MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Balam Kú Biosphere Reserve has been invaded over the past year by people trying to establish a permanent settlement, and officials are racing to remove them before more of the forest is destroyed.

Around 450 people have crossed into the reserve in the southern state of Campeche, clearing the forest for agriculture and cattle ranching. It’s the first time that the reserve, only recently federally recognized, has felt human pressure in its core conservation zone.

“If the invaders plant to settle, we will likely see deforestation, and the clearing of land for crops. They may also hunt and enter the forest for subsistence,” Alejandro Hernández Sánchez, an ecologist at ECOSUR, a public scientific research center, told Mongabay.

The reserve covers 409,200 hectares (1 million acres) of dry tropical forest and borders Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. The two reserves also border other protected areas in Guatemala, which in turn connect with protected areas in Belize, creating one of the largest contiguous protected areas in Mesoamerica.

Balam Kú was first established as a state reserve in 2003 and then federally recognized in 2023.

In addition to Maya archaeological sites, Balam Kú Biosphere Reserve protects important animal species like Geoffroy’s spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) and the jaguarundi (Herpailurus yagouaroundi), as well as tree species like the granadillo (Platymiscium yucatanum), cedar (Cedrela odorata) and mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla). Many of the tree species are targeted for illegal logging and trade.

In March, around 60 families organized into two groups appeared in the reserve, claiming they were fighting for the rights of rural communities, according to one official who asked that their name not be used due to security concerns. At first, the families deforested around 70 hectares (170 acres) to establish a temporary settlement. Throughout the year, more people arrived and have expanded across at least 550 hectares (about 1,360 acres), the official said.

The group came from other parts of Campeche and the states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Quintana Roo and Veracruz, according to two officials with knowledge of the situation. More than a dozen of them are believed to be from Guatemala, crossing the border only a few hours away.

They’re supported by the Francisco Villa Popular Front (FVPF), a group that advocates against social inequality. An official told Mongabay a representative of FVPF worked with the families as a “land manager,” promising them legal plots.

FVPF didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.

“There’s no physical delimitation,” Hernández Sánchez said of the ease of entering the area. “People just enter freely, and there are even roads.”

There have been land conflicts on the edges of the reserve in the past, but this is the first time that so many people have claimed the core zone of the reserve, where the forest is the most intact.

The spread of illegal agriculture and cattle ranching poses public health risks, including tuberculosis and brucellosis in humans and screwworm in cattle. Screwworm can spread to wildlife and cost billions of dollars to eradicate, Kurt Duchez, deputy regional director of the Wildlife Conservation Society, told local media.

“They’re devastating not only the ecosystems, not only the biodiversity, but also the future of many communities, the livelihoods of many people who try to subsist,” he said of people illegally bringing cattle across the border.

The Secretariat of Environment, Biodiversity, Climate Change, and Energy of Campeche, a state agency that helps manage the reserve, didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.

One of the officials who spoke to Mongabay said deforestation and forest fires are almost a daily occurrence and that timber continues to move illegally through towns like La Peregrina, El Paraguas and El Desengaño.

Earlier this year, members of the Ministry of National Defense, the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas, and the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA) visited the invaded area of Balam Kú Biosphere Reserve and hung closure signs to deter the families. But the signs were taken down and destroyed, according to officials with knowledge of the effort.

The slow response from PROFEPA, which didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story, has frustrated some officials who say the situation requires more urgency.

“I don’t even feel like staying here,” one official told Mongabay of their conservation work. “I feel like resigning… you file the corresponding complaints, but beyond that there’s nothing more you can do as a public servant.”

Banner image: The forest burns in Balam Kú Biosphere Reserve. Image courtesy of government official.

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