Service, November 11, 2005 . Article by Daniel Estrada. barrick.com. forbes.com

Argentina-Uruguay Conflict Bared at Vienna Summit : The Story Behind Greenpeace's Summit Stripper

Evangelina Carrozzo achieved what few can only dream. For a few brief moments, literally, the 26-year-old Argentine nutrition student and carnival queen attracted the undivided attention of the presidents and prime ministers of the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean-all at the same time. Posing as a journalist, Carrozo slipped into the room where a group picture of the leaders was being snapped during their May 12 summit in Vienna , Austria . Casting aside her "reporter's" reserve, Carrozo slipped off a coat to reveal a thin bikini. Parading before stunned leaders that included British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Mexican President Vicente Fox, among others, Carrozo held up a large sign that directed a clear message to the gaping men: "No Pulpmill Pollution. Greenpeace."

Quickly hustled out of the photo session by security men (apparently to the disappointment of President Chavez, who called the sexy stunt one of the "best" parts of the summit), the queen of Argentina's Gualeyguaychu Carnival and suddenly famous international green activist, justified her creative act of protest as necessary to bring world attention to the deepening crisis between Argentina and Uruguay over plans to establish two cellulose factories near the banks of the Uruguay River dividing the two nations. " I am from Argentina , and we don't want (the plants)," Carrozzo proclaimed.

Drawing mass protests over environmental concerns, the controversial, $1.8 billion-dollar cellulose project promoted by the Uruguayan government spotlights myriad issues that are determining not only the immediate relations of two neighboring countries but also defining the nature of future economic, environmental and political models in Latin America as well. Beyond the bilateral conflict, political shockwaves from the Argentina-Uruguay showdown are reverberating in both the European Union and the Mercosur group of South American nations.

First approved by the conservative government of former Uruguayan President Jorge Batlle, the pulp mill project is centered near the Uruguayan town of Fray Bentos across the Uruguay River from the Argentine city of Gualeguaychu . Partly financed by the World Bank, the plants are slated to be built and operated by two European companies, Botnia of Finland and ENCE of Spain. Expected to provide 4,000 jobs and produce 1.5 million tons of paper pulp per year, the project is a vital component of the economic development strategy crafted currently pursued by the center-left government of Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez, a doctor who was elected with the support of leftist political forces including the former Tupamaro guerrillas.

Although frequently lumped together with other left-of-center Latin American leaders, President Vazquez is staying the course of the export-oriented development model as exemplified by the Fray Bentos project; demand for paper is steady in Europe, Japan and the United States . Recently concluding his first year in office, Vazquez enjoys a large degree of political support and approval for his policies, which also include strong emphases on human rights and social welfare. Externally, however, the pulp mill project has Vazquez's government on a collision course with the left-of-center Argentine government led by Nestor Kirchner.

Invoking the 1975 Uruguay River Treaty, which requires bilateral consultation on issues affecting the river border between Argentina and Uruguay , the Kirchner Administration filed a complaint May 4 against Uruguay in the World Court . Argentina 's legal action, the first time the South American country has recurred to the international legal tribunal, came after an agreement between Kirchner and Vazquez to suspend construction of the two pulp mills for three months while an independent environmental impact study was conducted fell apart, reportedly because of Finnish company Botnia's disagreement with the plan.

The Uruguayan government insists the pulp mills will be environmentally friendly, and accuses Argentina of employing a double-standard for permitting 12 cellulose plants to operate in Argentine territory. But Argentine and international environmentalists criticize the new Uruguayan-hosted cellulose project for planning to use a dirtier bleaching process than the one currently used in European pulp mills. Critics contend the two large plants will produce noxious gases, emit toxic dioxins and furans into environment and dump effluent into the Uruguay River .

"This is not an innocuous industry," says Juan Carlos Villalonga," political director of Greenpeace Argentina . Contending the Fray Bentos plants will double the production capacity of Argentina 's plants, Villalonga calls on Argentina and Uruguay to agree on joint environmental standards for a paper industry "clean production" plan.

Backed by national and international environmental groups like Greenpeace, residents of Gualeguaychu have spearheaded protests against the planned pulp mills and staged large marches involving tens of thousands of people during the last two years. Uruguayan environmentalists have also joined the anti- pulp mill movement. Last February protestors blockaded the river bridge between Fray Bentos and Gualeguaychu for several days, cutting off trade and access to Uruguay and unnerving the Mercosur group of South American countries.

"This is a not merely a binational problem," said Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte Frutos, "but a regional one that deserves the attention of Mercosur." Regionally, environmentalists worry that the installation of the Fray Bentos plants is the latest step in transforming the Guarani basin of Argentina , Uruguay , Paraguay , and Brazil into a paper colony for the developed world. Already, European corporations are reportedly buying up land in Brazil and Uruguay for new pulp mills.

While not receiving as much media attention as Carrozzo, President Kirchner used the Vienna Summit to denounce the planned pulp mills for not complying "with standards that would have been imposed on them in Europe ." Parallel to the official Vienna gathering, civil society groups convened the Permanent People's Tribunal (PPT) in the Austrian city last week. Criticism of Venezuela and Bolivia for following economic development policies anathema to free trade was voiced in Vienna by some European representatives, but the PPT blasted the European Union for allegedly allowing their home country corporations to engage in a new round of eco-imperialism by relocating runaway pulp mills and other dirty industries to the Third World .

Back on the Argentina-Uruguay border, the pulp mill battle contrasts two competing visions of economic development, and is reminiscent in some ways of the old jobs vs. the environment conflict that polarized the US Pacific Northwest during the last decades of the 20th Century. On one side of the border, the 80,000 people of Gualeguaychu place their future bets on the "clean" industry of their famous carnival and tourism. On the other side of the river border, many of the 25,000 people of Fray Bentos, a town once known for its instant coffee and English-style, canned corned beef, look to the industrial pulp mills as one big answer to the chronic unemployment affecting their youth.

Meanwhile, Gualeguaychu Carnival Queen Carrozzo now enjoys even greater prestige in her home town and the province of Entre Rios . Asked for his reactions to Carrozzo's summit strip-tease, Entre Rios Governor Jorge Busti praised the young woman for her "youthful act of great audacity." Added Carrozzo's mother, "(I am) very proud, not only of the attitude of Evangelina, but also Greenpeace. She not only represented Gualeguaychu, but also the world."

Sources: El Universal, May 12 and 13, 2006. Articles by Natalia Gomez Quinteroy, Jose Luis Ruiz and the EFE news agency. La Jornada, May 3 and 13, 2006. Articles by Jose Steinsleger and editorial staff. Inter Press Service, May 4 and 13, 2006. Articles by Marcela Valente and Julio Godoy. Univision, May 13, 2006 . Proceso/Apro. March 13, 2006 . Article by Marcelo Izquierdo. Latin America Data Base ( UNM ), September 16, 2005 and February 10, 2006 . EFE, May 3, 2005 .

Cetaceans Snared by Fishing Nets

Mexican firefighters rescued a young gray whale that was trapped in a lobster net off the Pacific Coast of Baja California last week. Discovered just to the north of New Point near Rosarito, the 24-foot long cetacean was successfully reunited with its mother, according to a press statement from Mexico 's Attorney General for Environmental Protection (Profepa). The federal agency reported the presence of the illegal lobster net- which was set in an inappropriate place during a ban on lobster harvesting- to the National Fishing Commission for further action. A laborious task, the whale rescue reportedly took place over two days.

Less fortunate than the gray whale were 7 dolphins that were found dead about 12 miles from San Felipe, a port located on the Gulf of California side of Baja California . Initial comments from local fishermen and biologists suggested the sea mammals could have fallen prey to sardine fishing nets.

Ricardo Castellanos, the Profepa delegate for Baja California , could not immediately confirm that sardine nets were the cause of the dolphins' deaths. Castellanos said the estimated 12 days that passed between the time of the dolphins' deaths and the recoveries of their bodies complicated exact determinations of the fatalities. A special Profepa team was assigned to study the dolphins' bodies for clues. Suspecting that more dolphins could have died in addition to the 7 specimens found, Castellanos said investigators set out to search the ocean north and south of San Felipe.

Sources: El Diario de Juarez/Apro/El Universal, April 20, 2006 . Profepa, April 19, 2006 . Press statement.

Are the Waters Pure for Holy Week?

Tour buses from Ciudad Juarez and other border cities began heading to vacation destinations last weekend for the two-week Easter holidays. Many of the vacationers will pack Mexican beaches throughout the country, but few will have solid information about the quality of the sea water at their chosen resort. Will they find clean waters? According to a report last week from the environmental group Greenpeace Mexico , the answer is no. Based on statistics obtained from the federal National Water Commission (Conagua) through Mexico 's new freedom of information law, Greenpeace Mexico released data that revealed only an average 34 percent of wastewater released into Mexican oceans is treated.

Alejandro Olivera, the coordinator of Greenpeace Mexico's ocean campaign, noted that untreated wastewaters can translate into a variety of health problems, including skin irritations, eye and ear infections, respiratory maladies, stomach disorders, diarrhea, and even hepatitis. "This is a health risk on many beaches," Olivera contended.

According to the Conagua's statistics, wastewaters dumped into the oceans off the northern border states are better treated than the national average, with Baja California having the best national average of 70.7 percent. In Tamaulipas, 36.5 percent of wastewaters receive treatment, while in Sonora the number is 34.4 percent. However, the statistics reported don't specify whether wastewaters undergo primary or secondary treatment, a process that better cleans up wastewaters.

Released on the eve of Mexico 's big vacation, the Greenpeace Mexico report elicited an almost immediate response from the federal Ministry of the Environment (Semarnat). According to the federal environmental agency, only three out of 207 beaches recently sampled were in violation of water quality standards. Two of the beaches were located in southern Campeche state and one in Nayarit on the Pacific Coast . The agency said no updated reports were received from Baja California , Baja California Sur and Sonora states.

Semarnat, however, did not report the amount of fecal coliforms detected. Nonetheless, Environment Minister Jose Luis Luege Tamargo proposed that a public education campaign about beach water contamination should be launched, and coastal wastewaters managed in a more efficient way.

Beach pollution is a touchy issue in communities dependent on tourism, especially during the economic boom times of holiday seasons like Holy Week. A 2003 Semarnat program to inform the public about water contamination levels at Mexican beach resorts, "Clean Beaches," was passionately attacked by some politicians and members of the tourist industry. Some charged that "Clean Beaches" was part of a conspiracy to drive tourists away from certain resorts and toward Cancun . No evidence of such a conspiracy was ever presented. In Acapulco and Zihuatanejo in Guerrero state, signs warning the public of possible health risks at certain beaches were even stolen.

The next year, articles in the Mexico City daily Reforma revisited the beach pollution issue and prompted a sharp response from then-Acapulco Mayor Alberto Lopez Rosas, a member of the PRD political party. Quoted in Reforma, Acapulco environmentalist and businessman Ramiro Gomez was sued by Lopez Rosas and his municipal government. Gomez told Frontera NorteSur that the Acapulco city government attempted to recover about $6,500 dollars it claimed to have spent in countering negative publicity from the Reforma article.

"Lopez Rosas did this to shut me up," Gomez charged. "He violated my constitutional rights to freedom of expression." A television show host, Gomez broadcast videotaped scenes of open and clandestine discharges of wastewater directly into Acapulco Bay .

More recently, the beach pollution issue got renewed attention when the new Latin American Water Tribunal (TLA), a non-governmental organization based in Costa Rica and composed of prestigious world jurists and academics, heard a complaint from the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center and Zihuatanejo residents about the contamination of the coastal city's bay during last month's World Water Forum in Mexico City. The TLA declared that federal Mexican environmental and water authorities have been negligent in allowing the pollution of the bay, and urged that a master plan for the bay's management be prepared. The bay's pollution constitutes a health risk for the population, the TLA determined.

Greenpeace Mexico 's Olivera underscored the irony of Mexico 's reputation as a beach paradise and the reality of ocean pollution. He called on the "three levels of government" to improve funding for wastewater infrastructure, and step up the coordination of public agencies charged with overseeing the public health and environment.

Whether or not Mexican tourists encounter clean or dirty beach waters this year, they will certainly fork out much more money for the privilege of sunning in the sand and dipping their bodies in the water. A recent study by the private International Consultants company estimated that prices for hotels and restaurants soared nearly 150 percent during the last 10 years, while industrial salaries only increased 30 percent during the same time frame. The current 2-week vacation period is expected to generate nearly $4 billion dollars in spending, according to the federal Ministry of Tourism. An estimated 25 to 30 million Mexicans will leave home during Mexico 's most traveled holiday season.

Additional sources: Greenpeace Mexico , press bulletin, April 5, 2006. Semarnat, press bulletin, April 6, 2006. El Universal, April 7 and 8, 2006. Articles by Guadalupe Hernandez Espinosa and the Notimex news agency. La Jornada, March 21, April 6 and 7, 2006. Articles by Karina Aviles, Laura Poy Solano and Emir Olivares. Proceso/Apro, March 21, 2006. Article by Soledad Jarquin Edgar.

February 6, 2006
NGOS RESPOND TO NAFTA COMMISSION ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE REPORT

Environmental and human rights organizations from Chihuahua state have responded to a landmark report released last month by the Montreal-based Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) about the enforcement of Mexico 's environmental laws in the Sierra Tarahumara region of northern Chihauhua state. The report documents numerous irregularities committed by Mexico 's Attorney General for Environmental Protection (Profepa) in handling citizen complaints about illegal logging and natural resource extraction in Chihuahua 's mountains.

The CEC report was prompted by a 2000 citizen submission from the Chihuahua Commission in Solidarity and Defense of Human Rights (Cossydhac) on behalf of indigenous Raramuri residents and leaders. The submitters accused the Mexican government of denying environmental justice to Raramuris by violating due process procedures under the General Law on Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection, as well as ignoring decision-making rights of indigenous communities recognized by the International Labor Organization.

Unnamed Profepa officials cited in the report recognized widespread illegal timer harvesting throughout the 1990s, estimating that between 25 to 33 percent of the wood sold in Mexico was cut illegally. Common causes of illegal logging include substituting land for cattle-grazing, small or medium scale wood commercialization and, increasingly, clearing forest cover for illegal narcotics cultivation.

The CEC investigation found foot-dragging in processing citizen complaints; negligence in gathering evidence of forest arson; irregularities in referring environmental law violations to federal prosecutors; failures in keeping citizens informed, and incomplete follow-up of legally ordered fines and/or reforestation measures. According to the CEC, Mexican government officials blamed some of the deficiencies on the lack of staff and travel time. The CEC contended that cultural and language barriers between indigenous forest residents and mestizo Profepa inspectors working out of offices hours from the mountains were also problematic. Set up as the environmental side commission under the North American Free Trade Agreement, the CEC issues factual reports to member governments but does not have enforcement authority.

In response to the CEC report, which went public 7 months after its completion, a statement issued by three Chihuahua City-based groups and individuals recognized potentially positive steps toward environmental justice as coming from the report, but nevertheless criticized what the activists contended were ongoing institutional failures in the Mexican federal government's relationship with indigenous forest communities in northern Chihuahua state. The statement was signed by Cossydhac, Maria Teresa Guerrero of Community Technical Consultants and Agustin Bravo of Fuerza Ambiental

"It remains clear to us that the problem at hand requires not only partial reforms to current laws, but most of all, a state reform that establishes a clear relationship between government authorities and indigenous peoples," said the signers.

Assessing the CEC report, the non-governmental organizations criticized the persistence of a business-as-usual atmosphere during the costly, time-consuming investigation. According to the citizen response, "no substantial changes in the exercise of law by the Profepa were observed" during the 5 years the CEC complaint was processed.

In the same time period, the environmental and human rights activists credited the forestry division of the Chihuahua state Ministry of Rural Development with making progress in addressing public concerns about illegal timber trafficking in the Sierra Tarahumara. According to Cossydhac and the other groups, state inspectors discovered 214 illegal wood shipments in 2004 and 304 in 2005. Also 149 new citizen complaints were registered with the Profepa, and 6 legal cases channeled to the Federal Attorney Generals Office for prosecution in the most recent two-year period.

There was no immediate public comment from the Profepa about the CEC report, but Profepa official Hector Gonzalez Reza recently said efforts to combat illegal logging in Mexico will be stepped up in 2006. According to Gonzalez, the Profepa seized 15,000 cubic meters of wood in 164 operations nationwide during 2005, closed 13 sawmills, confiscated 154 vehicles and referred more than 38 people to the federal prosecutor. Once declared an issue of "national security" by President Vicente Fox, forest conservation has been identified by Mexico 's Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources as a key element in preventing global warming.

Nationally, the CEC report has many implications for the procurement of environmental justice in collective land-owning forest communities. Manuel Solis, the assistant Profepa delegate in Guerrero state, said his agency is collaborating with the Mexican armed forces, the Federal Preventive Police and Federal Office of the Attorney General to halt and prosecute illegal logging. Solis, who said he is not familiar with the CEC report, said the Profepa has identified 19 critical zones nationwide for special attention.

Solis added a 4-pronged strategy is under implementation to combat forest depredations. The forestry law enforcement plan includes joint federal law enforcement operations, checkpoints, citizen monitoring committees and logging permit revisions. By the end of 2005, the Profepa is on public record as establishing 123 citizen vigilance committees to monitor illegal timber harvesting in Mexico .

Inspectors in Guerrero , Chihuahua and elsewhere sometimes confront resistant loggers or armed gangs often linked with drug traffickers in disputed logging zones. Solis, for example, said he was almost once attacked by an individual wielding a chain-saw. In a counter-trend, Solis added there is a rising environmental consciousness among the residents of forest communities. "They see the need to take care of (the forest) in order to benefit in the future," Solis said. "There's already a culture of not logging for logging sakes."

In Chihuahua , Cossydhac and other forest advocacy groups contend the federal government needs to transform its culture of enforcement, move beyond bureaucratically processing individual cases and treat environmental complaints as common concerns of collectively-rooted indigenous communities already enjoying their own forms of decision-making authority. According to the forest defenders, shortcomings in guaranteeing environmental justice are rooted in "structural failures of the environmental justice system and the access to it."

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kent Paterson