SMA PROGRAMS: INDIGENOUS RIGHTS:
CEC Case: A Victory for the Indigenous Pueblos

Two years ago, COSYDDHAC submitted a citizens’ claim to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation against the Mexican Government for its systematic negligence in failing to stop illegal logging in thirty-three Tarahumara pueblos.

Prior to the COSYDDHAC campaign, illegal logging had not recognized as the leading cause of deforestation by the Mexican government, despite the fact that over forty percent of all logging in Mexico is illegal, according to PROFEPA (the Mexican Environmental Protection Agency). Armed gangs of loggers simply enter any forested region and steal as many truckloads as they can handle, without fear of prosecution. Prior to the CEC case, Consejo EcoRegional Sierra Tarahumara A.C. had submitted dozens of citizens’ petitions (or denuncias populares) against illegal logging in forty ejidos in the Sierra Madre.

Armed gangs of loggers simply enter any forested region and steal as many truckloads as they can handle, without fear of prosecution.

On August 29, CEC ruled that the government had been systematically negligent in all but one of the thirty-three cases in the Sierra Tarahumara. According to the CEC ruling, environmental law is not enforceable in Mexico as the government systematically ignores the citizens’ petitions, and in most cases was guilty of criminal negligence.

As critics of NAFTA have long understood, CEC has no enforcement powers and its decisions are not binding on free trade partners. However, it is influential. The case has been well publicized in Mexico, creating public pressure which has influenced academics and the nongovernmental community to begin to make illegal logging a national priority. The case has forced reluctant authorities to crack down. A new permitting system was established and for the past year has been well enforced, with official checkpoints and federal inspections in the Sierra. Illegal logging still continues to be widespread in other parts of the country, although the law has reportedly had some local impact.

One significant outcome of the case was the fact that CEC recognized indigenous pueblos as a legal entity, with the same rights to pursue their claims as individuals or organizations. Although the Mexican government continues to deny the rights of pueblos in practice, the CEC ruling adds to the pressure to recognize the indigenous pueblos, as former President Salinas promised when he ratified the International Labor Organization Convention 169 in 1992.

Meanwhile forestry authorities in Chihuahua have embarked on the path of large-scale industrial forestry and plantation-style management. Logging in most of the Sierra remains in the hands of tight circles of local caciques, forestry consultants, and industry leaders who control state and federal authorities. Embezzlement and fraud continue to be widespread. Forestry programs in the Madera region, which are supported by the U.S. Forest Service, Forest Stewardship Council and SEMARNAT, benefit some of the same timber interests which are represented on the Fideocomiso Forestal de Chihuahua which used World Bank financing to sack other regions of the Sierra just a few years ago.

The few forestry audits that have been conducted have not been enforced, even when hundreds of thousands of dollars have been embezzled by ejido authorities. Local organizers who push for reform continue to be threatened. Social forestry, which once held so much promise for poor regions in the Sierra, has been abandoned by all but a handful of indigenous leaders and nongovernmental groups such as COSYDDHAC, Consejo EcoRegional Sierra Tarahumara A.C. and SMA.