Can satellite imagery fight illegal logging in Mexico?

[Judi Lynn]

New monitoring system aims to combat deforestation in Michoacan, but locals remain sceptical about enforcement.



Children in Cheran, in the state of Michoacán, Mexico, celebrate the anniversary of the uprising and carry signs against deforestation with messages like 'The government is the people' and 'Do not cut the trees: They are pure air and energy from Mother Nature' [Alícia Fàbregas/Al Jazeera]

By Alícia Fàbregas
Published On 26 May 2023
26 May 2023

Cheran, Mexico – Shortly after sunrise, several women arrive at a tree nursery on the outskirts of Cheran, an Indigenous Purepecha town in the Mexican state of Michoacan.

For years, they have cared for thousands of trees being used to reforest areas destroyed by illegal logging operations. Between 2006 and 2012, researchers estimate that about 70 percent of Cheran’s forests were ravaged by organised criminals as locals staged protests to denounce police inaction.

During those years, residents became used to the sight of dozens of trucks driving through their town, loaded with timber stolen from local forests. Violent confrontations ensued, with more than a dozen community members reportedly killed or disappeared.

“The devastation was massive,” Yunuen Torres, who lives in the town, told Al Jazeera. People were forced to sell their land to the criminals, and if they refused, they sometimes disappeared, Torres added.

More:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/26/can-satellite-imagery-fight-illegal-logging-in-mexico

(After the citizens are forced to give up their land, and their property is lost to the criminals, no doubt the local politicians are paid to look the other way while the trees are stolen. Everyone wins but the human race, the earth itself, and the former residents.)