[NYTr] Env: Mexico raids renegade logging mills near Monarch reserve

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Milt Shapiro (mexnews)

AP - Dec 7, 2007

Mexico raids mills near Monarch reserve

By MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press Writer

Police conducted the biggest anti-logging raid in the nation's 
history at clandestine sawmills that cut timber on a threatened 
nature reserve where Monarch butterflies nest in the winter, the 
government said Thursday.

Illegal deforestation in and around the reserves threatens the 
butterflies, which rely on the forest cover to protect them from the 
cold, high-altitude winds. Huge numbers of Monarchs died during a 
cold snap in 2002.

Agents seized the equivalent of about 600 heavy truckloads of wood, 
the attorney general's office said, calling the Wednesday raid "the 
largest seizure of illegally logged wood in the country's history."

"These actions by the federal government are aimed at protecting the 
natural balance of the Monarch reserve, where every year millions of 
butterflies travel over 4,000 kilometers to winter," the attorney 
general's office said in a news statement.

The seizure was also an indication of the failure of highly 
publicized pledges by previous administrations to end illegal logging 
in the area.

More than 6,000 tons of wood were cut from within the Monarch 
butterfly reserve, the attorney general's office said.

About 700 police and environmental officials raided 19 clandestine 
saw mills in the western state of Michoacan on Wednesday.

Police detained 56 people, prosecutors said, including sawmill 
employees, lumberjacks and truck drivers, and seized scores of trucks 
and other vehicles.

Prosecutors have 48 hours to lodge formal charges or release the 
suspects. If convicted of illegal logging, they could face prison 
sentences of six months to nine years, and fines of up to $13,650.

"That's the important thing, that people are being charged," said 
Augusto Cabrera, a spokesman for the attorney general for 
environmental protection. "Before, they would seize wood and 
dismantle sawmills, but there weren't many charges."

In all, authorities seized about 210,000 cubic feet of logs and 
boards, equivalent to about 6,600 tons of wood, or about 1,750 adult 
trees.

The government has closed 59 illegal sawmills and charged 193 people 
with related crimes in the last year, not including Wednesday's raid, 
Cabrera said.

A study conducted in 2000 showed that 44 percent of the fir forests 
that shelter the migrating butterflies during their annual stopover 
had been damaged or destroyed over the preceding 29 years.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press