The Uneven Race of Mexican Protected Areas against Climate Change

Isla Mujeres national park is among the most popular in Mexico, especially due to its coral reefs. But these are under threat due to rising sea temperatures. Credit: Emilio Godoy/IPS

By Emilio Godoy
PUERTO MORELOS, Mexico, Nov 19 2025 (IPS)

Ezequiel Sánchez, a 63-year-old Mexican fisherman, owes everything to the sea. “My life, my work, my family,” he says, pointing around his office, which is located just a block from the ocean in Puerto Morelos town, in the southeastern state of Quintana Roo, Mexico.

Sánchez, who is married and has one son and three daughters, learned to fish at the age of 12 alongside his friends in this coastal town, which is located 1,630 kilometres southeast of Mexico City and had a population of almost 27,000 in 2020.

But the environment of yesteryear has changed, and fishermen are feeling the pinch. “Years ago, we used to catch more than 300 kilograms; now, we don’t even reach 200,” lamented Sánchez, who is also the Puerto Morelos Fishermen’s Cooperative Production Society director, in an interview with Inter Press Service. The society brings together 44 fishermen and 11 coastal fishing boats.

The causes for the decreased catch vary, including overfishing, rising sea temperatures, pollution, urbanization and the loss of habitats where fish feed and reproduce.

“This year, they are catching 80% fewer fish and 50% fewer lobsters. Development comes at a price, and we are paying it,” he argues, pointing to the increasingly built-up area around the office. “Now the buildings are taller. There is no drainage. So they drill holes in the ground and dump all the waste there. That ends up in the sea and affects the reefs”, he explains.

All of the above occurred despite Mexico’s commitment to implementing the Global Biodiversity Framework, which was agreed at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2022. The framework includes 23 goals, one of which is the conservation and management of 30% of terrestrial and coastal-marine areas by 2030, and an adequate budget for this purpose.

The Mexican government’s goal is to protect 30.8 million hectares of land and 19.6 million hectares of marine zones by 2030.

The government has drawn a roadmap for achieving the 30×30 target with 75 measures around effective management, equitable governance, representation and connectivity; Indigenous peoples and communities contributions, and sustainable use.

However, the lack of information on the actual state of the natural protected areas (NPAs) obscures the results, despite the 2020-2024 national programme and the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas’ (Conanp) outdated evaluations. The programme established goals on conservation, effective management, and ecological restoration.

IPS confirmed the problems during a tour of three natural areas in the state: Cancún, Puerto Morelos and Isla Mujeres. Meanwhile, Conanp did not respond to the journalist’s queries.

According to IPS’s freedom of information requests, this governmental institution, responsible for conserving Mexico’s natural heritage, lacks data on changes in rainfall patterns, temperature, air humidity, habitat transformation, and the magnitude of the risk of environmental degradation in the NPAs, even though that information should be registered according to the compulsory national programme and the guide to analyse social vulnerability an climate change impacts on PNAs.

In addition, they do not have the implementation and management index, which is essential to know the condition of the natural areas. The index measures the progress of the national programme within a NPA and reflects the level of effective management.

According to Rosa Rodríguez, a biologist at the Institute of Marine Sciences and Limnology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, conservation efforts through the creation of NPAs and their management, at least in Quintana Roo, have been unsuccessful.

“For a while, the NPAs served to improve water activities and curb the number of permits, tourists and coastal constructions. Now, the impacts are being felt everywhere along the coast. The impacts are quickly observed”, she told IPS.

In the region, ‘Cancunization’, characterised by mass tourism, accelerated urbanisation and environmental destruction, is advancing.

Puerto Morelos is home to the 9,066-hectare “Arrecifes de Puerto Morelos” National Park and the 1,103-hectare “Manglares de Puerto Morelos” Flora and Fauna Protection Area. These are the main attractions of the area, which used to be a fishing village.

The mangrove swamp and reef are among the at least 25 protected natural land and marine sites in Quintana Roo. The state has a surface area of 44,705 km² –2% of the national territory– including a 900-km littoral zone, and had 1.86 million inhabitants in 2020. The state boasts 758,428 hectares under conservation –17% of the state territory. Overall, Mexico has 232 NPAs covering 23 million hectares of land–12.76% of the national surface–and almost 75 million hectares of marine territory, which is 23.78% of the national marine area.

But less than 30% of every Mexican ecosystem is protected, according to the World Wildlife Fund-Mexico.

NPAs are the primary means of maintaining ecological integrity and conserving habitats by conserving species, cleaning air and water, and providing food and income to communities. Impacts from land use changes such as deforestation, pollution, overexploitation of water resources and habitat fragmentation can therefore cause disruption to NPAs.

However, the mangroves and reefs in Quintana Roo and other coastal regions of Mexico are at risk from urbanization, rising sea levels, poor water quality, intense storms, and the presence of plastics and sargassum. These issues constitute fundamental challenges for environmental authorities and local populations, due to their magnitude, the political and technical solutions involved and the financial requirements.

The fisherman Sánchez believes that “’what is happening to us is worse than what they are doing” for conservation.

Pernicious anemia

Despite the increase in the number of NPAs since 2018, the lack of regular evaluations and budgets makes it difficult for Conanp to provide adequate care and enforcement.

The resources allocated for conservation per hectare fell by 81% between 2006 and 2024. Between 2018 and 2024, the annual average totalled 80 cents per hectare; the 2025 corresponding amount equates to 52 cents.

Conanp’s budget has fallen from $135 million in 2014 to approximately $54 million this year. The agency has indicated that it requires an overall budget of between $66 and $76 million to operate in protected areas. Conanp estimates that $197 million per year will be needed for the next six years to achieve the 30×30 goal.

At least the good news: the Mexican Congress assigned some $77.5 million for next year, a third higher than in 2025.

There are also operational problems, such as the lack of updated management programmes. Only 141 of the PNAs have an updated programme, while 91 do not.

The plan is the core regulation and planning tool providing for NPA management and stewardship activities, measures and basic guidelines. When the government creates a new protected area, they have one year to produce this plan. Every five years, the plan should be reviewed and updated—a process which has not occurred for many of the NPAs. The plan standards also specify that people living in the natural areas take part in the process.

Between 2014 and 2020, Conanp executed the Resilience project, which focused on 17 NPAs and resulted in the development of nine climate change adaptation programmes and four management programmes, with a budget of $10 million. However, there is no evidence that it has improved climate resilience, at least in Quintana Roo, and the project’s final report doesn’t cover the implementation process.

Similarly, in 2024, the Global Environment Facility approved $18.5 million for improved management of five terrestrial and four marine protected areas, but implementation has just begun.

Despite the 2016 non-binding recommendation by the government’s National Human Rights Commission regarding the lack of management programmes in NPAs and their relationship with human rights, the lack of plans persists.

This absence undermines the right to legal certainty, to a healthy environment, and to effective participation, particularly for indigenous peoples and local communities with regard to the protection, use, and benefits of their collective property.

For Julia Carabias, UNAM Faculty of Sciences academic, the problem involves a mix of lack of adequate tools and better management.

“The priorities should be science-based decisions, guarantee of efficient management, programmes elaboration and execution, enough budget, attention to the areas’ owners’ needs and collective, coordinated efforts”, she resumes.

The situation is particularly evident in states such as Quintana Roo.

Paradise lost

Fabiola Sánchez, a Puerto Morelos resident, points to the development model lacking emission reductions and the consequent advance of climate change, with local impacts.

“It’s like when your defenses are down and you get the flu, you recover and get sick again. It makes recovery longer. The environmental problem has no expiration date or political color”, she told IPS.

This is compounded by institutional limitations like staffing, budget and political will. “It’s more a lack of administrative capacity to move faster. You can see the institutional system’s failure to address environmental issues”, she adds.

Satellite pictures viewed by IPS demonstrate the advancement of the hotel sector in the coastal strip that connects with Cancun. While these constructions were scarce 20 years ago, they are now more visible.

Guadalupe Velásquez, a member of the Manos Unidas por Puerto Morelos collective, which campaigns for environmental protection in the town, questions the creation of an NPA without the necessary management tools, a situation exacerbated by the real estate boom that disrupts the flow of water between the mangroves and the coral reefs, with negative consequences for both.

“Hotels block the interaction between the wetland and the lagoon. They are important, interrupted points of water discharge. As a result, the quantity and quality of water has decreased. The authorities have turned a deaf ear”, she says.

In 2024, Quintana Roo received almost 21 million visitors, the second most popular destination in the country after Mexico City. Puerto Morelos, with 27,000 permanent residents, received 968,536.

Depending on their vulnerability, infrastructure and hotels are at risk of flooding.

A wetland acts as a filter, moving water that helps produce nutrients from seagrasses and food for fish and algae, and they keep water from storms and release it when they go away. Atolls reduce wave strength under normal conditions and during storms, thus protecting the coastline and preventing beach erosion.

The mangrove area is home to red mangroves (Rhizophora mangle), white mangroves (Laguncularia racemosa), black mangroves (Avicennia germinans), buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus), several species of iguanas and lizards, as well as jaguars (Panthera onca) and endemic plant varieties, such as the granadillo (Platymiscium yucatanum).

The reefs are home to turtle grass (Thalassia testudinum), seagrasses, corals, and turtles.

Wilberto Antele, the Mangroves of Puerto Morelos flora and fauna deputy director, underscores “the efforts made” on NPAs, like vigilance, monitoring and the work with their inhabitants, but acknowledges the need for financial resources, surveillance personnel and biological monitoring.

“The work is too much and the most important thing is to work with the park’s allies. People are well aware that their livelihoods depend on the reef. There are many economic interests, many visions of development, and those shape which sites are preserved and which are not. Everything has a limit and those limits have become visible in recent years”, he told IPS, acknowledging that the main threat is land use change (deforestation).

Puerto Morelos is already experiencing the consequences of climate change, including rising sea levels and temperatures, and coral bleaching.

Since 2018, the Mexican Caribbean has experienced multiple episodes of coral bleaching and stony coral tissue loss disease that coincided with heat spikes in 2022 and 2024, causing the corals to peel and become defenseless. In 2024, further bleaching affected corals that had survived previous incidents.

Monitoring of 70 sites in Mexico by Healthy Reefs for Healthy People, a scientific network of countries in the Mesoamerican Reef System (MAR), found in its 2024 report that 20% were in critical condition, more than a third in poor condition, a third in regular condition and only 9% in good condition. The MAR, which is the second largest coral reef system in the world, extends more than 1,000 kilometers through Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras.

Despite this situation, Mexico has not provided any updated reports on the state of these environments since 2018.

To alleviate this scenario, since 2019 the state government has contracted the Parametric Insurance for the Protection and Conservation of Reefs and Beaches of Quintana Roo, which is designed to insure reefs and beaches in the Mexican Caribbean against hurricanes with speeds greater than 185 km/hr.

In 2020, the government received $440,000 in compensation for damage caused by Hurricane Delta, and in 2024, $850,000 for damage caused by Hurricane Beryl. This year, the government invested approximately $3.6 million in the mechanism, which factors in the speed of wind, the area where the storm happens and the compensation, depending on damages in the affected area. The Quintana Roo government has earmarked the proceeds for coral restoration, but it takes some years to see the results.

As if the storms and hurricanes that hit the Caribbean coast were not enough, the region has also been facing the growing arrival of sargassum, an algae from off the Atlantic African coast, for more than 10 years. This algae feeds on the organic matter present in the water as it passes through.

According to the Ministry of the Environment, the amount of sargassum appearing between March and August in 2025 was 60% higher than in 2024.

So far, some of their ecological and social effects are known, like beach erosion, nearshore waters eutrophication, mangrove ecosystems disruptions, risks to human life, and threats to the tourism and fishing industry.

But there are still many unknown aspects of it. “Reefs are exposed to many factors of stress and harm, which are difficult to divide. The sargassum leachate kills coral larvae, affects its embryo development. In nearshore zones, there have been reports of dead corals and marine pastures. But we need a better understanding of how it’s hitting fisheries, for instance”, explains the biologist Rodriguez, an expert on marine life and one of the few Mexican specialists on sargassum.

When floating and rotting, this algae blocks the sun and takes oxygen from corals, weakening them and leaving them vulnerable to germs, the main impact so far on them.

If the sargassum affects reefs, this could imply less habitat for fish and fewer catches. But so far there is no evidence of that chain in Mexico yet.

Fantasy island

Isla Mujeres, located around 20 kilometers off the coast from Cancun, is also not immune to the effects of tourism, pollution and a warmer sea.

At first glance, everything appears spectacular: the turquoise water and seagrasses are particularly striking. Visitors arrive on the island, which had a population of 22,686 in 2020, by ferry from Cancun in a journey of about 20 minutes. The island received 284,687 visitors in 2024, since the park is one of the most visited natural areas.

Gisela Maldonado, from the environmental consulting firm Kanantic, considers the impact of environmental protection measures on phenomena like the warming ocean and sea level rise that are beyond the control of the authorities.

“There is little the municipality can do. It doesn’t matter how many instruments there are if they are not going to be applied”, said the specialist, who spends much of her working life on the island. “The place depends on tourism and fishing. But it is already facing difficulties. Fishermen complain about a drop in lobster catches”, as in Puerto Morelos, she says.

For thousands of visitors, the reef, which is part of the MAR, is a great attraction for diving. The island, which is about eight kilometers long and almost one kilometer wide, is home to species of mangrove, coral and lobster (Panulirus argus).

But that massive attraction leaves a toll on the island, since they generate trash, plastics in one form or the other, and liquid waste.

The future influence of climate catastrophe could be significant. A one-meter rise in sea level would flood 35 hectares, equivalent to 6.6% of the island’s territory, affecting 832 people. With a three-meter rise, the loss would exceed a quarter of the island’s surface area (147 hectares).

Despite the urgency, there is no specific evidence that all of the measures stipulated in the Isla Mujeres-Puerto Morelos Corridor Climate Change Adaptation Programme have been applied; one seems half-finished and only two fulfilled. This lack of action seeds doubt about the future of other existing protected areas and ones yet to be established.

Nakedness

In the heart of Cancún lies the Nichupté Lagoon, a haven nestled between urban sprawl and a row of hotels alongside the sea. The 4,257-hectare Nichupté Mangrove Flora and Fauna Protection Area plays a crucial role in coastal defense, but it faces threats due to its location within the city. Its resilience depends on legal protection and hydrological restoration.

The ecosystem, which is home to mangroves and crocodiles, is in moderate to poor condition due to disturbances, and is moderately vulnerable to the impact of storms and rising sea levels.

In the city, which had 934,189 inhabitants in 2020, only patches of mangroves remain, survivors of predatory construction. If they could speak, they would scream about how they were cut down to make room for houses, hotels and streets.

Despite the well-known situation and the fact that Conabio has issued a full alert due to the threats to the ecosystem, the federal government has been drilling the lagoon since 2022 with the piles of a vehicular bridge, which is almost nine kilometers long and affects the boundaries of the NPA, to connect the city with the hotel strip.

The environmental impact assessment recognises species migration and death, as well as loss of surface area and mangrove habitat fragmentation.

Demands

Although the sources consulted disagree on the effectiveness of protection measures, they all agree that better measures are needed.

In light of the urgent situation regarding the NPAs, fisherman Sánchez is urging the authorities to be more vigilant in protected marine areas. “A comprehensive review is needed to refocus all activities,” he says.

Fabiola Sánchez, a Puerto Morelos resident, requests greater interest from the government in understanding the area’s natural phenomena and citizens’ rights. “You have to tighten the screws. The sea is not a pool; it flows and moves. What goes from point A to D of the NPA will affect areas outside the polygon. It is reductionist to assume that the NPAs are isolated islands,” she says.

Antele believes that tools such as the land use plan are useful for protecting the areas more effectively. “It will provide the legal basis to stop construction. Our efforts are geared towards ecosystem services and conservation,” he says.

For biologist Rodríguez, a prompt solution does not appear on the horizon, as determination and a larger budget are urgently needed.

“The strategies are not applied. There are a lot of meetings and nothing happens. That’s where we stay, in meetings, documents, strategies. But we fell short in the instrumentation. There are few mitigation actions,” she says..

IPS produced this article with the support of Internews’ Earth Journalism Network