Editing Mennonites (section)

==Environmental impacts==
<span class="anchor" id="environmental damage"></span>[[File:Loading Logs At Puerto Casado (5981666132).jpg|thumb|Loading logs at [[Puerto Casado]] in the Paraguayan Chaco (photograph from the [[Harold S. Bender|H. S. Bender collection]]). There is a long history of American countries facilitating remote [[Settler|settlements]] of skilled and determined Mennonite farmers as a convenient way of clearing land for agriculture.<ref name=lePolain2021/>]]
Across Latin America, Mennonite colonization has been seen as a driver of environmental damage associated with land clearance in countries including [[Environmental issues in Belize|Belize]], [[Deforestation in Bolivia|Bolivia]], [[Deforestation in Colombia|Colombia]], [[Geography of Mexico#Environmental conditions|Mexico]], [[Deforestation in Paraguay|Paraguay]],<ref name=Hanners2016>{{cite journal |vauthors=Hanners SM |title=Promised lands: the Anabaptist immigration to Paraguay and Bolivia and its unintended consequences for the environment |journal=The University of Miami Inter-American Law Review |date=2016 |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=186–223 |url=https://repository.law.miami.edu/umialr/vol48/iss2/8/ |issn=0884-1756 |jstor= |access-date=18 December 2023 |archive-date=18 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231218120403/https://repository.law.miami.edu/umialr/vol48/iss2/8/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Deforestation in Peru|Peru]],<ref name=lePolain2021/> while [[indigenous peoples in Suriname]] have expressed similar concerns.<ref name=Pinas2023>{{cite news |last1=Pinas |first1=Jason |title='We live off the forest': fears rise in Suriname as Mennonites look to settle |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/dec/15/suriname-indigenous-tensions-mennonite-christian-sect-farm-settle-amazon-deforestation |work=The Guardian |date=15 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231215143452/https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/dec/15/suriname-indigenous-tensions-mennonite-christian-sect-farm-settle-amazon-deforestation |archive-date=15 December 2023 |url-status=live }}</ref> Since the early- to mid-twentieth century, Mennonite colonization has brought a characteristic, religious approach to cultivation (not generally found in either [[Peasant#Latin American farmers|peasant]] or [[Corporate farming|corporate]] farming) and the potential to impact a range of different [[biome]]s.<ref name=lePolain2021/> Mennonite farmers have cleared large areas of [[wilderness]] (greater than the size of the Netherlands) across major transnational regions of Latin America such as the [[Gran Chaco]], the [[Chiquitano dry forests|Chiquitano]], and the [[Amazon rainforest]].<ref name=lePolain2021/>  In the process, they have unintentionally devastated many [[Ecosystem|precious natural habitats]], often leading to conflict with [[indigenous peoples]].<ref name=lePolain2021>{{cite journal |vauthors=le Polain de Waroux Y, Neumann J, O'Driscoll A, Schreiber K |title=Pious pioneers: the expansion of Mennonite colonies in Latin America |journal=Journal of Land Use Science |date=2021 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=1–17 |doi=10.1080/1747423X.2020.1855266 |bibcode=2021JLUS...16....1L |s2cid=230589810 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1747423X.2020.1855266 |language=en |issn=1747-423X |access-date=18 December 2023 |archive-date=2 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240102201943/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1747423X.2020.1855266 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Hanners2016/> Their commercial success in transforming previously wild lands to make way for [[Soybean#Environmental issues|soybean]] production and [[Ranch#Ranching in South America|cattle ranching]] appears to have provided inspiration for others, including some [[Conglomerate (company)|conglomerates]] that have reproduced the model on a massive scale.<ref name=Hanners2016/>  While habitat destruction by Mennonite colonies has been on a smaller scale overall than that recently<!-- ie "recently" with respect to the much longer history of Mennonite-related damage --> inflicted by a few very large corporations, the environmental damage is increasingly being contested,<ref name=lePolain2021/> sometimes in the form of legal challenges.<ref name=MAAP118/>

The Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), conducted by the [[Amazon Conservation Association]], has identified Mennonite colonization as a new driver of [[Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest|deforestation]] in Bolivia and Peru.<ref name=MAAP112>{{cite journal|title=Mennonite colonies - new deforestation driver in the Amazon |url=https://www.amazonconservation.org/2019-mennonite/ |journal=MAAP |publisher=Amazon Conservation Association |date=2019 |issue=#112 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230323011555/https://www.amazonconservation.org/2019-mennonite/ |archive-date=23 March 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> In Peru, MAAP has identified over 7,000 hectares (27 square miles) of rainforest lost to deforestation between 2017 and 2023 following the arrival of Mennonite settlers,<ref name=MAAP118>{{cite journal |vauthors=Finer M, Mamani N |title=Mennonite colonies continue major deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon |journal=MAAP |publisher=Amazon Conservation Association |date=2023 |issue=#188 |url=https://www.maaproject.org/2023/mennonites-peru/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231114202240/https://www.maaproject.org/2023/mennonites-peru/ |archive-date=14 November 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> and their colonies have been charged with illegal deforestation.<ref name=Pinas2023/><ref name=Collyns2022>{{cite news |last1=Collyns |first1=Dan |title=The Mennonites being accused of deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/11/mennonites-peru-deforestation-permits |work=The Observer |date=10 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230227110016/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/11/mennonites-peru-deforestation-permits |archive-date=27 February 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<span class="anchor" id="Mexico deforestation"></span>On the [[Yucatán Peninsula#Ecology|Yucatán Peninsula]] in Mexico, agricultural expansion following Mennonite settlement has been a driver of deforestation of the native [[tropical rainforest]].<ref name=Ellis2017>{{cite journal |vauthors=Ellis EA, Romero Montero JA, Hernández Gómez IU, Porter-Bolland L, Ellis PW |title=Private property and Mennonites are major drivers of forest cover loss in central Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico |journal=Land Use Policy |date=2017 |volume=69 |pages=474–484 |doi=10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.09.048 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S026483771730265X |issn=0264-8377 |access-date=19 December 2023 |archive-date=19 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231219160100/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S026483771730265X |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Mongabay"/> In July 2018, Mexican Mennonites were fined $500,000 for unauthorized [[Logging#Environmental impact|logging]] on 1,445 hectares (5½ square miles) of forested [[ejido]]s (shared ownership lands) in [[Quintana Roo]].<ref name="Mongabay">{{Cite news |last1=Canul |first1=Robin |last2=Contreras |first2=Valeria |translator=Matthew Rose |series=Forest trackers |url=https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/deforestation-on-the-rise-in-southern-mexico-as-mennonite-communities-move-in/ |title=Deforestation on the rise in Quintana Roo, Mexico, as Mennonite communities move in |date=15 March 2023 |work=[[Mongabay]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315191705/https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/deforestation-on-the-rise-in-southern-mexico-as-mennonite-communities-move-in/ |archive-date=15 March 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref>