Yucatán Gov. Mauricio Vila enters an international stage tonight when Washington Post Live broadcasts its “This is Climate” series. It’s major exposure for the former mayor of Mérida, who, as a popular governor, has even higher aspirations. Vila, 43, is No. 6 in this week’s Power Ranking index of presidential contenders. If he runs, he…
Known formally as the Jaguar Flora and Fauna Protection Area, the limits of the reserve are being walled off by a stone perimeter to avoid encroachment by developers and squatters.
Historic levels of sargassum along the Mexican Caribbean coast during Holy Week have triggered an “unusual abundance” of tourists at Yucatán’s famous cenotes. “There were more people here in the area, throughout the cenote park, and in all other places,” a Maya priest named Freddy Orlando Coto told the EFE news agency. Orlando Coto, a…
With Easter Week, or Semana Santa, about to begin, Yucatán’s beaches prepare for high season. But holiday crowds on the coast make for a perilous time for Yucatán’s endangered sea turtles and the eggs they lay near the high-tide line. Pronatura Peninsula de Yucatan A.C. is raising funds for an ongoing project that helps protect…
Locals warn that if something is not done the very existence of their community is at stake.
Dolphins at dozens of tourist attractions in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo are set to be freed. The decision has come as the result of federal legislation banning zoos and aquariums from exhibiting and offering interactions with wild animals. The dolphins are to be released into the bay of Campeche where a federally enforced…
Near Telchac Puerto, about an hour from Yucatán’s capital, an important project is being conducted to protect native parrots and return them to the wild. Proyecto Santa Maria involves both the conservation of birds and the preservation of the natural habitats in which they are found. Mexico has 22 species of parrots, four are found…
Pemex is refuting a scientific report tracing large methane emissions to an oil platform off the coast of Campeche. The state-owned oil company said the Spanish research paper published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters had mistakenly included nitrogen and other gases in their calculations. University scientists drew from satellite data that Pemex…
A giant deep-sea relative of the common woodlouse or roly-poly has been discovered where an asteroid strike wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Measuring more than 10 inches long, the isopod, a new species, has 14 legs and is 25 times bigger than its little cousin — and it got that way from…
The presence of seaweed in the Caribbean is nothing new, but has increased dramatically over the past few years.
With the perspective of an insider, no other wildlife photographer could possibly have as comprehensive a catalog of flamingo images as Claudio Contreras Koob.
Yucatán’s status as one of Mexico’s large pork producers employs thousands across the state. But this is not without its problems. According to a recent report issued by Mexico’s federal government, a great many of these pig farms do not meet even the most minimal environmental standards. On the Peninsula, 85% of the 257 registered…
Federal laws protecting wild animals from public exhibitions have long been on the books.
Amid growing criticism, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador came out Monday to defend his environmental record.
Mexican beer brands are ditching the nasty plastic six-pack rings. Corona introduced packaging made of barley straw and recycled wood fibers in 2021. In January, parent company Grupo Modelo announced a $4 million investment to replace the hard-to-recycle plastic packaging with fiber-based materials. They are part of a larger trend in which more companies are…
Greenpeace organizers tied themselves to heavy machinery in Quintana Roo on Monday, the latest high-profile attempt to derail the Mayan Train. At issue was a modified route announced in January that tears apart miles of low jungle. Demonstrators stated the tracks between Cancún and Tulum have been hastily rerouted through virgin jungle without environmental studies….
The environmental collective Va por la Tierra is planning a series of events to raise awareness among Yucatán’s population on issues regarding water quality and climate change.
Though more vulnerable to drought, traditional varieties of maize such as the Nuuk Nal, which has a reddish color, tend to be larger and more nutritious than their genetically modified counterparts, according to Díaz.
Mexico’s Interior Department issued a broad decree Monday requiring all federal agencies to give automatic approval for any public works project — including the Tren Maya — that the government deems in the national interest. The decree sidesteps all environmental regulations and gives regulatory agencies five days to grant a year-long approval for anything the…
While world leaders met and discussed the climate crisis at a United Nations conference in Scotland, one front in the battle to save the planet’s mangroves is thousands of miles away in Yucatán. Decades ago, mangroves lined the shores of Yucatán, but today there are only thin green bands of trees beside the sea interrupted…
Sea turtles continue to be endangered in Yucatán, but a new study suggests that their numbers are beginning to recover.
As Mike grew up, he dove back into nature, researching the environment, wildlife, and space. He understood the process he had to follow in order to achieve the photos he dreamed of.
Researchers in Yucatán have found a “lost world” of a mangrove ecosystem 124 miles from the nearest ocean, where they would normally exist. It runs along the banks of the San Pedro Martir River, which runs from the El Petén rainforests in Guatemala to the Balancán region in Tabasco. This is unusual because mangroves—salt-tolerant trees,…
The sargassum on the coast and the Sahara dust in the sky might have a connection. The stinky seaweed first sprouted in 2011 in the tropical Atlantic and has been plaguing beaches ever since. Sewage and farmland runoff have been blamed. But there’s another possible culprit — Africa’s Sahara dust, which blows over the ocean and…
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