How #Guatemala, #Mexico, and #Belize plan to protect 14 million acres of #Mayan #forest
Mexico, Guatemala and Belize have announced plans to create a huge reserve of tropical forest spanning across the three countries. Pushing out criminal gangs and protecting the land from ranchers, miners and loggers won’t be easy.
Aug. 21, 2025
Excerpt: "One proposal from Mexico is the expansion of its '#PlantingLife' program, which offers landowners money to grow certain kinds of trees either for fruit or timber. The program has a $2 billion budget, Bárcena said.
"But the program, which dates to ex-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has faced criticism. In 2021, the World Resources Institute reported that it had actually incentivized deforestation in Campeche state. Bárcena said the program is being adjusted to better meet environmental objectives.
"Mexican sustainability and climate action expert Juan Carlos Franco, who works in southern Mexico, said security is crucial and requires the government to act as 'guarantor.' But the work has to be carried out with civil society in the local communities, including in places where locals have found ways to coexist with the illegal activity surrounding them, he said.
" 'Communities oriented toward the #biocultural management of the territory can overcome despite the crime, that’s the most revealing message,' he said.
No #megaprojects
"Another challenge will be holding governments over the long term to commitments to forgo big projects that promise economic development but threaten #EnvironmentalDamage, such as Mexico’s tourist rail operation, the Maya Train, which Belize is interested in extending to its territory.
"Orantes, the Guatemala minister, said that Guatemalan President #BernardoArévalo would not allow megaprojects in the reserve because when access is opened in the forest it becomes difficult to control everything that follows.
"Arévalo recently declined to renew the contract of a #petroleum company that had been operating for 40 years in a Guatemalan reserve known as the #MayaBiosphere.
"Guatemala is making the largest land contribution to the reserve, encompassing 27 existing protected areas. Arévalo had already made clear that he would not run an extension of the Maya Train proposed by Mexico’s last president through protected areas.
"In Mexico, Bárcena noted that the 950-mile (1,500-kilometer) train line, which started running in late 2023 and goes in a rough loop around the Yucatan Peninsula, lies outside the new reserve’s territory.
She said her agency was working to alleviate some of the environmental impacts of the train line, in collaboration with companies operated by the Mexican Army, which built a large portion of the rail line and operates the train.
"To avoid destructive projects in the new reserve, the three governments agreed to create a council made up of environmental authorities, as well as an #Indigenous advisory council, Bárcena said. Any proposed projects in the reserve would have to pass through them."
Read more:
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/americas/how-guatemala-mexico-and-belize-plan-to-protect-14-million-acres-of-mayan-forest/article_20e22c99-d965-528f-90b6-20e93296c85f.html
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/GyXR8
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