The forests that connect the states of Sinaloa, Durango, and Chihuahua have been transformed into a war zone riddled with landmines hidden in the mountains and improvised explosive devices dropped from drones and small planes. The internal conflict within the Sinaloa Cartel has not only disrupted the lives of communities and displaced thousands of families, but has also triggered the worst fire season in the last 10 years.
In the first half of 2025, more than 281,000 hectares of forest burned in this region of the Sierra Madre Occidental, a figure exceeding the 124,000 hectares recorded during the same period in 2024, and more than the total area lost that year, when 130,000 hectares burned. The damage also surpasses the 170,000 hectares affected in all of 2023, a year considered critical due to the historic drought that plagued Mexico. The magnitude of the disaster in this region contrasts sharply with the rest of the country, where the numbers from two years ago have yet to be surpassed.
The fight between factions of the Sinaloa Cartel erupted in September 2024, with the split between those linked to the sons of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, alias El Chapo, and Ismael Zambada García, alias El Mayo. The confrontation began after an alleged betrayal that facilitated El Mayo’s extradition to the United States. Since then, the violence has left more than two thousand dead, nearly three thousand missing, forced displacements, economic losses due to business closures, and job losses in several regions of the state.
Residents of Sinaloa, Durango, and Chihuahua interviewed say that several of the fires in the last year started after armed clashes and drone attacks deep in the forests. “We saw the drone fly by, then we heard the bomb, an explosion, and a little while later, smoke would rise, and the forest would catch fire,” recounts a resident interviewed in the mountainous region of southern Sinaloa, on the border with Durango.
Sandra Guido, director of Conselva, Costas y Comunidades, an environmental organization based in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, that works on conservation and sustainable development, explains that the scale of the current devastation is the result of several circumstances combined with the context of violence, such as prolonged droughts that left the forest dry and vulnerable, budget cuts to the National Forestry Commission (Conafor) and local governments, and reductions in prevention and reforestation programs.
“Vegetation is more susceptible to anything—be it broken glass or anything else—and can cause fires with a much wider reach because all the vegetation is degraded,” the environmentalist explains.
When the war broke out, the forest was dry and ready to burn.
Residents and environmentalists attribute the increased spread of the fires to the lack of safe conditions for forestry brigades and Civil Protection teams, who repeatedly refused to enter the area due to the risk of armed confrontations. Their absence contributed to the fire’s spread.
A resident of the Sierra de Concordia, in southern Sinaloa, and a firefighter, recalls that in May 2025, she and her team went into the forest to create a firebreak and halt the flames’ advance, but a landmine explosion threw one of her colleagues into the air. The brigade had to suspend its work and withdraw for its safety, while the fire continued to spread for more than 15 days.
“When the mine exploded, we didn’t even finish the firebreak. We abandoned everything and left the forest. If we had closed the firebreak, that fire wouldn’t have spread,” says the woman, who asked to remain anonymous for her safety.
The fire she refers to was the second largest of the entire decade in this region of the Sierra Madre Occidental. Between late May and early June 2025, a single fire in the Loberas area of Concordia ravaged more than 9,782 hectares of forest, an area equivalent to 12 times the size of Chapultepec Forest in Mexico City, or 29 times the size of Central Park in New York.
Source: eluniversal.com.mx
