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| Fishermen in Lake Patzcuaro, Michoacan state, Mexico North of the Sierra Madre del Sur lies Lake Patzcuaro, on whose shores live the Tarasco and Purepecha Indians. They are celebrated for their traditional crafts, and they also make a living from fishing and farming on the surrounding hills. These large, dragonfly-shape nets are used to catch the pecito, a whitefish whose flesh is highly prized but which is now becoming scarce as a result of overfishing but especially because of changes in agricultural methods in the surrounding land. Deforestation and the abandonment of farming on terraces and crop rotation are destabilizing the soil. The earth no longer stays in place, and during the rainy season it washes off the hillsides and into the lake below. Moreover, fertilizers are entering the waters of the lake, where algae and water plants proliferate at the expense of fish. The local inhabitants are now replanting trees on the hills, and building low walls around the fields, in an effort to retain the earth. The livelihood of the communities around the lake depends on this: some have seen half their population migrate to other areas as a result of exhaustion of local resources. |
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