Subject: Organic Farming faces long road http://www.novedades.com ENVIRONMENT The News Mexico City, May 31, 1997. ORGANIC FARMING FACES LONG ROAD By BRIAN FEAGANS bfeagans@laneta.apc.org The News Staff Reporter Third in a three-part series SAN JUAN LALANA, Oax. -- For those campesinos and environmental activists carrying the torch of sustainable development in the communities around Oaxaca's dwindling cloud forest, it is easy to get burned. And government programs encouraging pesticide use and slash-and-burn agriculture make supporting organic farming an even tougher task, they say. "There's no doubt about it -- the government is supporting the destruction of forests," says Jorge Lopez, technical director for the Oaxaca-based Grupo Mesofilo environmental organization. Loans from the government's PROCAMPO farmer outreach program are based on the amount of land available for cattle ranching, giving campesinos great incentive to cut forests, burn the land and seed it with grass for cattle, he says. "The problem is that much of the land here is steep . . . and it erodes after a few years of cattle use," Lopez says. "The result is often barren, worthless land that was once held in place by trees." A culture of chemical use has deep roots in Oaxaca as well, thanks in large part to Tobaccos Mexicanos (TabMex), the defunct state-owned tobacco company. In an attempt to make northern Oaxaca a hub for lucrative tobacco exports, TabMex employed the heavy use of fungicides and pesticides throughout the Papoloapan River Basin until the company was dissolved in 1982. And the legacy of economic globalization lives on in northeastern Oaxaca. "Like everyone else here, I'm working to create a new campesino," Chico Maldonado says following an organic farming workshop. But it is hard to change the habits of people accustomed to moving deeper into the forest when chemical-laced land becomes less productive, Maldonado says. "The results (of chemical-free farming) take two or three years and often patience," he says. "I'm just trying to teach what I've seen work since I was a kid. Many people this far into the hills couldn't afford pesticides in the past so they learned how to enrich the soil and prevent diseases by mixing crops." The temperate pine forests along the southern ridge of the Sierra Norte, which are considered some of the best managed forests in all of Mexico, could fold under the pressure of economic globalization as well, local environmentalists say. Mexico's new Forest Law, passed by Congress in March, could threaten forestry operations in communities such as Ixtlan -- one hour northeast of Oaxaca City. Ixtlan has formed an independent indigenous ecological preserve, paying no federal taxes and making all forest management decisions. The community has been hailed as a rare environmental success story, meeting local development needs while at the same time preserving the temperate forests that blend into the cloud forests further North. But Grupo Mesofilo's Mario Bolanos said small forestry operations in the Sierra Norte -- which accounts for 23.4 percent of Oaxaca's timber production -- will be indirectly affected by the new Forest Law. The law, crafted to bolster Mexico's flagging forest industry, creates subsidies for commercial forest plantations. While international timber companies will likely target areas of Oaxaca where there is no history of locally managed forests, their presence could drastically lower timber prices in Mexico, Bolonos says. The impact on communities unable to compete -- particularly those selling timber for paper production -- could be a "fatal blow," he says. "The worst part is that the benefits will go to other countries. The subsidies only apply to large forestry operations and do nothing for the guy with three or four hectares." In the face of rampant deforestation, the European Union (EU) has made it a top priority to support sustainable forestry and agriculture in Oaxaca. "It's part of a policy we have been pursuing in all of Latin America since the Rio (environment) Conference (in 1992)," EU Ambassador to Mexico Jacques Lecomte said, adding that the EU has alloted approximately 18 million dollars to Latin American forest protection initiatives. "The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) came to us with a very good proposal for the Oaxaca Program . . . so we agreed to two years of financing." Grupo Mesofilo's entire budget is now derived from the 1.86 million-dollar Oaxaca Program fund. And the initial two-year phase ends at the end of 1997, at which point the EU will decide if "the cost effectiveness is good enough to go ahead with a new phase of the project," Lecomte says. "Our first evaluation of the project was really positive . . . and it's good to continue a project like that and not stop halfway." But Grupo Mesofilo's Jorge Lopez worries that the WWF -- which made his group's organic networking project possible -- may cost them EU funds in the future. "The EU does not like the way the WWF manages money," Lopez says. "It's a huge beauracracy . . . and funds have to travel a very long road." Lopez says it can take two or three months to get money for a new aspect of the project because requests must travel through several WWF offices, including those in Mexico, Washington and the United Kingdom. "We love the support, but this is the reality of dealing with a large enviornmental organization," he says. At stake is the growth of regional communication links such as workshops, research and the sharing of organic farming success stories, Lopez says. "The connections that have already been made here will endure," he says. "But our goal is to facilitate the work of NGOs and expand connections throughout the area that surrounds the cloud forest." Campesino leader Chico Maldonado says San Juan Usila has already gotten the boost it needs to make organic farming a way of life in its section of the cloud forest's periphery. The community hopes to be part of a planned organic food selling block in Chiapas, Tabasco and Oaxaca. Campesinos from each state have already held several planning sessions, discussing how to overcome conflicting registration requirements in each state, Maldonado says. The coyotes, or middlemen, play each region against each other, telling communities they can buy products cheaper somewhere else, he says. "Part of being a new campesino is knowing how to market organic products," he says. "That's the next step." Old habits die hard on the fringe of Oaxaca's jungle, where destitute campesinos log and burn land for short-term gains. Campesinos attending a week-long organic farming workshop listen to 18-year-old university student Santo Franco Duarte, left, who they hope represents a new generation of organic farmer in Oaxaca. -- Ron E. Mader, Publisher El Planeta Platica: Eco Travels in Latin America WWW http://www.planeta.comom ron@txinfinet.com ------------------------------------------------------------ InfiNet - an online community for progressive information BBS 512.462.0633 Telnet://shakti.txinfinet.com:3000 WWW http://www.greenbuilder.com - message sent by infoterra@cedar.univie.ac.at to signoff from the list, send an email to majordomo@cedar.univie.ac.at the message body should read unsubscribe infoterra your@email.address -