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
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