The forest role within armed conflicts: The case of Chiapas-Mexico

In Mexico, as in other developing countries, forest has being involved in armed and violent conflicts that affect the forest resources and biodiversity. The major problems currently related with forest in Mexico are: a) inter-communal struggles, popular protests and uprising due to the discrepancies of land distribution, b) narcotraffic presence in forested areas, c) organized crime associated with illegal logging (Howard et al., 1996; Anta-Fonseca, 2011). This study gives an overview of the current forest-related conflicts in Mexico, making special emphasis in the Chiapas’ armed conflict developed in the Lacandon Rainforest, to identify the forest role within the conflict and to investigate which have being the impacts over the forest resources. In order to accomplish the objectives of this study, a comprehensive search of primary data collection and secondary sources was carried out, as well as the elaboration of semi-structured interviews to direct and indirect stakeholders of the armed conflict in Chiapas. The cases of Cherán in the State of Michoacán, “The Golden Triangle” in the Chihuahua, Durango and Sinaloa, Wirikuta in San Luis Potosí, the case of Coyuquilla in Guerrero, and the Zapatista conflict in the State of Chiapas are addressed in this thesis to present the most relevant current environmental conflicts of Mexico. The Zapatistas uprising in Chiapas is a forest-related conflict developed in a very complex context where the clashes between the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación nacional, EZLN) and the Mexican Army, the discontent of the population due to the discrepancies of land distribution and the Constitutional Agrarian Reforms, the rural communities marginalization and environmental scarcities, and some violent events occurred in the State, are just some of the reasons that give a view of the complexity of the problem in Chiapas. The Lacandon Rainforest region showed an important forest loss since it was opened to colonization (1949) as a consequence of the exponential indigenous population increase, and hence, the expansion of the extensive agriculture and cattle ranching. The communities of the Lacandon have a very complex integrity and cannot be identified just as Zapatistas or not-Zapatistas, for this reason there is not a direct relationship between Zapatista conflict and deforestation or forest degradation in the region. The main factors related with the Lacandon deforestation and degradation are the creation of a new Forestry Law and the modifications of the Constitutional Article No. 27, commercial forestry (1868-1948), colonization and population growth (1949-1980), counterinsurgency strategies, and the