page_title: Copper Canyon
section_title: Threats to the ecosystem
hierarchical_section_title: Copper Canyon / Threats to the ecosystem
context_page_description: Copper Canyon is a group of six distinct canyons in the Sierra Madre Occidental in the southwestern part of the state of Chihuahua in northwestern Mexico that is 25,000 square miles in size. The canyons were formed by six rivers that drain the western side of the Sierra Tarahumara. All six rivers merge into the Rio Fuerte and empty into the Gulf of California. The walls of the canyon are a copper/green color, which is the origin of the name.
context_section_description: Due to increases in human population, there are many threats to the ecosystems of the Sierra Tarahumara Occidental region.  The government funding to build a "tourist friendly" atmosphere poses threats to the environment and indigenous cultures.  Roads have been built in the former isolated mountainous zones. Agriculture and grazing as well as the cutting of hardwoods and other trees for firewood has accelerated a soil erosion problem.  Mesquite (Prosopis spp.) and desert ironwood (Olneya tesota) trees are cut and exported primarily to the U.S. for charcoal.  Amapa (Tabebuia chrysantha) trees yield highly prized lumber for building and furniture making.  Other trees are also cut and sold for their high-priced lumber.  Over-harvesting of the forests in the area has caused the extinction of the imperial woodpecker and Mexican wolf.  Approximately, two percent of the original old-growth forest remains. However, a massive forest-harvesting project in the region has been abandoned, for now, by the World Bank.  The Mexican forestry department deemed these species of trees "legally protected," but enforcement is difficult.
  The government has taken measures to halt or slow down the cultivation of opium poppies and cannabis by spraying crops with herbicides, which threaten the populations of many different species.  A large saturniid moth, Rothschildia cincta, are one of the species that are threatened by the spraying.  Their cocoons are used by the native population for ceremonial purposes.
  Open-pit mining for copper, gold and other metals not only produces air pollution from smelters, but has been linked to the serious decline of the Tarahumara frog (Rana tarahumarae).  Every river system has been dammed causing fresh water shortages in nearby desert communities.  An enormous dam is being constructed on the Rio Fuerte, which poses major environmental problems and may lead to massive losses of tropical forest and habitats.
  Conservation is underway, but remains informal and slow.  Mexico has environmental laws, but suffers from lack of financial resources.  Enforcement has been lax or non-existent.  Agencies are actively trying to increase the protection for natural preserves.
caption: Rio Urique, Copper Canyon.
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