No quick solution to deforestation in lush Chiapas

"Mexico's government has never concerned itself with educating these people and giving them the capacity to earn money. Without this, they cannot form a healthy society."

But the presence of the military, deployed around the jungle following the 1994 Zapatista uprising, has exacerbated tensions in recent years, and raised local mistrust of any federal efforts.

Human rights groups and indigenous leaders blame soldiers and paramilitary groups for a wide array of abuses, ranging from day-to-day harassment to the massacre of 45 Indians in Acteal village in 1997.

Villagers in places like Quexil have virtually never witnessed good government, and seem not to believe it can exist. They call their village "autonomous," and so subsist with no electricity, running water, or any sign of government at all, save the two military bases down the road to the west.

President Vicente Fox made peace with the Chiapas Indians a priority. But his peace initiative fell apart months after he took office a year ago.

Legislators so watered down the Indian Rights Bill Fox presented to Congress - specifically where it applied to land-ownership rights and self-rule - that the Zapatistas and other indigenous groups rejected it and returned to their jungle hideouts.

Many communities in the jungle also distrust the Fox administration's Plan Puebla Panama, an ambitious development program for Mexico's poor south and Central America which, according to its general outline, seeks to exploit the same lands for private investment.

It's difficult to get a read on what exactly the Fox administration has planned for the forests and jungles of Chiapas.

Government records indicate there are broad blueprints to carve paved highways through the forests and jungle, open laboratories to search for new medicines, build dams on key rivers, and open lands to petroleum exploration.

It makes some activists question the government's dedication to the environment, and worry that the restive Indian rebellion may start up anew if villagers perceive their land is to be taken away.

"You can't exploit the water, the oil, and the bioreserves without wrecking the forest," says Ryan Zinn, a biodiversity expert with the aid group Global Exchange. "Such plans might light the match to the Chiapas conflict again."

Dr. Montoya, who has reviewed a bill prepared by Fox on reforestation and rural development, says the government is trying to come up with a comprehensive plan that would push for green development, by giving poor villagers environmentally sound options for making money.

A handful of such programs exist already, and some even have private-sector backing. The Washington-based Conservation International, where Mr. March works, supports more than 600 farmers in Chiapas who are cultivating "shade-grown" coffee beneath the forest canopy. Starbucks Coffee Co., which has dedicated more than $750,000 in loans to participating farmers, is one of the private investors that buys the beans at above-market rates.

But creating similar programs for the millions of people who dwell in the endangered forests is a monumental and long-term project, far beyond the financial means of Mexico's cash-strapped government, says Montoya.

Currently, the federal government is spending annually about 2 to 3 pesos (30 cents) per person in the forest to combat deforestation, he calculates.

Many of the rare hardwoods in the jungle take 15 to 20 years to mature, meaning any successful government program would need to be sustained over such a period.

Conservation International's March agrees. "This is a race against time, and we don't have much left," he says. "This area is probably changing faster than anywhere else in the world in terms of land use. We have the next 10 to 20 years to decide if we want to save the forest for the future."

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