How Drug Cartels Moved into Illegal Logging in Mexico

In November, nearly 100 countries will come together for the COP30 climate summit in Brazil to discuss strategies and pledges for addressing climate change and environmental destruction. But politics is just one side of the environmental coin: in Latin America, organized crime is deeply involved in activities that damage the environment, like illegal logging.

Illegal logging is a significant contributor to deforestation, habitat loss, and species extinction, as well as global warming. In fact, as much as 30% of the wood harvested worldwide is done illegally — representing tens if not over a hundred billion dollars per year.

In this narrated story, we examine the illegal logging economy in Chihuahua, Mexico, where drug traffickers have dug into wood trafficking, impacting local Indigenous Tarahumara communities.

How Drug Cartels Moved into Illegal Logging in Mexico | Written and read by Deborah Bonello.

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