LOSS OF MAYAN JUNGLE TOTALS 194 THOUSAND HECTARES IN FIFTEEN YEARS

Spreading their blue wings and flying into the immensity of the green of the Riviera Maya, the scarlet macaw, along with the harpy eagle, the white-snouted peccary, the tapir and the howler monkey, are at risk due to the devastating scenario that is affecting the jungle that extends in Mexico, Belize and northern Guatemala.

This time we focus on the situation in our state, Quintana Roo, where the Mayan Jungle is under threat; it so happens that the criteria of the governors and inhabitants has been divided between the use of this area for extensive agricultural and cattle raising systems, which represent 50 and 38 percent respectively, and the 13 percent where urban expansion is concentrated, according to a study published by Conafor (National Forestry Commission).

Although the area continues to be cared for by indigenous communities, some modern engineering thinkers foresee new uses that endanger what is the second largest tropical forest in the Americas, second only to the Brazilian Amazon.

Deforestation is of great concern after learning that a region loses resources that cannot be recovered in decades; the entire ecosystem is at risk as the flora and fauna disappear and the aquifers are affected, causing an increase in plagues and diseases.
The total area that year after year is added to the amount of reduction to this world’ s lung in the last 15 years represents 194,000 hectares, the equivalent of 280 times the Chapultepecforest in Mexico City.