Conservation and Threats
Some of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca forest areas are among the better conserved forests in Mexico. Unlike other virgin forest areas of Mexico, only a small fraction of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca Forests are protected by the Federal government. That is in the Parque Nacional Benito Juarez, north of Oaxaca city.
Most conservation in the Sierra is controlled by indigenous communities. For example, Santiago Comaltepec's vast expanse of cloud forest is considered some of the best conserved cloud forests in the world. Many communities, notably Ixtlán de Juárez and the Pueblo Mancomunados, among others, strive to conserve their forest through projects including sustainable forestry and selective logging, ecotourism, education projects, and the prohibition of private property within their communities (thus hampering unsustainable development and industry by foreign or outside agents).
The forests are under threat by foreign investment, by mining and logging commissions to foreign companies from the Oaxaca state government.
Read more about this topic: Sierra Madre De Oaxaca Pine-oak Forests
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