By court order, work at the Tajamar Mangrove in Cancún has been permanently suspended. After months of struggle, neighbors and ecologists coming together in a citizen protest movement have managed to defeat a hotel megaproject. Voices for Mother Earth (companion blog with Mexico Voices)El País México: Elena Reina
Cancún's environmentalists had the feeling of being the planet's least effective. For decades, Mexico's Caribbean Coastline, so coveted for hotel megaprojects with views of paradise, has been replaced by exclusive residential areas, shopping centers and water parks. Now they could chain themselves to all the palm trees that remain alive, because that would succeed, residents recount. But it has been with a piece of 60 hectares [148 acres] of wetland, greyish water and not-blue sky, where they have gathered the courage to get a victory. The Tajamar mangrove, or what remains of it, is still there. After months of struggle, a court order has proved them right. This has been their story.
El País: Sequence of aerial photos showing changes that have taken place in the Tajamar mangrove from 2005 to 2016.Until 1994 [NAFTA signed 1/1/94] the Tajamar mangrove was in no danger. It was part of the Nichupté Lagoon System, and all its surrounding areas were equally protected under Mexican law. But later that year, the [Quintana Roo] state government decided that it was too much, and Tajamar should be separated in the area to apply what is known as "use policy" ["política de aprovechamiento", quote marks in original]. Since then, the wetland has had to survive various urban immersions.
VME Note: Reporter's quotation marks signal the nuanced meaning of the term "política de aprovechamiento", deriving from the verb: aprovechar, to take advantage of. A more direct, unloaded term would be "política de uso", policy of use or use policy; hence, although "política de aprovechamiento" may be translated as policy of either use or exploitation, the connotation is in order to obtain benefit. Thus is signaled: (1) mindset of environmental officials; and (2) the contrast, even conflict, with the worldwide environmental goal of protecting the world's mangroves. See: Tajamar Mangrove Cancún: World Wildlife Fund Advises Mexico to Halt the Destruction.In 2005, the state agency FONATUR (National Fund for Promotion of Tourism [part of Secretariat of Tourism]) began to sell this land. The Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources [SEMARNAT] had granted permits, and the sale was legal. The problem is that this contract carried such conditions as relocation of the fauna, for which they alleged that there were no animals at the time of the construction in January of this year. Residents and environmentalists, united in the Save Tajamar Mangrove movement mobilized to show photos that what they called ecocide had been committed and that they had "killed in cold blood such endangered animals" as the moreletti crocodile .
In 2006 the mangrove's subdivision began. Roads were constructed to give vehicular access to the lagoon, and the space was divided into ten parts, where an ambitious hotel project with 5,000 hotel rooms, nearly 3,000 private residences and shopping centers were to be constructed. So the concrete would aesthetically be in tune with the environment, a "green zone" was planned. Some artificial gardens were set up above the old wetland.
But the straw that broke the environmentalists' patience arrived last January. During the hours between midnight and sunrise, on Saturday, January 16, dozens of heavy machinery [bulldozers, dump trucks] escorted by dozens of municipal police entered to raze the land for the construction work. They didn't have much time. February 8 is the expiration date for permits from the Secretariat of the Environment [SEMARNAT] for working in that area.
Araceli Domínguez, spokeswoman for SaveTajamarMangrove [on Facebook], relates:
"People cried. It smelled of death. We took dead animals; some were taken to the mayor," then she adds
"They did it [clearing, filling] in the very heart of Cancún, in view of everyone. They wanted us to vacate the place where we residents go for a walk, to watch the sun go down, where it is still possible to find crocodiles in their natural habitat."Pressure from local environmental agencies together with other international organizations, such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund made a half-devastated wetland in Cancún into reason for international outrage. Various petitions for amparo [protection, like injunction] submitted by residents were resolved favorably for environmentalists. The last of these, still awaiting final resolution [hearing set for February 22], has permanently suspended work.
FONATUR Video (3:21): Malecón Tajamar Cancún.Alejandra Serrano, coordinator of the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA)'s Yucatán offices, recounts:
"This is a preventive measure ordered by a judge, such that other rulings will not be able to take advantage of building there. It is a victory, but the institutions involved—FONATUR or SEMARNAT—can still appeal."Serrano claims that
"FONATUR has been behaving like a state realtor who obeys private purposes. It has sold public land without [applying] the correct environmental criteria. In order to be able to do it, they didn't even recognize that this was a mangrove swamp."CEMDA also filed a complaint regarding the granting of—according to them fraudulent—from the Secretariat of Tourism.
VME Note: "The environmental permit from the National Fund for Tourism Development (FONATUR) to devastate tens of hectares of mangroves in Cancún's Tajamar Lagoon last weekend, was issued in 2005 by Ricardo Juárez, then head of the General Directorate of Impact and Environmental Risk (DGIRA) at the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT). In 2007 Juárez was removed from his post and reported to the Secretariat of Public Administration for issuing at least 70 irregular permits" [Mexico Government: Irregular Permits Mark Ecocide at Tajamar Mangrove Cancún].With the land cleared and many of its animals dead, according to local residents and environmentalists, there is still some hope if the mangrove is not backfilled. Miguel Rivas, Greenpeace spokesman for the Tajamar mangrove:
"It's possible to see this as an opportunity to create an innovative plan of reforestation, create a competition with universities such that young people might think about how to give life to this space."In the meantime, entrances to the mangrove are closed by the citizens' movement. Save Tajamar Mangrove has taken the 60 hectares of land to prevent all vehicles from entering, and they control what those who gain entry by walking do. Dominguez says:
"We have mounted guards day and night so no one can come to destroy what still remains. Everything is guarded."Domínguez says that each member contributes what he can—some bring food and water, others provide transport; biologists and lawyers are responsible for initiating the petitions for amparo and the complaints:
"Since last July, I have myself already spent about 5,000 pesos [close to US$300]."After learning about the definitive suspension of work, she proudly adds:
"In my 32 years of environmental struggle, I had never before seen in Mexico a citizen movement like this one."Spanish original