50.8% of the 66,311 medium and large companies in the Mexican Caribbean do not comply with environmental regulations, with the least compliant being those dedicated to the construction industry, large real estate companies, the food industry and the hotel sector, accumulating more than 1.9 billion pesos in fines in the last three years.
The information provided by DataMéxico.org, of the federal government, adds that Quintana Roo is the seventh entity with the highest percentage of economic units that do not take proper care of the environment.
The breakdown of the data points out that the economic sectors of generation and distribution of electricity, water and gas supply through pipelines to the final consumer, as well as health services and mining, had the highest percentage of businesses that complied with environmental regulations to guarantee a minimum negative impact on the environment, with 50%, 37.4%, 35% and 22%, respectively.
On the other hand, those least interested in complying with these guidelines were companies dedicated to the construction industry (only 6% fully comply with them), wholesale trade (12%), transportation (8.2%), hotel and lodging services (14%), as well as food and beverage preparation and sale services (9%).
DataMéxico, with information from the state and federal Environmental Protection Attorney’s Offices, as well as other related agencies, points out that when inspected for poor waste management, indiscriminate dumping, destruction of ecosystems, generation of excessive noise, lack of an environmental impact assessment, etc., 34% of the businesses claimed to be unaware of the non-compliant regulation, although this did not prevent them from receiving fines of five thousand minimum wages.
Official information reveals that from 2019 to mid-2022, 1,203 companies were also closed in Quintana Roo, 32 administrative arrests were applied, in addition to 672 processes of confiscation, suspension, revocation of concessions, licenses, permits or authorizations for not having complied with environmental regulations.
The real estate sector affects 30 thousand hectares per year through deforestation.
The real estate sector alone is estimated to have devastated more than 75 thousand hectares of wetlands and mangrove areas by filling them with sascab and other materials. As for the agricultural activity, the entity loses 33 hectares of forest per day, without the possibility of reforestation, due to fires, use of pesticides and other aggressive chemicals against the flora, etc.
While the real estate sector is guilty of affecting every year 30 thousand hectares in a negative way by deforestation, deficient drainage, etc.
He pointed out that another problem with respect to this issue has to do with the environmental authorities, who are more interested in applying collection measures, and although the resources obtained from the imposition of fines for this type of infractions should be used for the creation of funds and programs related to environmental inspection and surveillance, in the end this does not happen, and this point is not very transparent.
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