Mexico Clt 
FINANCE 
we had 
5.3 percent, 
de Mexico and 
itions.” 
•ntation of the 
figures cm the 
ide known. This 
Secretariat of 
ted number of 
tges. The News 
0.6 percentage 
jets is rather a 
lean be blamed 
such a large 
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estimates 
.4.3 percent); 
r8.6 percent); 
ircent); 
sreent 
Editor's note: The following is 
taken from the November edi¬ 
tion of Lloyd's Mexican Eco¬ 
nomic Report. 
Back in 1526, the Spanish 
began stripping the verdant 
Valley of Mexico of its trees. 
And after Mexico won its inde¬ 
pendence, the soaring demand 
for charcoal and lumber was 
met by the indiscriminate cut¬ 
ting down of millions of trees 
on the theory that the supply 
was unlimited. 
These “slash-and-burn” 
practices continued after the 
1910 Revolution that overthrew 
the dictatorship of General Por- 
firio Diaz and, to this day, have 
plagued large areas of the 
country. 
Consequently, for years 
Mexico has been forced to 
import large quantities of 
lumber and paper. But this 
situation appears to be chang¬ 
ing. The Republic’s lumber in¬ 
dustry, in association with the 
Ministry of Agriculture and Hy¬ 
draulic Resources (SARH), will 
invest 544 million dollars to es¬ 
tablish “tree farms” across the 
nation. 
In making the announcement, 
Jorge Leon Castanos, underse¬ 
cretary for forestry of SARH, 
said that 495 million dollars of 
the “tree farm” financing will 
be supplied by the Republic’s 
lumber industry, with the bal¬ 
ance of 49 million dollars 
coming from SARH. 
. These “farms” are expected 
/ ’ 
to replace trees cut down, allow 
Rational lumber demand to be 
met, eliminate imports and, 
possibly, they will someday 
give Mexico an export poten¬ 
tial. 
SARH estimates that Mexi¬ 
co’s national lumber production 
in 1984 will be 9.1 million cubic 
meters, or 3.85 billion board 
feet, a 4.5 increase over lumber 
production in 1983. 
