Back to Home Page
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
American Samoa
Andorra
Angola
Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Benin
Bermuda
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bosnia Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Brunei Darussalam
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cabo Verde
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Cayman Islands
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
China, Macao SAR
Colombia
Comoros
Costa Rica
Côte d'Ivoire
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czechia
Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Denmark
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Fiji
Finland
France
French Guiana
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Greenland
Grenada
Guam
Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jersey, Channel Islands
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Kosovo
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Lao People's Democratic Republic
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Martinique
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mexico
Micronesia, Fed. Sts.
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
North Macedonia
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palau
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Qatar
Rep. of Korea
Republic of Moldova
Republic of the Congo
Réunion
Romania
Russian Federation
Rwanda
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
Sao Tome and Principe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
South Sudan
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Taiwan, China
Tajikistan
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Tuvalu
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United Republic of Tanzania
Uruguay
USA
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Venezuela
Vietnam
Virgin Islands (U.S.)
West Bank and Gaza
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Risk Score
69.6
Risk Profile
Higher Risk
Conflict State
No
Log Export Restriction
No
Import Regulation
No
Legality Risks Click for details on legality risks
  • Estimates suggest that between 30 percent and 70 percent of all wood harvested in Mexico is illegal, amounting to between 5 and 14 million m3 of illegal supply annually. 
  • Illegal logging is tied with organized crime, drugs, and human trafficking as well as human rights violations. 
  • Violence is forcing displacement of farmers and indigenous peoples from their lands and increasing the risk of exploitation within the wood harvesting and processing industry.
  • Enforcement has been weakened in recent years as a result of austerity measures, and corruption at all levels perpetuates the high rates of illegal logging and low seizure rates.
  • Imports account for a significant proportion of the timber processed in Mexico.
  • While Mexico sources sawnwood from some low-risk countries such as the U.S. and Canada, a sizeable amount of hardwood is imported from high-risk source countries. 
  • To date, despite efforts to develop a timber import regulation, Mexico still lacks effective and enforceable import controls. 
  • There are reports of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) protected species being illegally exported to China.

Read more by downloading the Mexico Timber Legality Risk Dashboard here.

Latest Updates Click for latest news from Mexico
September 10, 2024
Global Witness report: The violent erasure of land and environmental defenders

Latin America consistently has the most documented murders of land and environmental defenders – 85% of cases in 2023. Lethal attacks against defenders were concentrated in four key countries that accounted for more than 70% of murders: Brazil, Colombia, Honduras and Mexico. Colombia is the world’s deadliest country for land and environmental defenders, with 79 murdered in 2023 – 40% of all reported cases. With the same number of murders as Mexico but less than a tenth of population, Honduras emerged as the country with the most killings per capita in 2023. 

More...
August 29, 2024
Can satellite surveillance save Michoacán’s forests from illegal avocado farming?

The Michoacán state government has announced a new best practices certification for avocado producers, which seeks to reduce deforestation using satellite surveillance.

 

The voluntary certification, called Pro-Forest Avocado, aims to  guarantee that avocados come from registered farms that don’t engage in environmentally destructive practices like illegal logging.

More...
August 7, 2024
Avocado goldrush links US companies with Mexico’s deforestation disaster

Illegal practices in Mexico’s avocado heartland, which is expanding rapidly to feed growing demand in the United States, come at the expense of nearby forests, according to Michoacan government officials.

 

The environmental damage has prompted U.S. nonprofit the Organic Consumers Association to file lawsuits against unlisted West Pak Avocado Inc and another major avocado importer Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc FDP.N for labeling Mexican avocados as “sustainable” or “responsibly sourced.”

More...
June 11, 2024
Mexico's avocado militias

The country supplies around 80% of the avocados eaten in the US but they have now been branded ‘blood diamonds’.

 

The avocado’s wholesome image is being tarnished by the arson, threats and killings involved in its production in Michoacán, Mexico which supplies most of the country’s avocados. Internal US government reports warned that the approval of the Mexican state as a producer “would likely increase deforestation” in the area. This has proved correct, as a “combination of interests”, including “criminal gangs, landowners, corrupt local officials and community leaders”, started clearing forests for avocado orchards, said the New York Times, in some cases “illegally seizing privately owned land”.

More...
April 4, 2024
The avocado on your toast may be the product of a crime

Criminal gangs are increasingly infiltrating legitimate business sectors such as trade, and importing more illegal products into the Netherlands, police research bureau Politie & Wetenschap has warned in its latest report.

The researchers found that the trade in avocados, plastic waste and timber are particularly prone to criminal infiltration and gangs earn money by circumventing local and international rules and regulations.

 

Parts of the avocado trade in Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Chile are also being taken over by gangs, the report said. Extortion, theft from local avocado farmers, and illegal slash and burn practices to obtain more land to grow avocados are rife.

More...
View More Articles
January 4, 2024
North America Ramps Up War on Illegal Logging: The world's largest trading block will operate joint public awareness campaigns across borders.

A 24-month project is being administered by the CEC – a joint initiative of the US, Canadian and Mexican governments – to “increase understanding and awareness of wood products; helping consumers support SFM (or Sustainable Forest Management) and contribute to the fight against illegal logging through their purchase power.”

More...
November 29, 2023
Americans love avocados. It's killing Mexican forests

Illegal deforestation for avocado crops points to a blood-soaked trade with the United States, involving threats, abductions and killings.

The report on which this article is based can be found CRI Mexico Report: Unholy Guacamole – Climate Rights International

More...
September 13, 2023
New Global Witness report: Standing firm The Land and Environmental Defenders on the frontlines of the climate crisis

For the past 11 years, Global Witness has documented and denounced waves of threats, violence and killings of land and environmental defenders across the world, and 2022 marks the beginning of our second decade documenting lethal attacks. The world has changed dramatically since we started documenting these in 2012. But one thing that has not changed is the relentlessness of the killings.

Last year, at least 177 defenders lost their lives for protecting our planet, bringing the total number of killings to 1,910 since 2012. At least 1,390 of these killings took place between the adoption of the Paris Agreement on 12 December 2015 and 31 December 2022.

More...
September 13, 2023
Latin America remains the deadliest region for environmental defenders

New Global Witness report shows nearly 90% of all environment-linked killings in 2022 were in the region, driven by land disputes, armed conflict and extractive industries.

 

Colombia was found to be the deadliest country in the world, with 60 deaths in total last year – more than a third of all killings globally. These figures come despite the country’s move in October 2022 to ratify the Escazú Agreement, a legally binding regional treaty to protect environmental defenders, and is almost double the number of killings reported in the country in 2021.

 

Other vulnerable countries in the region where Brazil, where 34 defenders lost their lives, compared to 26 in 2021, and Mexico, although the 31 murders recorded in the country last year were a drop from 54 in 2021, when it was the country with the highest number of killings. With 14 land- and environmental-linked murders recorded, Honduras was the country with the world’s highest per-capita killings. Mexico has ratified the Escazú Agreement, while Brazil is yet to do so, having only signed the treaty at its creation in September 2018; Honduras has neither signed nor ratified the agreement.

More...
June 6, 2023
Nestle trials giving cash to coffee farmers who grow beans sustainably

Nestle (NESN.S) is piloting a scheme to give cash to coffee farmers who grow beans sustainably as part of its plan to halve greenhouse gas emissions in its coffee business by 2030, the food company said on Tuesday.

More...
May 9, 2023
Deforestation In Mexico: The New Drug Of The Cartels

The cartels in Mexico have discovered new business opportunities beyond drugs. Illegal deforestation has become a massive problem – especially on the US border.

 

Illegal logging has been going on in the region since the 1970s. With organized crime, however, this business has taken on a new dimension in recent years. The state of Chihuahua, which borders Texas in the United States, has historically been an important corridor for drug trafficking, dominated here by the Sinaloa and Juárez cartels.

Illegal deforestation has now become an additional business and a massive problem, explains Álvaro Salgado Ramírez of the non-governmental organization Siné-Comunarr.

 

 

More...
May 5, 2023
Latin America had the most attacks on environmental defenders in 2022

Almost half of the 401 murders of human rights defenders recorded in 2022 were against people involved in the defense of land and environment, according to the most recent report by the organization Front Line Defenders.

 

Latin America is the region with the highest number of cases of recorded violence against defenders.

 

The countries with the most cases are Colombia, Mexico, Brazil and Honduras.

 

More...
May 3, 2023
Barclays toughens deforestation rules for beef sector clients

Barclays (BARC.L) has told beef sector clients they must prevent deforestation in their South American supply chains, in a policy document seen by Reuters that toughens the bank’s stance but stops short of campaigners’ demands.

More...
December 22, 2022
Mexican restoration dominated by non-environmental interests
  • Mexico is one of the 12 most biodiverse countries in the world, yet more than 50% of the country’s land is degraded and deforested, driven mainly by agricultural expansion, timber extraction and forest fires.
  • The Mexican government’s $3.4 billion Sembrando Vida (Sowing Life) reforestation program is supposed to have planted more than 720 million trees since its inception in 2016, yet it has also been criticized for encouraging deforestation and focusing more on social rather than environmental outcomes.
  • To obtain funds for Sembrando Vida, the government has been criticized for slashing 75% of funding for the national parks authority, severely limiting its ability to protect the country’s protected natural areas, which cover almost 91 million hectares (225 million acres).
  • In April 2021, the Mexican Alliance for Ecosystem Restoration was launched as part of the U.N. Decade for Ecosystem Restoration and seeks to guide private and public sector restoration initiatives and drive investment in ecosystems, aiming to restore 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of forest by 2030.
More...
August 31, 2022
Sowing deforestation: the forests that Mexico loses to agribusiness
  • Every year, at least 47,770 hectares of forests and jungles are cleared to establish agricultural fields. This forest cover is equivalent to the area occupied by Cozumel, one of the largest islands in Mexico.
  • Territories that were previously inhabited by forest biodiversity are now dominated by monocultures such as avocado, soybeans, cane and oil palm.
  • For decades, the clearing caused by agribusiness has been advancing without obstacles in various regions of the country. The engines that encourage it are, among others, government subsidies, a growing market, ignored environmental laws and, especially, disdain for forested lands.
More...
August 31, 2022
Oil palm: the plantations that surround jungles and mangroves in southeastern Mexico
  • When deforestation caused by oil palm was advancing in Indonesia or Malaysia, federal and state officials in Mexico did everything they could to encourage the planting of these native African palms in the surroundings of the Selva Lacandona.
  • Between 2014 and 2019, at least 5,400 hectares of forests and jungles were lost due to the expansion of oil palm in Chiapas, Campeche, Tabasco and Veracruz, according to cartographic analyzes carried out by the authors of the study Oil palm cultivation in Mexico.
  • At least 4,000 hectares of oil palm are found within the La Encrucijada Biosphere Reserve, a protected natural area located on the coast of Chiapas and where there has been the greatest expansion of monoculture in the last ten years.
More...
August 31, 2022
Sugar cane: the monoculture that transformed the south of Quintana Roo
  • In the sugarcane zone of the municipality of Othón P. Blanco, the result of decades of government policies that have privileged agriculture and livestock over jungles and forests is reflected.
  • Beginning in the 1970s, the federal government promoted cane cultivation in the region. There was installed the sugar mill that until today marks life in the southern zone of Quintana Roo. Although many cane fields have been established since the 1980s, this monoculture has continued to add hectares inside and outside the sugar cane zone.
  • In the entire municipality of Othón P. Blanco, since 2010, 75,364 hectares were left without tree cover, which is equivalent to 109 times the area of ​​the Chapultepec forest, located in Mexico City.
More...
August 31, 2022
Soy: the agribusiness that destroys the Mayan jungle
  • Hopelchén is today one of the main soybean producers in the country. Occupying that place has had a very high cost for biodiversity. In 20 years, this municipality in the state of Campeche lost at least 153,809 hectares of tree cover, an area that represents three times the territory of the island of Cozumel.
  • The expansion of soybeans in that region has gone hand in hand with processes of leasing and privatization of lands that were previously ejido under collective ownership, and government subsidies that benefit, above all, large producers.
  • In the last seven years, the environmental authorities have not authorized any change in the use of forest land in Hopelchén, yet clearings continue and have intensified in recent years, according to satellite images.
More...
August 31, 2022
Avocado: the green gold that erases the forests of western Mexico from the map
  • In Jalisco, avocado orchards spread out and monopolize the landscape: in 2010 there were about 8,400 hectares of this monoculture, by 2021 that surface tripled.
  • Satellite images show what is lost with the expansion of the Persea americana monoculture: since 2019 at least 5,160 hectares ceased to be forests to become avocado orchards.
  • The loss of forest cover could continue unstoppable, especially after, in July 2022, the United States government authorized the commercialization of avocados harvested in Jalisco.
More...
May 23, 2022
‘Mexican cartels are taking control of the fishing and logging industry’

The link between drug and animal trafficking in Mexico is becoming closer every day. Poachers and loggers are forced to work for the Sinaloa cartel or the Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG), who pay them in illegal drugs such as methamphetamine and fentanyl. China’s insatiable thirst for species such as totoaba, sea cucumber and abalone has turned animal trafficking into a lucrative business, and one Mexico’s organized crime groups want to control. Mexican cartels are now delivering these species to Chinese traders, who in return provide the chemical precursors needed to make illegal drugs.

This task has been made easier by the Mexican government’s hands-off approach to the cartels and the fact the country’s environmental authorities are desperately underfunded.

More...
April 11, 2022
Butterflies v Cartels: The fight to save Mexico’s butterfly forest

In the state of Michoacán, Mexico, the fight to protect a natural wonder is colliding with a booming avocado trade and a spiralling war for control being waged by the country’s drug cartels.

More...
March 12, 2022
Indigenous rights activist killed in northern Mexico

An Indigenous rights activist who campaigned against illegal logging has been killed in northern Mexico, prosecutors say, five years after his activist brother also was slain.

More...
March 8, 2022
Something fishy: Wildlife trafficking from Mexico to China

Wildlife trafficking from Mexico to China receives little attention, but it is growing and threatens biodiversity. Moreover, while the connections between wildlife trafficking and drug cartels are sometimes exaggerated, in Mexico, wildlife trafficking, drug trafficking, and money laundering have become intertwined. Attracted by China’s enormous appetite for wildlife products and in contact with Chinese traders supplying precursor chemicals for the production of illegal fentanyl and methamphetamine, Mexican drug cartels are increasingly muscling their way into the country’s legal and illegal wildlife trade.

More...
March 2, 2022
A community in Mexico reforests its land against the advance of illegal logging

A community in rural Mexico has for the past 15 years led the conservation of the forest on its communally managed land, or ejido, in a region wracked by illegal logging.

The Nueva Vaquería forestry program near Pico de Orizaba National Park has seen the community reforest nearly 500 hectares (more than 1,200 acres), in stark contrast to the deforestation unfolding inside the park and neighboring communities.

More...
February 17, 2022
'I'll kill you!': Mexico's nature defenders put lives on line

In the fir forests of Mexico, one of the world’s most dangerous countries for environmentalists, the legacy of butterfly defender Homero Gomez lives on two years after his suspected murder.

More...
February 14, 2022
22 thousand hectares affected per year by illegal logging in Campeche

Illegal logging destroys biodiversity and the habitat of fauna and flora; It causes the contamination of water sources, erosion, landslides and climate change, affirmed the Governor of Campeche Layda Sansores with community and ejido commissioners.

There the reality that the towns of Campeche live in was reaffirmed, the state executive made a call not to allow our children’s heritage to be destroyed. “Let’s raise awareness that this is a crime!” She said.

More...
January 31, 2022
Mexican town protects forest from avocado growers and drug cartels

Regular citizens have taken the fight against illegal logging into their own hands in the pine-covered mountains of western Mexico, where loggers clear entire hillsides for avocado plantations that drain local water supplies and draw drug cartels hungry for extortion money.

More...
November 10, 2021
Avocados In, Butterflies Out - How Illegal Logging is Devastating Western Mexico

Criminal groups across western Mexico have increased their control of illegal logging by threatening landowners, government officials and even entire communities to ensure near-total impunity.

According to a new study by the University of Guadalajara (UDG), illegal logging is one of the fastest-growing criminal economies in Mexico, with 70 percent of wood cut down between 2017 and 2019 lacking the proper permits. In 2019, the amount of forest destroyed was equivalent to an area twice the size of ​​Mexico City. In 2020, Mexico lost 127,770 hectares of forest, a 12 percent increase on the previous year.

More...
November 5, 2021
In Mexico City’s urban sprawl, an unexpected illegal logging network thrives

A national park inside Mexico City is an illegal logging hotspot for wood buyers from all over the country.

The national park, called Cumbres del Ajusco, sits on the southern edge of the city, where cartels oversee the logging operations with local lumberjacks.

Law enforcement agencies have struggled to root out the illegal logging operations due to a lack of personnel and questionable enforcement strategies

More...
October 18, 2021
Illegal logging by organized crime has depleted 15% of the country

More than 300,000 square kilometers of forested land – about 15% of Mexico’s territory – have been depleted due to illegal logging carried out by criminal groups, according to the environmental protection agency Profepa.

In a document cited by the newspaper El Universal, Profepa said there are 122 areas of forested land where severe deforestation has occurred due to “the high incidence of illegal logging related to organized crime groups.”

More...
Publications Click for publications related to Mexico
Estimates suggest that between 30 percent and 70 percent of all wood harvested in Mexico is illegal, amounting to between 5 and 14 million m3 of illegal supply annually. Illegal logging is tied with organized crime, drugs, and human trafficking as well as human rights violations. Violence is forcing displacement of farmers and indigenous peoples […]
While subsistence agriculture and logging still contribute to deforestation, commercial-scale agricultural expansion is now recognized as by far the single largest driver of deforestation worldwide and thus also of greenhouse gas emissions from land-use change. Several initiatives have quantified how much and where deforestation is driven by commercial agriculture, and even how much of this […]
Key Resources
Click here for a collection of Forest Trends publications related to IDAT Risk, including the full set of Timber Legality Risk Country Dashboards.
Methodology
Click here to download the Methodology which includes information on data sources, the methodology used to create risk indicators, and a glossary of key terms.
Data Tools

Click here to access the Global Illegal Logging and Associated Trade (ILAT) Risk assessment tool and to download the Forest Trends User Guide describing the functionality of the ILAT Risk Data Tool.

Click here to access the Cattle Data Tool.

Export Restrictions
Click here to download a database of forest policy export restrictions.