Mexico currently occupies the fifth place in deforestation worldwide . Within this trade 60,000 hectares of both forest and rainforest are lost on a yearly basis through illegal logging. This situation has been the reality for the people in the P'urhépecha plateau of Michoacán, where, thanks to a series of legal vacuums, organized crime has found in illegal logging an additional trade to drug trafficking. Nevertheless, through the implementation of an autonomous government based on the P'urhépecha uses and customs, the municipality of Cherán is developing novel political and social strategies to control this situation.