In June 2019, the overflow of the Salsipuedes River in San Gabriel left a total of five people dead and one more missing. The cause was illegal logging to plant avocados.
In Jalisco, between 2010 and 2021, two thousand 587 hectares were detected with illegal plantations of the so-called “green gold”, according to information provided via transparency by the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa). Two complaints have already been filed for the change of land use.
The main municipalities in which this practice was detected are Concepción de Buenos Aires, Gómez Farías and San Gabriel.
“We presented that complaint (July 2019) and the changes in land use are federal attributions,” justified the Secretary of the Environment and Territorial Development, Sergio Graf.
To try to inhibit this practice, they have presented different initiatives. For example, Jalisco will send the first shipment of avocado to the United States in May, for this they have to certify the producers with certain requirements, among them that they are free of deforestation. But it’s not enough.
“If we file complaints and there are no results, we have to do something and let it be in our hands. Now we work with the private sector to do it,” he noted. He recalled that with the Tequila Regulatory Council it already has the Deforestation Free Agave seal, since in Jalisco in a decade Profepa detected 408 hectares irregularly planted with agave.
They also work with farmers to have a similar stamp.
The official affirmed that they carry out a spatial review to find out where there are avocados that have been the result of changes in land use. There is a risk that the opening of the US market will increase this type of planting.