Coastal dunes are a ridge, or a series of ridges, that form at the rear of a beach and differ from most other constructional coastal landforms in that they are formed by the movement of air (aeolian transport) rather than by tidal, wave, or current action.
These dunes provide natural coastal protection against storm surges and high waves, preventing or reducing coastal flooding and structural damage, as well as providing important ecological habitats. They also act as sand storage areas, supplying sand to eroded beaches.
Along the Yucatecan coasts, native plants are being eradicated in a large area of coastal dunes.
In the municipality of Progreso, an area of the western beach was deforested, and the coastal dune and native plants were destroyed, apparently for some beach construction work, but it was stopped and closed by the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Procuraduría Federal de Protección al Ambiente: Profepa).
The large area of devastated coastal dune and native plants in the port of Progreso is located right in front of Calle 25, between 112 and 114 at the end of the international boardwalk, where the fronts of at least three summer houses in that part of the city, located in the Juan Montalvo neighborhood, were cleaned.
In the area where the coastal vegetation was destroyed and the grape bushes and other species of the region dethroned, eight palm trees were planted, apparently with the purpose of pretending that the area has not been deforested, but along that space of land reclaimed from the sea, there have never been palm trees.
Volunteers who participated in the beach cleaning campaign on Sunday, September 25, and who in past weeks had already passed by this place, were surprised to see the deforestation of that part of the western beach, where yellow ribbons can be seen, placed to prevent people from continuing to devastate the coastal dune.
Profepa placed the closure sign PFPA/YUC/0671/IA/2022 on a palm tree, thus closing the work. The houses to the south of the deforested area now have a wide beachfront, which they did not have before with the coastal dune.
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