After Perfect Day Project Halted, Environmentalists Warn of New Threat From Royal Beach Club in Cozumel

Cozumel, Quintana Roo — After the federal government halted the Perfect Day water park project, environmental groups on the island are calling on the community to stay alert, as the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) has not yet responded to Royal Caribbean’s application to develop the Royal Beach Club park.

Environmental activist Guadalupe Martín Cab said the hectares owned by the cruise line in Cozumel are covered in mangroves and serve as a nesting site for sea turtles, because that stretch of coast receives little sargassum seaweed.

She explained that three species of mangrove are present, along with a wide shoreline, and that one of the world’s largest and most important reef systems lies just offshore.

Specialists have described that reef barrier as the healthiest in Quintana Roo, Martín Cab noted, though it is not in optimal condition — coral bleaching has already killed 40 percent of the colony.

Calling on residents to sign a Change.org petition to stop the project, the environmental expert said the cruise line’s executives have no regard for environmental issues. She pointed out that Royal Caribbean already owns a third pier and had sought to build a fourth, for which former municipal president Pedro Joaquín Delbouis granted local authorization, but federal permits were never obtained.

Martín Cab said the cruise line has promoted the idea that it will no longer pursue the project it submitted to the General Directorate of Environmental Impact and Risk (DGIRA), alongside the Perfect Day proposal. However, Semarnat has issued no ruling on that matter — it only denied the project planned for Mahahual.

She lamented that successive municipal presidents in Cozumel have privatized the beaches, leaving residents with only a strip of sand about 17 kilometers from the city center, which is owned by the cruise developers.

Cozumel residents must pay private parties to access a beach, she added, even though the law prohibits both that and the privatization of coastlines.