Critics say proposed changes to Mexico’s Forestry Law threaten sustainable forest management by local communities

The call goes out over the radio: An unknown car has entered Ejido Cruz de Ocote, a community-managed forestry operation in the state of Puebla, Mexico. A short time later, Constantino Cortés Martínez, chief of surveillance for the ejido, discovers what the occupants of that unknown car were after: “Tell Mario, and everyone else, to return here. Someone just knocked down a tree here,” he says into his walkie-talkie. After inspecting the damage, Cortés Martínez concludes that, “I think they heard us and left. We did not see anyone.” The would-be illegal loggers didn’t even have time to harvest the tree they had felled. The entire episode is caught in the short film “Ejidos,” produced by If Not Us Then Who?, a US-based non-profit that seeks to raise awareness about the important role indigenous and local peoples play as stewards of the natural world. Ejidos are lands that are collectively owned and managed by local communities in Mexico. The ejido system is generally considered to be a successful means of conserving forests and providing economic opportunities in rural communities. But Mexico’s General Law of Sustainable Forest Development, commonly referred to as the Forestry Law, has been criticized for not being sufficient to keep illegal wood out of the country, which imperils ejidos’ sustainable forestry enterprises. At the same time, proposed changes to the Forestry Law could put the entire ejido system in jeopardy, critics say. According to the “Ejidos” filmmakers, it’s been estimated that 70 percent of the wood on…

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