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Tarahumara Fight Logging in Old Growth Forests

tarahumara-logging
Legally cut wood at the mill, Guachochi, Mexico (Photo: Lorne Matalon/KRTS).

In our neighboring state of Chihuahua, Mexico, one of Mexico’s most isolated indigenous groups, the Tarahumara, has won a major legal victory. Mexican courts have suspended logging permits affecting old growth forests in Tarahumara land in the Sierra Madre.

At the same time though, the Mexican equivalent of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has extended logging permits in another section of Tarahumara land. Funded by private money from Texas and Arizona, the Tarahumara’s Mexican lawyer is now appealing the decision.

Human rights activists on the border say the Tarahumara case highlights the suffering of a people who are struggling to maintain their culture. Lorne Matalon reports from the Sierra Madre of Chihuahua, Mexico.