Before year end, Mexican lawmakers could pass a bill that would dismantle protection of mangrove forests, a type of ecosystem that today covers a total of 650,000 hectares — 306,000 less than in 1993. “A bill by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), generated by pressure from real estate developers, seeks to loosen one of the few legal tools that protect the mangroves,” Juan Carlos Cantú, of the non-governmental organization Defenders of Wildlife, told Tierramérica.

If approved, the bill “will open the way to aggressive destruction,” but “the Environment Ministry shows no sign of interest” in the problem, he added.

The set of legal protections for these ecosystems has since 2003 been targeted for changes and challenges to some of its chapters, sought by members of the tourism industry.

Mangroves act as natural barriers along coasts and serve as reproductive sites for numerous species. Their disappearance is a result of real estate and tourism development, aquiculture, and contamination from herbicides, among other causes.