Yucatan has 4,000,000,000 hectares of which 80%, that is, 3, 200, 000 are considered forest areas.
Mérida is considered one of the most forested cities in the country per square meter, but more recently, the city has been facing serious deforestation problems.
“In the city of Mérida we’ve had deforestation of around 14 to 15 hectares in a year,” explained Luis Francisco, president of Plant for the Planet in Yucatan.
The Yucatan jungle has native trees, endemic to the region such as ciricote, balché, maculis, among others that have been lost due to pests, fires, diseases or the introduction of new species.
“These pests and diseases were not present in our environment, so our trees do not have defenses to fight them and the problem began, “said Antonio Pani, environmental protection director.
Faced with this problem, Maya indigenous people of Yucatan began with the reforestation of the Yucatan jungle with timber trees of great importance for the production of honey, traditional medicine and construction.
Ciricote tree (Archive)
“We have the Kataloch that is a nectapoliniferous timber tree, it is a semiprecious wood, it has a beautiful grain, it is very good for making furniture, its wood is very hard and resistent”, explained Raúl Pereza, representative of the NGO ‘Yucatan Verde’.
The first step is to plant 250,000 native precious wood plants, which serve to minimize the negative effects of climate change and reduce the ecological footprint by destruction.
The program that is carried out in coordination with environmental authorities will serve to increase the economic income and improve the quality of life of the rural population and help urban reforestation.
TYT Newsroom with information from noticieros.televisa.com
