Around 200 thousand hectares of wetlands are at risk of disappearing in the state of Campeche. Population growth, illegal logging of white, red, black and buttonwood mangrove species together with fires caused by poachers, are causing the disappearance of wetlands.
“Mangroves are filters and the fact is that the settlement of urban sites inside the mangrove was not foreseen”, indicated Roberto Alcalá Ferráez , Secretary of the Environment in Campeche.
Fires and illegal logging are devastating the mangroves in Los Petenes, Campeche. There are cases of unconscious people that destroy mangroves, a protected and endangered species , even though there is a law that forbids cutting it or using it in any form, however there are people who insist and keep cutting and erradicating these tress,” explained Jorge Berzunza Chio, deputy director of Wildlife of Environmental Heritage in Campeche.
Destroyed mangrove
In Campeche there are one 1.069,542 hectares of wetlands, which represents 25 percent of this ecosystem in the country.
Campeche has the largest mangrove area in the country and the wetlands protect the population against extreme weather phenomena such as hurricanes. The Yucatan Peninsula has wetlands of great importance such as the Petenes reserve, the Laguna de Términos, the Tortuga Beach of Chenkán and the reserve of the Ría Celestún shared between the states of Yucatán and Campeche. Wetlands are indispensable because of the benefits they offered to humanity, such as fresh water, food and they help to mitigate climate change.
In Campeche, there are six natural areas protected by law, which represents 40 percent of Campeche’s territory and people are destroying it, while authorities do nothing about it.
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