35 Hotels Restore Quintana Roo’s Coastal Dunes

QUINTANA ROO, Mexico — The organization Sustentur, which for several years has been promoting beach restoration in conjunction with the private sector, has now enlisted the participation of approximately 35 hotels in a project to recover coastal dunes in Quintana Roo.

According to Vicente Ferreyra, the president of the organization, the objective is to strengthen the ecosystems of the coastal strip and guarantee resilience against natural phenomena.

He acknowledged that one of the main challenges facing the program is the availability of plants native to the dunes, as many species are protected and are not easily found in commercial nurseries. For this reason, efforts are being promoted for the hotels themselves, or even third parties, to develop their own Environmental Management Units (UMAs) to ensure a supply of plants and scale up the projects.

As a result of the work, he stated that between 50 and 60 kilometers of beach have been restored in areas such as Cancún, Bahía Petempich, and Puerto Morelos, where the greatest beach erosion had been detected. According to him, private sector investment over the last three years ranges between 3 and 4 million dollars, including technical studies to identify optimal restoration areas.

He noted that while progress is visible, the organization recognizes that the effort remains minimal. However, he said the initial results have sparked interest from more hotels, which has allowed for the creation of networks for the exchange of experiences, even among gardeners and operational staff from different resorts.

He emphasized that Puerto Morelos is the municipality with the most progress, as its natural conditions have favored recovery. In Cancún, by contrast, severe erosion has made the process more difficult, although there are also establishments working actively on the issue.

He stated that the project does not have a final deadline, and the idea is to continue adding more hotels and maintaining these efforts over time so that when larger-scale restoration processes are carried out, a healthy ecosystem capable of sustaining itself already exists.