The federal government will block the export of avocados from orchards established on deforested land, as part of the Avocado Zero Deforestation program.
The Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, Alicia Bárcena, reported that the program will prioritize the states of Michoacán and Jalisco with a certificate so that only avocados can be exported from gardens free of deforestation.
This, after the reform of the Forest Law. Now, Semarnat has the authority to issue the certificate. “So that avocados cannot be exported anywhere if they come from deforested orchards,” said the secretary during the presidential conference this Wednesday, September 30.
Mexico lost 5.4 million hectares of tree cover between 2001 and 2025, according to Global Forest Watch. The surface represents 10% of the total coverage recorded in 2000.
By 2025, the platform estimated a loss of 220,000 hectares of natural forest, plantations and tree crops, caused by human activities or natural phenomena. The federal government uses this data to measure forest area loss.
The National Program for Land Management and Urban Development 2026-2030 established a baseline of 330,819 hectares of forest area lost in 2024.
The magnitude of deforestation
Avocado cultivation has specific records of forest land use change in Jalisco. A study by the state's Ministry of Environment and Territorial Development identified 12,744 acres, or about 5,157 hectares, of land that went from forest to avocado orchards between 2017 and the first quarter of 2022.
The study analyzed 99,990 acres (40,100 hectares) of gardens verified by the agency. Of the land analyzed, 28,965 acres (11,722 hectares) were outside areas classified as agricultural in 2017. The study identified 12,744 acres (5,157 hectares) with a change from forest to avocado cultivation. The estimate reached 47,251 acres (19,122 hectares), including another 40,474 acres (16,379 hectares) considered to be probable avocado crops that had not been verified.
Carmen Gómez Lozano, then director of Biological Corridors and Watersheds at the Ministry of Environment and Territorial Development of Jalisco, stated in May 2023 that “avocado production is one of the main direct causes of deforestation.” The statement was collected by Climate Rights International in its research on the production and export of Mexican avocados.
Climate Rights International compared official maps of orchards certified to export avocados to the United States with forest cover maps. It identified deforested land since 2014 within certified orchards in 41 of the 46 municipalities of Michoacán authorized to export to the United States and in eight of the ten municipalities in Jalisco authorized for that market in 2023.
In March 2023, the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection confirmed to Climate Rights International that there was a link between deforestation and the expansion of avocado in Jalisco.
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