Communities Come Together to Restore a Special Forest

Over the last five years, 70 communities in Mexico have come together to reforest over two million pine trees using an ancestral model called “forest rounds.”

“We propose creating a more general forest round called ‘Guardians of the Forest’ that is intercommunal. That means it can go from one community to another. We want to connect the 4 main Purépecha regions and even other indigenous peoples; their exclusive work will be to safeguard the forests, natural resources, and Mother Earth by region,” says Pável Ulianov, Purépecha spokesperson for the Supreme Indigenous Council of Michoacán.

Over the past few years, around 10,000 people have participated in the Naná Echéri reforestation project in Mexico’s diverse central-west state of Michoacán. Amazingly, and through collective efforts, 90 per cent of the planted trees have survived. Before the reforestation project, the Michoacán forest experienced significant deforestation, with over fifty thousand hectares of forest lost. These forests are vital for the monarch butterfly. Ultimately, preserving this area is important both ecologically and culturally. Working together, the local communities in the Purépecha regions are protecting and restoring this special place.