Viva Mexico!: Zapotec Indians Grow Trees, and Jobs, in Oaxaca, Mexico

Some good news from Mexico: community ownership, sustainable forestry and jobs!

Zapotec Indians Grow Trees, and Jobs, in Oaxaca, Mexico - NYTimes.com: "Three decades ago the Zapotec Indians here in the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico fought for and won the right to communally manage the forest. Before that, state-owned companies had exploited it as they pleased under federal government concessions.

They slowly built their own lumber business and, at the same time, began studying how to protect the forest. Now, the town’s enterprises employ 300 people who harvest timber, produce wooden furniture and care for the woodlands, and Ixtlán has grown to become the gold standard of community forest ownership and management, international forestry experts say." Nov. 22, 2010