Ejido Brigades Cutting Firebreaks to Save Mexico's Forests

Reforestamos México trains community forest brigades made up of ejido and indigenous community members to prevent, detect and fight wildfires on their own communal land, working alongside Mexico's national forestry commission CONAFOR and protected-areas agency CONANP. In one 2021 season, a 12-person brigade from Ejido Mesón de Copala (three women, nine men) cleared 12 kilometers of firebreaks and helped control three fires in the Barranca del Río Santiago protected area near Guadalajara, while sister brigades cut another 18 kilometers of firebreaks defending communal forest in Coahuila and Nuevo León. The brigades also do post-fire fuel management, spreading burned material so it won't feed the next blaze.