Mennonites once welcomed in Mexico now under pressure over deforestation

Record ID: 1680983

  • Title: Mennonites once welcomed in Mexico now under pressure over deforestation
  • Date: 12th July 2022
  • Summary: VALLE NUEVO, CAMPECHE STATE, MEXICO (FILE - APRIL 27, 2021) (REUTERS) BURNED FIELD WITH TOPPLED, BURNED TRUNKS (MUTE) DEFORESTED FIELD WITH SMOKE RISING IN THE BACKGROUND VALLE NUEVO, CAMPECHE STATE, MEXICO (FILE - FEBRUARY 28, 2022) (REUTERS) DRONE VIEW OF MENNONITE CROPS (MUTE) VARIOUS OF DRONE VIEW OF DEFORESTED FIELDS (MUTE) VARIOUS OF DRONE VIEW OF MENNONITE CROPS (MUTE) VALLE NUEVO, CAMPECHE STATE, MEXICO (FILE - APRIL 27, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TRACTOR PLOUGHING FIELD PLOUGHUED SOIL CAMPECHE CITY, CAMPECHE STATE, MEXICO (FILE - MARCH 1, 2022) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MEXICO’S NATIONAL FORESTRY COMMISSION HEAD IN CAMPECHE, CARLOS TUCUCH, SAYING: “Campeche shamefully ranks first in deforestation in the country, and this is very worrisome and serious. Overall is boosted now that the fellow Mennonites are coming in search of new cropping areas. They open new farmlands, and this has triggered our being first in deforestation.” VALLE NUEVO, CAMPECHE STATE, MEXICO (FILE - APRIL 27, 2021) (REUTERS) MENNONITE FARMER AMONG TOPPLED TREES TREE CUT DOWN GENERAL VIEW OF MENNONITE COMMUNITY GENERAL VIEW OF MENNONITE COMMUNITY AND SURROUNDING FIELDS VARIOUS OF MENNONITE WOMEN ON CARRIAGE DRAWN BY HORSE CLOSE-UP OF CROPS VARIOUS OF CROPS CAMPECHE CITY, CAMPECHE STATE, MEXICO (FILE - MARCH 1, 2022) (REUTERS) SOUNDBITE (Spanish) CAMPECHE’S ENVIRONMENT SECRETARY, SANDRA LAFFON, SAYING: “The volumes of water and other agrochemical substances they use - as they practice intensive farming, so they need more agrochemicals, more water - is leaching the subsoil and contaminates the water table. This is one of our main concerns.” EL SABINAL, CHIHUAHUA STATE, MEXICO (FILE - APRIL 23, 2021) (REUTERS) MOVING TRUCK PARKED IN FARM MENNONITE MEN LOADING FARM TOOLS ON TRUCK MENNONITE MEN LOADING TRACTOR ON TRUCK VARIOUS OF MENNONITE MAN DRIVING OLD-FASHIONED TRACTOR TRUCK PARKED IN FIELD SURROUNDED BY TRACTORS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MENNONITE COMMUNITY MEMBER, JOSE ANDRES, SAYING: “We’re thinking of moving to Campeche, yes (INTERVIEWER ASKING WHY) Because pumping oil here is very expensive and many don’t want to use power, so they move to Campeche.” MENNONITE WOMEN PACKING ITEMS TO MOVE ANTIQUE SEWING MACHINE PACKED VARIOUS OF MENNONITE WOMEN PACKING KITCHENWARE EL SABINAL, CHIHUAHUA STATE, MEXICO (FILE - APRIL 27, 2021) (REUTERS) SOUNDBITE (Spanish) EL SABINAL MENNONITE COMMUNITY MEMBER, ABRAM NEUFED, SAYING: “It’s said things there (Campeche) are very well. The thing is that they move because of our religion - they don’t want to use vehicles, the Internet, telephone and the like. This is why they are moving there (Campeche).” VALLE NUEVO, CAMPECHE STATE, MEXICO (FILE - FEBRUARY 28, 2022) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MENNONITE CHILDREN AT SCHOOL GENERAL VIEW OF BUILDING IN MENNONITE COMMUNITY HACELCHAKAN, CAMPECHE STATE, MEXICO (FILE - MARCH 4, 2022) (REUTERS) FARMER AND HIS WIFE POINTING AT LANDSCAPE CLOSE-UP OF WIFE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) FARMER, FRANCISCO COLLO CAAMAL, SAYING: “We don’t like to see other people from other nations or communities coming and to see they destroy the mountains and the jungle that provides us and the fields with life and fresh air. They come with machinery and fumigate soils, and contaminate soils with fertilizers.” VALLE NUEVO, CAMPECHE STATE, MEXICO (FILE - APRIL 29, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MOVING TRUCK ON ROAD VARIOUS OF MENNONITE COMMUNITY MEMBERS UNLOADING LUGGAGE AND FURNITURE FROM MOVING TRUCK KID DRAWING A SMALL CARRIAGE IN STOREHOUSE KEEPING PACKED FURNITURE MENNONITE FAMILY IN A HORSE-DRAWN VEHICLE VARIOUS OF MENNONITE WOMEN OUTDOORS VARIOUS OF MENNONITE MEMBERS UNLOADING TRUCK
  • Embargoed: 26th July 2022 12:58
  • Keywords: Agrochemicals Contamination Deforestation Environment Fertilizers Mennonites Mexico Pollution
  • Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS, MEXICO
  • City: VARIOUS LOCATIONS, MEXICO
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Environment,South America / Central America,Nature/Wildlife
  • Reuters ID: LVA001641421062022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The largest tropical forest in North America yields to perfect rows of corn and soy: A Mennonite community in southern Mexico.
    Here, in the state of Campeche on the Yucatan Peninsula at the northern edge of the Maya Forest, the Mennonites say they live to traditional pacifist values and that expanding farms to provide a simple life for their families is the will of God.
    In the eyes of ecologists and now the Mexican government, which once welcomed their agricultural prowess, the Mennonites' farms are an environmental disaster rapidly razing the jungle, one of the continent's biggest carbon sinks and a home to endangered jaguars.
    Smaller only than the Amazon, the Maya Forest is shrinking annually by an area the size of Dallas, according to Global Forest Watch, a non-profit organisation that monitors deforestation.
    In search of land and isolation, Mennonites – for whom agricultural toil is a core tenet of their Christian faith – grew in numbers and expanded into remote parts of Mexico after first arriving from Canada in the early 20th Century.
    In Campeche, where Mennonites arrived in the 1980s, around 8,000 sq km of forest, nearly a fifth of the state's tree cover, has been lost in the last 20 years, with 2020 the worst on record, according to Global Forest Watch.
    While most Mexican Mennonites remain in the north, there are now between 14,000 and 15,000 in Campeche spread over about 20 settlements.
    In an interview carried out in 2021, Jose Andres, a Mennonite, said they were thinking of moving to Campeche because oil prices made it difficult to remain in Chihuahua.
    One 2017 study, led by Mexico's Universidad Veracruzana, found that property owned by Mennonites in Campeche had rates of deforestation four times higher than non-Mennonite properties.
    To the National Forestry Commission head in Campeche, Carlos Tucuch, the southern state shamefully ranks first in deforestation in part because of Mennonites’ cropping practices.
    The government of President Andres Manuel Lopez is now pressuring the Mennonites to shift to more sustainable practices, but despite a deal between some Mennonite settlements and the government, ongoing land clearance was visible in two villages visited by Reuters in February and May.
    Itself under international pressure to pursue a greener agenda, in August the government persuaded some Campeche Mennonite settlements to sign an agreement to stop deforesting land, but not all the communities signed up.
    The clearance contrasts with the traditions of indigenous farmers who have rotated corn and harvested forest products such as honey and natural rubber since Maya cities dominated the jungle from the Yucatan to El Salvador.
    The Mennonites largely maintain a tense peace with local indigenous communities who serve as guardians to the surrounding forest but also rent equipment from their new neighbors for their own land.
    Such advances in agricultural efficiency has taken its toll on the Maya Forest, home to fauna that includes up to 400 species of birds.
    Between 2001 and 2018, the three states that comprise the forest in Mexico lost about 15,000 sq km of tree cover, an area that would cover much of El Salvador.
    To Francisco Collo Caamal, a local farmer, outsiders settling in Campeche destroying the jungle and polluting soils with agrochemicals are not welcome.
    (Production: Jose Luis Gonzalez, Rodolfo Pena Roja, Anna Portella).
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