Bloomberg
How Mexico’s vast tree planting program ended up encouraging deforestation
(Bloomberg) – In the hills of the Mexican Yucatán peninsula, the jungle stops abruptly and dozens of seedlings grow scattered around carbonized tree stumps. The seedlings are a sign of the government’s vast reforestation program known as Sembrando Vida. But it is also the burnt clearing; In this part of Mexico, the project is linked to widespread destruction as well as regeneration. In Mexico’s previous government, the owner was paid to care for the jungle on his land, but after President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office in 2018, the program’s budget was cut and Semeando Vida was introduced. Instead, it pays farmers to plant fruit or wood trees on small plots of land, with the aim of creating an industry in underserved rural areas in the coming decades. But a trip in late February to Yucatan and Campeche, two participating states in southeastern Mexico, showed that failures at the beginning of the project could undo their good intentions. “This is what Sowing Life does,” said Jose, a local farmer, kicking a blackened stump. He asked that his surname not be released for fear of losing government funds for criticizing the program. Sembrando Vida is Lopez Obrador’s main environmental project, a $ 3.4 billion tree planting plan that aims to help meet climate goals while fulfilling his overarching goal of combating Mexico’s growing poverty and inequality. In Yucatan and Campeche, however, residents speak of uncertainty about the legal status of the plots and of a dogmatic approach by some program administrators that does not take basic agricultural practices into account. The main charge, however, is that the system encourages farmers to clear the forest in preparation for planting. “In many cases, people would say, ‘Well, I have my hectare of jungle, but the program is coming, so I’m going to cut down the forest, use the trees for my house or to sell the wood or whatever, and when the If the program comes, I will ‘plant seeds again’, ”said Sergio Lopez Mendoza, professor of ecology and conservation at the University of Science and Arts in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico. The previous program paid a lump sum to the community, which would be used to protect and maintain the jungle and ecosystems in your area. Sowing Life provides direct payments, a change that is seen in some areas as undermining communal dynamics in favor of individualism. The Ministry of Social Security, which is responsible for Semeando Vida, did not answer detailed questions about the program. The president’s office declined to comment on this matter. The program is currently paying some 420,000 farmers 4,500 pesos (about $ 213) a month to plant trees, according to the government. The goal is to reforest just over one million hectares of degraded land across Mexico and to grow more than one billion plants by the end of 2021. The government says it is on track to meet that goal. That success could come at a price, according to the World Resources Institute, a nonprofit environmental organization that worked with the Mexican government to monitor the results of Sowing Life. The Washington-based WRI estimates that the program may have caused the loss of nearly 73,000 hectares of forest cover in 2019, its first full year, according to a study based on satellite images and shared with Bloomberg News. This is an area almost the size of New York City. It is also almost half of the average annual amount of forest cover lost due to land use change and illegal logging in the same region, according to WRI calculations. Some at the scene believe the devastation could be even worse. Juan Manuel Herrera, a forest engineer from Campeche, said the state had potentially much greater losses than those estimated by the WRI. Monthly payments are a critical lifeline for some of the poorest communities in a country hit by the pandemic. Mexico’s economy plunged 8.2% in 2020, while formal employment fell in all areas outside the northern border industrial states. Social programs are critical to supporting President Morena’s party ahead of June’s midterm elections, with polls showing voters regard them as one of the government’s best achievements. At the local level, however, environmental damage threatens to outweigh the benefits. In just one village in Campeche, more than two-thirds of the program’s participants had cleared the forest in order to participate, according to one participant. Antonio, who asked to be identified only by first name for fear of repercussions, showed where he and his relatives cleared a dense area of trees, including Tzalam, or Caribbean walnut, and Chaca Vermelha, commonly known as gumbo-limbo, to qualify. for the payment. A Sowing Life representative in the village denied that people had cut down trees to join the program, saying they had used the old cattle pastures. Antonio, at least, said that they left the pastures untouched because the cows needed them. He wanted to keep the jungle intact and cut down some small trees to help others grow, he said, but program representatives were looking for only deforested areas – and he needed government money. The inconsistencies of the cultivation of life increase the poverty of historic Lopez Obrador in the climate. The president has consistently favored state oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos, known as Pemex, and the state utility over private renewable energy projects. He drew criticism from NGOs for building an oil refinery on the site of a mangrove forest and for a tourist railroad planned through the rainforest. The Mexican government joined Russia and Brazil in the failure to improve its Paris climate commitments ahead of the COP26 summit in November. In 2019, Lopez Obrador rejected calls to declare a climate emergency by pointing to Semeando Vida along with government measures to deny mining permits and conserves water, saying he is “very satisfied” with his environmental record. Mexico “is doing everything possible to prevent the destruction of forests,” he said then. Last month, he referred to Sowing Life as a “blessed program” and regularly says it is the most important reforestation plan in the world. The project could point to successes, with about 660 million plants in the soil or being fed by the end of 2020. However, the ambitious goals are far from enough for the program to be the main factor for Mexico to meet its goals. Paris goals, said Adrian Fernandez Bremauntz, executive director of the Mexican Climate Initiative, an NGO. “These types of programs, if not well planned, can give rise to perverse incentives,” he said. Certainly, the payment system has effectively left communities that have lived in the jungle for centuries with a dilemma: cut off their habitat or reject much-needed income. Bernardo Chankin, a village leader in the Lacandon de Chiapas jungle, said that less than a third of the families in his village were able to join the program because the community refused to cut down trees. “At Lacandon, we are dedicated to conservation,” said Chankin by phone. Now the rivers and wells in his part of Chiapas are drying up due to deforestation that he said was spurred by the project. Others, like José, the Yucatan farmer, say their communities have no choice. “What can we do?” he said. “It is the only opportunity that exists.” The government appears to be doing little to ensure the project’s durability. Farmers are not asked to sign contracts, only promissory letters, said two participants. The areas designated for wood have not been formally registered, creating uncertainty about the granting of the necessary licenses to cut the trees once they mature. Some farmers pocket payments and do the minimum to avoid expulsion from the program, reasoning that they can simply plant more profitable crops when donations run dry. “There are young people who say, ‘Oh ma’am, why are you watering? When the program is over, cut it and start sowing soy, ‘”said Nancy Lopez, 57, a farmer in Yucatan, proudly displaying a small tree nursery that she will plant soon. The program’s chances of success may not be helped by some of the practices observed at the local level. In an attempt to encourage fruit or wood production, managers often ask participants to plant non-native trees, which may have difficulties in unfamiliar environments. Forest engineer Herrera and his team estimate that only 10-30% of the trees planted in some regions will survive. Not everything is lost. Jose Ivan Zuniga, manager of the forestry team at WRI Mexico, praised the government’s ambition, saying the problem was the rush to implement. If it is now done well and maintained until 2030, the program could capture two to three times the carbon that was initially lost, he said. It is essential that the government legally register the parcels of land and ensure that the planted hectares remain in the forestry system for at least 30 years, said Zuniga. Otherwise, he said, “everything is going to go down the drain.” Read more: How deforestation affects climate change Time is running out to save the world’s last rainforests Real trees providing false corporate climate progress For more articles like this, visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to get inside the most trusted business news source. © 2021 Bloomberg LP