In Chiapas, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Guerrero, slash-and-burn farming techniques and clearcutting of forests for grazing land is making the annual rainy season more dangerous every year, said Alejandro Flamenco Sandoval, who works for Greenpeace and the Southern Border College in Chiapas.

Hurricane Stan hit Mexico's Gulf coast on Oct. 5 and quickly weakened to a tropical depression. The resulting rains caused numerous rivers to overflow, and flooding in seven states killed over 30 people.

Forests, Flamenco Sandoval explained, work as a natural sponge to soak up rain waters and slow rivers that overflow their banks after torrential downpours.

Currently, Chiapas' forests are being destroyed at a rate of over 2 percent per year, according to Greenpeace statistics. If this continues, "the floods will move faster and faster," Flamenco Sandoval said. "If the earth remains barren and treeless, (the tragedy following Stan) will be repeated."

He added the forests in Chiapas which once were a uniform blanket over much of the state are now fragmented, leading to widespread erosion and the loss of farming land.

"It's not by chance that Oaxaca and Chiapas have been hit so hard by a relatively minor hurricane," he said. "The majority of forest cover in these states 76 percent in Chiapas and 83 percent in Oaxaca has been lost."

Meanwhile, the National Center for Disaster Prevention (Cenapred) is directing efforts to relocate families that have lost their houses into safer areas.

Cenapred head Arturo Vilchis Esquivel said the department is using aerial photographs to identify high-risk flooding zones and ensure the areas aren't inhabited.

Environmentalists and government officials aren't the only ones concerned about deforestation.

The Federal Electricity Commission, which supplies most of the nation with power, says that eroded soil that builds up in rivers and reservoirs could seriously shorten the lifespan of its hydro-electric dams in Chiapas.