Mexico forest devastated by the "green fever" of counsel

Liliana Carmona regrets his childhood pine forest: in this corner of Mexico today seized by the "green fever", the trees are replaced with avocado to meet international demand increasing steadily.

Pollution and disease

This 36-year-old mother lives near Uruapan, considered the capital of the lawyer. The surrounding mountains are overgrown with plants, that streak the landscape.

The mountains overgrown with avocado plantations in the Mexican state of Michoacan (west), October 18, 2016

Deforestation has led to an increase in temperature, but what concerns her most, she says, are the possible consequences of agrochemicals on health.

"When they sulfatent, we continue to sneeze" laments Ms. Carmona.

The picture is alarming. About 137,000 hectares of the State of Michoacan (west) are devoted to the lawyer, according to official figures. Half of avocado trees were planted in the forest, through legal artifices to redeem the land, says Jaime Navia, head of Gira environmental NGO.

The financial windfall generated by the lawyer draws up the cartels drug . According to a source of local authorities contacted by AFP, members of the cartels are among those farmers who are invading and deforesting the land for growing "green gold" .

The culture of the lawyer had his first "boom" in the 1970s, but the development of culture in wild forests dates back to the 2000s, notes Jaime Navia.

According to figures from the Ministry of Economy, since 2003 demand has been growing in the United States and the rest of the world.

The amount of exports of this "green gold" , full of vitamins, proteins and fatty acids, which is trading between 1.8 and 2.6 dollars per kilogram, was multiplied by thirty during this period, from $ 58 million in 2003 to 1.5 billion last year.

For only Japan , where the lawyer is a classic ingredient of sushi, exports rose from 40 million to 106 million within this range.

Different kinds of avocado tree native to central Mexico , is the Hass, a species created by an American farmer in the 1920s, which is now most common in Michoacan.

In primary school located in a square in Jujucato, where you can see the mountains covered with avocado, Salvador Sales teacher explains that the uncontrolled expansion of this culture was accompanied for 15 years a increased respiratory and digestive diseases of students.

"We think it's because of the products (agrochemicals) that they use" , he said, also fearing water pollution.

Avocado plantations spread up to 2,600 meters. Yet as high, "they are not as productive" , says Jaime Navia, who lives in the community of Tzararacua, where locals also grow avocado, but more responsibly. One hectare avocado reported 5.377 dollars per year.

Author of an investigative book on pollution linked to the culture of the lawyer in the region, Alberto Gomez Tagle also suggests a link between agricultural chemicals and diseases.

"We suspect not only of groundwater pollution but also rivers and streams from this cultivated mountain area" , he says.

A village near a lake called on researchers when many of its inhabitants began to suffer "liver problems, kidney (...) when the orchards have begun to spread and all kinds of pesticides were used, " says Gomez.

Villagers and small farmers have organized to limit the invasion of this culture in forests and recover the invaded areas.

The authorities are also fighting against the phenomenon and deforestation which is 2.5% per year, according to Gira environmental NGO.

Since this summer, the security forces carried out several operations to recover a hundred hectares of illegally annexed to avocado crops, and proceedings were initiated against the farmers, told AFP the responsible for environment of the State of Michoacan, Ricardo Luna.

A label was also created to identify crops environmentally friendly.