It’s been one year after Mexico’s government announced the creation of 20 new protected areas, covering roughly 2.3 million hectares (5.7 million acres). But the country’s environment ministry, Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), has failed to publish a single protected area management plan, despite being required to do so by law.

Scientists, conservationists and communities have been pushing for these plans to be published, concerned that the absence of a roadmap means these areas are still vulnerable to threats and overexploitation, such as illegal fishing and mining.

According to Mexican law, the SEMARNAT has one year to publish a protected area’s management plan after a decree is issued, but this deadline has passed without plans. Some protected areas, such as Carmen Serdán in Xicotepec, central-eastern Mexico, and Playa Morro Ayuta in Oaxaca, have almost completed their plans and expect to publish next month, the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas (CONANP) officials told Mongabay. However, many others across Mexico said they still have a long way to go.

Reasons for the delay

In June last year, Mexican voters elected a new president, which led to changes that some officials blame for the delays in protected area management plans. Several days after President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, an environmental scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, took office on Oct. 1, Pedro Álvarez Icaza Longoria was appointed as the head of CONANP and Alicia Bárcena as the head of SEMARNAT.

“The year 2024 was particularly complicated due to particular, imponderable socio-environmental and administrative conditions which required attention,” a CONANP spokesperson told Mongabay over email about the Carmen Serdán protected area. “On the one hand, there was a complex fire season given the drought conditions that prevailed in the region and, on the other hand, in the second half of the year, the process of changing the federal administration began.”

Joaquín Núñez Medrano, the secretary of the UEFAHG or Union of Forestry and Agricultural Ejidos Hermenegildo Galeana A.C. (Unión de Ejidos Forestales y Agropecuarios Hermenegildo Galeana), who lives inside part of the Sierra Tecuani protected area established one year ago, also told Mongabay that the change in government contributed to the delays in his area.

Officials are currently creating an advisory council, consisting of CONANP officials, the municipal government and regional representatives, to create a plan for Sierra Tecuani, Núñez said. “Once this committee is formally established, a proposal for the management plan will be presented.”

But, by and large, the one-year deadline is still unrealistic, Juan Bezaury-Creel, the director of the NGO Fundación BDM BioDiversidad Mexicana, told Mongabay.

Setting up a protected area’s management plan requires the participation of multiple actors, including CONANP, communities, NGOs, academics, government agencies and experts. It also requires field research and consultation with communities about the status of the area and its natural resources. “Most of the time, participatory processes take a long time,” Bezaury said.

SEMARNAT is also one of the many sectors that has been badly hit by funding cuts over the last few years. Former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador implemented a series of strict austerity measures during his time in office. Over six years, he allocated 35% less to the department than his predecessor, placing huge pressure on personnel in charge of preserving protected areas.

Prospects for 2025 do not look any better. According to an analysis of Mexico’s draft budget for 2025 by Noroeste Civil Society for Environmental Sustainability (NOSSA), SEMARNAT will see its budget reduced by 39.4% compared to 2024.

CONANP will be left with the lowest budget since 2006, with 1,001 million pesos (about $50 million) for the management of the country’s 232 protected areas, facing a 42% budget cut compared to 2024. “At an average of just 10.2 pesos (0.51 USD) per hectare, this budget is grossly insufficient to protect biodiversity or ensure a healthy environment for Mexico’s population,” the report said.

What’s at stake

As the 20 new protected areas remain without management plans, the parks are still vulnerable to threats and overexploitation. In Bajos del Norte, one of the new national parks decreed one year ago in the Gulf of Mexico, illegal fishing is still present and oil extraction and tourism are still taking a toll on the area’s coral reefs.

The protected area is one of the main reproduction sites for grouper fish (Epinephelinae) in the Gulf of Mexico and is home to threatened species such as the endangered boulder star coral (Orbicella annularis) and the critically endangered hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata).

Renata Terrazas, the executive director of Oceana in Mexico, told Mongabay that since the new leader of CONANP was appointed, efforts towards the creation of a management plan for the area have not yet resumed. The decree itself led to positive effects, such as the collaboration between authorities and fishers, as well as a diagnosis report on how illegal fishing makes the site more vulnerable. But further delays would be dangerous, she said.

“Since there is no management plan, there are no clear rules of what can and cannot be done,” Miguel Alejandro Rivas Soto, an ecologist from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and project director at Ponguinguiola A.C., told Mongabay over WhatsApp voice messages. “Extractive activities continue to be as current and functional as they were before the National Park decree.”

The creation of the Bajos del Norte protected area was supported by industrial fishers, leading to a collaboration with CONANP, which Terrazas said is unusual. It’s important that the government follows through with its promises, she said. Otherwise, the fishers may lose faith in state interventions.

“The people who supported and sustained the creation of this area need to see there is state intervention to ensure illegal fishing does not continue,” she said, “and to ensure that ecosystems that are crucial for the reproduction of marine animals and species of interest to fisheries are protected.”

Banner image: The Campylopterus hemileucurus, or violet sabrewing hummingbird, is a pollinating bird found in the Sierra Tecuani protected area. Image by Becky Matsubara via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

Nations should redirect 1% of military spending towards reforestation, Mexico proposes

Latest Mongabay podcast: Turn problems into solutions for culture and agriculture across Australia and the Americas, Anthony James says. Listen here:

Citations

Chacón, G.I., Llano, M. y M., Palmeros. (2023). Cuidar lo que importa: el presupuesto para el cuidado del ambiente y las áreas naturales protegidas en el PPEF 2024. Análisis y recomendaciones. Hermosillo: Noroeste Sociedad Civil para la Sustentabilidad Ambiental – NOSSA. Retrieved from: https://nossamexico.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/NOSSA_Cuidar-lo-que-importa-PPEF-2024_VF_compressed.pdf

Chacón, G. I. (coord.), Velasco, A., Martin, D. (2024). Cuidar lo que importa: el presupuesto para el cuidado del ambiente y las áreas naturales protegidas en el PPEF 2025. Análisis y recomendaciones. Noroeste Sociedad Civil para la Sustentabilidad Ambiental – NOSSA. Retrieved from: https://nossamexico.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/NOSSA_CLQI2025_101224_FIN_lt.pdf

Oceana. (2021). Zonas de protección marina bajo amenaza: Casos de Pesca Ilegal en Áreas Marinas Protegidas y Zonas de Refugios Pesqueros. doi:10.5281/zenodo.4876525

FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.