Deforestation in Mexico tied to the drug lords and excessive bureaucracy

A very interesting article in today's Milenio: While a majority of Mexico's forest - 70 percent is an oft-cited estimate - are nominally in the hands of communities, given the excessive red tapes and restrictions on their use, many comuneros simply give up trying to exploit them legally.

According to activist Leticia Merino, founder of the Consejo Civil Mexicano para la Silvicultura Sostenible, this in turns, open up for 1) illegal logging and on the one hand, and 2) drug lords stepping in, clearing the forests and using them for drug production.

The comuneros, or members of communities, mostly indigenous, who live in and around the forests, express frustration at the red tape: While the forests are nominally under their control, they in some cases may have t wait five years for permits to exploit the forests sustainably.

In short, excess regulation = increased deforestation and drug production.
Reforms are clearly needed in the federal and/or state bureucracies to avoid this sorry scenario.

More on deforestation in Mexico here.