Illegal livestock farming in Latin America is having devastating impacts on the environment, biodiversity, public health and local indigenous communities, several experts warned this week during a United Nations conference in Vienna.

“In Latin America, almost all forests are under threat from illegal livestock farming. In the Amazon this accounts for 70% of deforestation, and in Central America 90%,” Jeremy Radachowski, regional director of environmental NGO WCS, explained to EFE in Vienna.

The forests of La Mosquitia in Honduras and Nicaragua and Selva Maya, which covers parts of Guatemala and Mexico, are the two worst-affected areas, the US expert added during the 12th session of the UN Convention against Transnational Crime conference. Organized crime (UNTOC).

According to the WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society), this illegal activity is usually associated with organized crime, drug trafficking and money laundering.

Livestock raised in illegal conditions also pose a serious public health threat, as their trade without border controls contributes to the spread of diseases and parasites, such as the cattle that were wiped out in the region three decades ago but have reappeared this year. anus.

“This plague, which affects both animals and humans, has already reached Honduras and could quickly spread to Guatemala and Mexico unless immediate action is taken,” warned Curt Duchess, an environmental crime expert at WCS.

Fighting the plague cost US authorities more than $800 million in the 1990s, so it is critical to act proactively to avoid a large-scale health crisis, a Guatemalan expert said.

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Some meat from illegal livestock is sold without sanitary standards, putting consumers at risk in countries such as the US and Mexico, where buyers do not know whether it is “clean” meat or whether it is linked to deforestation, social conflict and violence.

For this reason, Duchess emphasized the importance of improving and ensuring the traceability of livestock from their origin to export.

“In Central America there is a tracking system that has not been fully implemented by countries. It needs to be applied and made functional,” he said.

“If consumer countries demanded that traceability be real, we could prevent illegal livestock from entering international markets,” the Guatemalan said.

The impact on local indigenous communities is also devastating: in regions such as the Amazon (Brazil) and La Mosquitia (Honduras), illegal settlers have established cattle ranches, leading to displacement and violence against local populations as well as environmentalists .

These areas, inhabited for centuries by indigenous communities, now face a serious humanitarian crisis due to illegal livestock farming.

Marcia Monico Lopez, a community leader and representative of the Institute for the Conservation of Forests (ICF) of Honduras, described to EFE the critical situation they were facing.

“Most of the people living in these communities lived off the land and lagoons, planting crops, farming and fishing,” he said.

But illegal settlers have taken over most of the land, so local residents can no longer access it.