Environment

Peasants rescuing former paradise eroded into desert in Mixtec area of southern Mexico

Oaxaca, Dec 20 (EFE).- Peasants have rescued a paradise in the Mixtec area of southern Mexico, one of the country's more heavily eroded zones with areas that resemble a lunar landscape where the green of growing things had been replaced with the red of the local soil dried out by drought.In the region, where apparently nothing grows, the hand of local farmers can be seen re-greening the arid areas of Santo Domingo Yanhuitlan, a Mixtec Indian town known the world over for its 16th century Dominican church.Julio Angel Miguel Ramirez lives here, a man who seems to have the strength of three men concentrated in the body of one. (Camera: JOSÉ DE JESÚS CORTÉS). SHOT LIST: JULIO ANGEL MIGUEL RAMIREZ IN HIS FOREST, WHICH HE CALLS "THE PARADISE OF THE ARCHES," A FORMERLY DESERTIFIED AREA IN THE SOUTHERN MEXICAN STATE OF OAXACA THAT OVER THE PAST THREE DECADES HE RESTORED TO ITS FORMER LUSH FORESTED STATE.SOUND BITE: JULIO ANGEL MIGUEL RAMIREZ (IN SPANISH).TRANSLATION: Here, you find whatever you want. There are walnuts, different kinds of apples, avocadoes. Grapes, sugar cane, pomegranates, pears. (01:47-02:06).