Mexico’s Golden Triangle Turns To Forestry Instead Of Opium Production

Gannett

Some countries are more popular for selling drugs than others. People often travel to these places to enjoy the illegal and gain easy access to what’s otherwise difficult for them. Governments of these countries have been working hard to change that image.

Americans and tourists from other parts of the world travel to Mexico just to gain better access to illicit drugs. This has become an issue in the past few years, but now, the country is taking a turn and doing something good for the environment instead.

This single piece of good news may give the world hope as we enter into a newer and brighter era. This Golden Triangle has been infamous for cropping narcotics and cannabis. In fact, they have changed its well-known moniker from the Golden Triangle of Opium to the Golden Triangle of Sustainable Forestry. Thus, providing hope for its government.

This shift didn’t happen overnight. In fact, it took them four whole decades to make the changes because the residents of the four communities located in the hilly, forested northern part of the state of Durango opted for something better. They decided to secure a more sustainable future for themselves and for the future generations that live there.


Durango state, which is part of the area, is one of Mexico’s great timber producers. They contribute to around 70 million cubic feet of wood to the national industry. Since the 1970s, the four communities living in the Tamazula municipality have utilized their hills that is rich in forested areas and dotted with a variety of species of conifers as a resource. They have, in fact, labeled themselves as The Foresters of Northern Tamazula.

A study was made by The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. They have shone the spotlight on Durango and labeled them as “one of the most important Mexican states with regards forest production and the conservation of natural resources,” and the more these resources are developed, the more incentives they get to move away from and past the Tamazula’s narcotrafficker history. Right now, the foresters of the mountains earn more or less the U.S. minimum wage.


Claire Storey reported on this budding industry at Mongabay. She talked to Carlos Zapata Pérez, a forestry engineer for UCDFI Topia, a community forest management organization. “When we initially began providing them with technical assistance, we saw the situation [the strong presence of crops destined for drug production] and made a real effort to convince them to move away from growing narcotics,” Zapata told Mongabay. “We told them their forest was an important resource because it could offer them many benefits, eco-systemic services, for example.”

Over 40 years, UCDFI Topia has been able to help the communities of Tamazula. With their assistance, they were able to create a community-powered, community-benefited forest management model. In fact, they made tree nurseries that have now produced more than a million conifers. As for the economic benefits of their labor, they were able to sustain a total of 10,500 families in the country.

As of today, around a thousand families still live off this amazing and beneficial forestry system. They also maintain the highest certification in Mexico for sustainable forestry. It has given them such a boost that this has addicted in lifting the municipality off the poverty list of the state.

Tamazula remains remote, semi-isolated, and rugged to this day, but the residents speak with pride as they elaborate on what they’ve built and the victories over the so-called ‘Golden Triangle’ stigma that they have worked hard to overcome .

 

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