CANCUN, Q. Roo — With a final decision about the future of the Tajamar multi-use development still pending, the president of the Association of Biologists of Mexico, Raul Arriaga Becerra, announced the donation of one thousand mangrove plants to FONATUR to be used in the Tajamar area.
At a press conference, Arriaga Becerra explained that, in fact, the project Tajamar Malecon was conducted according to the 2005 Regulations when the problem of global warming issue was not yet declared a threat.
For this reason and because such regulation was in force, the process of clearing the mangrove was conducted in accordance with the provisions; however, the problem arose from the way it was conducted.
However, the problem is not whether or not to carry out this project, but to truly respond to the agreements of the 21 Conference of the Parties (cop21), marking the new provision of building resilience to climate change.
Arriaga Becerra explained that the land bordering Nichupte Lagoon is already urbanized, and therefore protection of the lagoon should be strengthened. By logic, the mangrove on the edge of the lagoon must be preserved as a protective measure in case of a hurricane, such as Wilma or Gilbert.
Tajamar (Google)
That is the main reason of the donation of one thousand mangrove plants so developers can place them where it is most necessary in order to protect the area.
He clarified that it is wrong to point out that this project represents a “ecocide” because this area really was not a mangrove ecosystem, but had occurred as a result of the urbanization process in the Cancun area.
That is, the urbanization occur in this zone the conditions are generated to grow after the mangrove in that area, while surrounding the animals began occupancy, “but actually did not exist before the mangrove”.
For that reason and to express how soon that land will return to the conditions under which it was before the dismantling question, he said it could not take more than three months because this is an area where the mangrove grows naturally.
It’s not like in the case of protected areas, where the recovery of an ecosystem could take up to 15 years, as can be seen in the work of rehabilitation of Nichupte, he said.
