Once again, logging is at the center of a Mexican land-rights dispute. The problem area this time is Ejido de Coloradas de la Virgen, a collectively owned forest in northern Chihuahua state’s Sierra Madre Mountains, or Sierra Tarahumara. Most of Mexico’s forestland is located on communal property holdings called ejidos. For logging to take place on an ejido, Mexican law requires that a majority of the ejido’s members authorize logging before a permit is sought from the federal Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat). But in Chihuahua and other states, internal disagreements and power struggles in the ejidos sometimes take the form of violent logging conflicts. In the most recent example, Indian and mestizo demonstrators recently blocked traffic in Chihuahua City. They... [Log in to read more]